Not a madman?

For, this fellow-man of yours is not a madman;

Quick - who said that in the midst of an end-time prophecy?

And what's the significance of it?

Here's a hint.  Just before this, the prophecy includes these things:

• the sun goes dark
• the stars go dark
• mountains vanish
• the seas are boiling
• Hell and paradise can both be seen
• the deeds of men are made known

OK - who is it?

If you guessed any Christian - thanks for playing along - but you're wrong.

It was Muhammad.  Sura 81, verse 22.

This particular translation is the one from CAIR (The Council on American Islamic Relations).

"madman" in the Qur'an

One interesting note - this is the second Sura in which the Prophet claims to not be a madman.  It's only the 7th revelation he received, and it's already been necessary to say three times that he's not a madman - that he's not crazy.  The second was from Sura 68, verse 51.  The first was Sura 68, verse 2.  The one at the top (the third one), is Sura 81, verse 22.

Sura 68

Let's look at Sura 68 first.  BTW - I didn't bring up this topic at the time I wrote about Sura 68, because the message of "Don't be like Jonah" was more important.  But let's view it now.  This come right after the part about not being like Jonah.

[68:51] Hence, [be patient], even though they who are bent on denying the truth would all but kill thee with their eyes whenever they hear this reminder, and [though] they say, "[As for Muhammad,], behold most assuredly he us a madman!"

This makes it sound like others are calling him a madman.  And maybe they even were.  There's nothing in the commentaries that I have to point either way,

However -

There's another instance related to Sura 68.  I've covered this extensively in The introduction to Sura 68, so won't include all the details here.  If you haven't already read it - I encourage you to do so,  What we see is that Sura 68 (the second one revealed) was at least partially a response to Muhammad's fears that the first revelation (Sura 96) was from a Jinn - or evil spirit.  Muhammad himself was afraid he was a madman, so the following verse was included -

[68:2] You (O Muhammad) are not, by the Grace of your O Lord, a madman.

So it's clearly not just "other" people considering him a madman.

Sura 81

And so we have the third instance -

[81:22]  For, this fellow-man of yours is not a madman

Apparently there was a need to convince both the Prophet himself and those around him that he wasn't a madman.

It's interesting - that this subject keeps coming up.

"madman" in the Bible

I thought it would be interesting to see where "madman" comes up in the Bible.  Searching the NIV, we find it five times - all in the Old Testament.

David as a "madman"

This occurs while Saul was trying to kill David -

That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:
“ ‘Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands’?”
1Sa 21:12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
1Sa 21:14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

So we see that David wasn't actually a madman - and only pretended, successfully, to be mad in order to save his life.

Elisha as a madman

This time, it's the prophet Elisha, delivering a message from God that Jehu is anointed by The LORD as king over Israel.