The words praise the three pagan Meccan goddesses: al-Lāt, al-'Uzzá, and Manāt and can be read in early prophetic biographies of Muhammad by al-Wāqidī, Ibn Sa'd and the of al-Tabarī. Religious authorities recorded the story for the first two centuries of the Islamic era. Strong objections to the historicity of the Satanic Verses incident were, however, raised as early as the tenth century. By the 13th century, most Islamic scholars (Ulama) started to reject it on the basis of it being inconsistent with the theological principle of 'iṣmat al-anbiyā (impeccability of the prophets) and the methodological principle of isnad-criticism. According to some Islamic traditions, God sent Satan as a tempter to test the audience. Others categorically deny that this incident ever happened.
The words praise the three pagan Meccan goddesses al-Lāt, al-'Uzzá, and Manāt and can be read in early prophetic biographies of Muhammad by al-Wāqidī, Ibn Sa'd and the of al-Tabarī. Religious authorities recorded the story for the first two centuries of the Islamic era. Strong objections to the historicity of the Satanic Verses incident were, however, raised as early as the tenth century. By the 13th century, most Islamic scholars (Ulama) started to reject it on the basis of it being inconsistent with the theological principle of 'iṣmat al-anbiyā (impeccability of the prophets) and the methodological principle of isnad-criticism. According to some Islamic traditions God sent Satan as a tempter to test the audience. Others categorically deny that this incident ever happened.