ABSTRACT
Al-T.abarı-relates only one report for this story in his sı-ra, that of Ibn Ish. a-q, but in this account the supernatural is central to his understanding of the story. Muh. ammad casts an illusion to protect himself from the planned assassination, God kills ʿA
- mir with a growth in his neck, and He kills Arbad
with lightning. By choosing this report as representative of events in the sı-ra, al-T.abarı-again exercises control over which version of events his readers see and how they should interpret them. While Ibn Kathı-r relates the same report from Ibn Ish. a-q, he leaves out ʿA
- mir’s poetry, thus casting doubt upon the first
miracle. Most of the other reports he relates in this genre only include the story of ʿA
- mir and his meeting with the Prophet, and so the supernatural
element of the story is incomplete. But in their tafsı-r treatments of Su-rat al-Raʿd, both authors place the supernatural at the core of their works, even if it is not associated with the story of ʿA
- mir and Arbad. Both include reports
in which God smites other men with lightning, and even provide evidence of protective folk magic. Thus, the element of the supernatural is directly supported by both authors in this genre.
