The Birth of Prophet Muḥammad in the Qur’ān: A Critical Analysis of al-Jāḥiẓ’s Thought in his Kitāb al-Ḥujja fī Tathbīt al-Nubuwwa

According to Islamic tradition, Prophet Muḥammad was born in the Year ofthe Elephant, the year of Abraha’s unsuccessful expedition against Mecca. Relying onreferences made from the Qur’ānic text alone, not a single verse refers definitively to theevent of the Prophet’s birth. However, some Muslim biographers have chosen sūrah al-Fīl of the Qur’ān as the verse which carries an early sign of the Prophet’s emergence,while others attributed this chapter to the event of the Prophet’s birth. Al-Jāḥiẓ was amongthem, and this notion was articulated in his Kitāb al-Ḥujja fī Tathbīt al-Nubuwwa, wherehe expressed his opinion on the exegesis of this chapter. Thus, the present study aims toexplore the narrative of the Prophet’s birth, analyse the historical connection between theoccurrence and sūrah al-Fīl and examine hermeneutical responses of Muslim exegetes onthe verse, especially al-Jāḥiẓ. The study is qualitative in nature in which the researcheremployed both critical and analytical approaches to the works of tafsīr and sīra. Findingsof this study assert that conviction and zeal to authenticate the story of the People of theElephant seems to have influenced al-Jāḥiẓ to adduce sūrah al-Fīl as a solid basis of evidence of the whole truth of this narrative.