“The Satanic verses”

The objection

“Satan slipped verses into the recitation of the Prophet ﷺ, and he did not see it.”

It rests on a story found in books of the tradition. The Prophet ﷺ recites sura 53 before the Meccans. After the names of al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat (53:19-20), Satan slips in a phrase in praise of these idols, which the polytheists hear. At the end of the sura, Muslims and polytheists prostrate together, and the news of this prostration brings part of the emigrants back from Abyssinia (al-Salihi, II, 364; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 140).

Al-Salihi connects the story with a verse of the Qur’an itself (22:52; al-Salihi, II, 365). And the shared prostration is in al-Bukhari (Bukhari 1071). If the Prophet ﷺ took a word of Satan for a revelation, says the objection, what is the rest worth?

The answer

What is established, and what is not

Only one fact is established: at the end of sura 53, Muslims and polytheists prostrated together. Ibn Abbas reports it, and al-Bukhari transmits it (Bukhari 1071).

The rest rests only on chains from which the Companion who witnessed it is missing (al-Salihi, II, 365). Ibn Kathir keeps to the prostration: he declines to tell the story of the gharaniq “lest it be heard by one who could not put it in its proper place”, and notes that the origin of the account found in the Sahih is the prostration (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 56). Ibn Hisham, who transmits the Sira of Ibn Ishaq, does not report it: neither the word gharaniq nor the phrase in praise of the idols appears in his book (research file for part 3).

The judgement of Muslim scholars

Muslim scholars examined this story and passed judgement on it. The sources give three positions.

• Rejection. Al-Suhayli: “the scholars of the fundamentals reject this hadith with proof” (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 140). Al-Mundhiri rejected it entirely, because of its transmitters (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 141). Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi speaks of reports that are “false, without foundation”, and Qadi Iyad says that no compiler of the sound collections recorded it and that no reliable transmitter related it with a sound chain (cited by al-Salihi, II, 365).
• An origin granted, the meaning reinterpreted. Ibn Hajar notes many chains, three of which meet the conditions of the authentic, but all of them lacking the Companion witness (mursal); their number indicates, in his view, “that the story has an origin” (cited by al-Salihi, II, 365). Those who accept it explain it in three ways, which al-Suhayli reports: Satan said the phrase and spread it, without the Prophet ﷺ uttering it; or the Prophet ﷺ said it with the angels in mind, whose intercession is hoped for; or he said it while relating, in astonishment, what the polytheists were saying. Al-Suhayli adds that the story is not held to be certain (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 140-141).
• The position of Ibn Sayyid al-Nas. He notes that his teacher al-Dimyati opposed the rejection of al-Mundhiri. In his view, many scholars receive leniently the reports of the sira that involve no legal ruling; this one must be judged by what it touches, and could be accepted only with a chain beyond all reproach, “and there is no way to reach that”. All that remains, then, is to interpret it (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 141).

None of these positions yields what the objection draws from it. Some reject the story; the others, who grant it an origin, explain it without the Prophet ﷺ ever having taken a word of Satan for a revelation.

The sura itself contradicts it

Right after the names of the three idols, sura 53 condemns them:

A praise of these idols, slipped in among these verses, would be belied by the words that follow it. And the sura ends with a command: “So prostrate yourselves before God, and worship Him” (53:62). It is at the end of the sura that the prostration reported by Ibn Abbas took place (Bukhari 1071).

Verse 22:52 says the opposite of the objection

The verse speaks of all the prophets, and it states the outcome: what Satan casts, God abolishes, and His verses remain firm. Even for those who connect it with the story of the gharaniq, it affirms the protection of the text, not its corruption.

What the objection gets right

The story exists in Muslim books, and Ibn Hajar grants it an origin (al-Salihi, II, 365). The site does not hide it. But an origin is not the version the objection draws from it: the very scholars who accept it explain it without the Prophet ﷺ ever taking a word of Satan for revelation, and the Qur’an says that what Satan casts is abolished (22:52).

The prostration of the polytheists calls for an explanation. This is the most serious question the objection raises. The story of the gharaniq is the explanation that was given for it; but an established fact does not make authentic an explanation that is not. The return of part of the emigrants from Abyssinia, for its part, follows the news of that prostration, as the sources report it (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 140; al-Salihi, II, 366): it does not prove the words that were added to it.

For the site, then, the rule is that of the sources: the prostration is a fact; the story of the gharaniq is never presented as a fact.

Further reading

• The Meccan period, Abyssinia and the prostration: The preaching in Mecca and the opposition.
• How the site weighs a report: Method.
• The neighbouring objection: “He composed the Qur’an himself”.
• All the objections: Objections answered.

Sources for this page

• Qur’an: Tanzil text (Uthmani); translation of the meaning by this site.
• The prostration at the end of sura 53: Bukhari 1071.
• Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Uyun al-athar, Dar al-Qalam, Beirut, 1993, I, 140-141.
• Ibn Kathir, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. Mustafa Abd al-Wahid, Dar al-Ma’rifa, Beirut, 1976, II, 56.
• Al-Salihi al-Shami, Subul al-huda wa-l-rashad, ed. Adil Abd al-Mawjud and Ali Mu’awwad, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 1993, II, 364-366.
• Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. al-Saqqa, al-Abyari and Shalabi, al-Babi al-Halabi, Cairo, 2nd ed., 1955 (the story does not appear in it).
• Research file “Le message et l’hégire”, v1.0, 2 November 2026, section on the gharaniq.