The Struggle Over Revelation and Authorship

This thread follows the growing conflict over who controls religious speech, from Salman the Persian’s doubts about Mahound’s revelations to Baal’s final poetic defiance.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Scribe’s Suspicion

A Scribe Begins to Doubt The law keeps expanding As Mahound’s community grows, revelations provide rules for an increasing range of daily conduct. Salman the Persian, serving as the official scribe, notices that the new instructions repeatedly address practical disputes and seem to confirm positions Mahound has already taken. Businesslike authority Salman begins to suspect that the message reflects the habits of the successful businessman who leads the community. His doubts are sharpened by his own work: he is not merely listening to revelation, but writing the words that others will receive as authoritative. The scribe’s conflict is therefore both intellectual and personal. If he is right, the boundary between divine command and human management is dangerously thin; if he is wrong, questioning the message may cost him his place among the faithful.

The Altered Text

Testing the Words Small changes Salman begins making quiet alterations to the text he writes down. At first he substitutes a near-synonym, then changes more consequential words, expecting Mahound to notice and correct him. Mahound accepts the revised wording without identifying the changes. A test becomes betrayal The experiment unsettles Salman because it seems to expose a gap between the Messenger’s confidence and the text’s supposed divine precision. Yet he does not confess. Fear, grief, and his dependence on the community drive him to continue the very act that appears to confirm his suspicions. The conflict is no longer simply about belief. Salman now holds the power to alter what the community treats as sacred, while knowing that his private test may be indistinguishable from the revelation it challenges.

Flight from Yathrib

Choosing Escape The last opportunity Salman reaches a point where he expects Mahound to recognize the falsification. Instead of risking exposure, he chooses life over revenge and flees Yathrib before dawn. He returns to Jahilia knowing that his account of the altered text may never outweigh the Prophet’s authority. The claim against the Prophet Years later, Salman tells Baal that the changes went unnoticed, arguing that this undermines the claim that every word came directly from God. His accusation is powerful but precarious: Mahound’s position has grown, while Salman is an immigrant and former insider with no institution to support his testimony. The conflict becomes a struggle between personal evidence and public authority. Salman can explain what he did, but his survival depends on whether anyone will believe a scribe whose own actions make him appear untrustworthy.

Baal’s Counterfeit Household

A Parody Becomes a Challenge The wives’ identities Hidden at The Curtain, Baal helps the prostitutes assume the identities of Mahound’s wives. The men of Jahilia secretly pay to encounter these imitations, turning religious authority into a forbidden commercial and erotic performance. The poet becomes part of the act Baal agrees to marry the women in their invented roles and begins to imitate the Prophet’s authority within the brothel. The performance is at once a private refuge and an open-ended act of mockery, though its participants grow attached to the identities they have taken on. The satire’s danger lies in its ambiguity: Baal is not only mocking Mahound from outside, but inhabiting a distorted version of his household and power. When the authorities close The Curtain, the private counter-world can no longer remain protected by secrecy.

The Trial of the Poet

Judgment on Writers and Whores The secret becomes public Baal’s poems outside the jail attract a crowd before anyone recognizes that their twelve women bear the same names as Mahound’s wives. When the connection is exposed, the audience’s admiration turns to outrage, and Baal is arrested alongside the women. A sentence for defiance At trial, Baal recounts his role plainly, including his cowardice and his attempt at reparation. The crowd’s laughter makes the hearing unstable, but Mahound interprets the performance as a renewed effort to dishonour his household and condemns Baal to death. Baal’s last words link the fate of writers with that of prostitutes: both remain beyond the Prophet’s forgiveness. The execution resolves the immediate contest by force, not persuasion. Baal’s poetry has no power to prevent his death, but it leaves behind a record of the people and forms of speech that Submission cannot comfortably absorb.

During the early years of the community in Yathrib

After Salman becomes Mahound’s official scribe

After Salman’s final alteration brings Mahound’s approval with visible doubt

After Mahound returns to Jahilia and closes the brothels

After the women of The Curtain are arrested and Baal reveals himself