Masa'il Abdallah ibn Salam
Originally composed in the tenth century and widely translated, the Masāʾil is today regarded as a piece of world literature.
From Latin it was translated into Dutch, French, German, Italian and Portuguese; from Persian into Urdu, Malay and Tamil.
[2] In Medina, Muḥammad receives advanced warning of the approach of ʿAbdallāh and his three companions from the angel Gabriel.
[1] ʿAbdallāh announces his purpose to Muḥammad, "to enquire of you the explanation of matters which are not clear to us from our own law."
He refers to the written revelation he received from God, the Qurʾān, as al-Furqān ('separation') because it came to him in parts, unlike the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospels, which were revealed, respectively, to Moses, David and Jesus all at once.
[7] Subsequent theological questions concern the Torah, the creation of Adam and Eve, the nature of Heaven and Hell (including their respective levels), angels and Judgement Day.
[11] In Heaven, the blessed will not consume pork, but will have wine and engage in sexual intercourse, since "if any kind of pleasure were missing, beatitude would not be complete.".
[16][17] The earliest reference to the Masāʾil dates to 963 and is found in al-Balʿamī's Persian translation of al-Ṭabarī's Arabic Annals of Apostles and Kings.
[18] The Arabic Masāʾil circulated as a standalone work, but was also incorporated into the Pearl of Wonders of Ibn al-Wardī.
[19] An English translation from the Arabic by Nathan Davis was printed in 1847 under the title The Errors of Mohammedanism Exposed: or, A Dialogue Between the Arabian Prophet and a Jew.
[27] It was translated into Urdu under the titles Hazār Masʾala (One Thousand Questions) and ʿAqāʾida Nāma and was popular in the nineteenth century.
[28] There is also a Tamil version, Āyira Macalā, that was translated by Vaṇṇapparimaḷappulavar and published in a ceremony at the court of the Madurai Nayaks in 1572.
Although the work was widely copied and quoted in Arabic, it was never a highly regarded text among Islamic theologians.
It was used as a source on Islam by Alfonso de Espina, Nicolas of Cusa, Dionysius the Carthusian, Ludovico Marracci and the author of the Theophrastus redivivus.
