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Refutations

Did the Bell Hadith Prove Muhammad Received Revelation from Satan?

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Two authentic hadith are placed side by side to construct an objection against the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ: the first establishes that bells are the musical instruments of Satan, and the second records the Prophet ﷺ comparing one mode of revelation to the ringing of a bell. The argument claims these two statements contradict each other — implying the Prophet ﷺ was receiving revelation from a satanic source. The objection collapses under the most basic principle of Arabic simile: a comparison does not require identity in all characteristics, only in one.

The Two Hadith

Sahih Muslim — Narrator: Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The bell is the musical instrument of Satan.” Grade: Sahih
Sahih al-Bukhari — Narrator: Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) Al-Harith ibn Hisham asked Allah’s Messenger ﷺ: “O Allah’s Messenger! How is the Divine Inspiration revealed to you?” Allah’s Messenger ﷺ replied: “Sometimes it is revealed like the ringing of a bell — this form of Inspiration is the hardest of all, and then this state passes off after I have grasped what is inspired. Sometimes the Angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me, and I grasp whatever he says.” Aisha added: “Verily, I saw the Prophet being inspired divinely on a freezing day and noticed the sweat dripping from his forehead as the Inspiration was over.” Grade: Sahih

The Objection and Its Refutation

[!objection]

The Prophet ﷺ said bells are the instruments of Satan, and then described revelation as coming like the ringing of a bell. This proves he was receiving revelation from Satan.

The Prophet ﷺ did not say revelation is a bell or sounds like a bell in every respect. He said it is sometimes revealed like the ringing of a bell. This is a simile — a comparison limited to one shared characteristic, not an identification of two things across all their characteristics.

The shared characteristic here is a specific quality of the sound: its penetrating, resonant, continuous intensity that demands total attention and absorption. The Prophet ﷺ was describing to his companion what the experience of receiving revelation felt like — using something familiar to his audience to make an intangible experience comprehensible. He was not endorsing bells, venerating bells, or attributing a satanic quality to revelation.

A simile does not require that the two things compared share every characteristic — only that they share the one characteristic being highlighted. When someone is said to be “like a lion,” this does not mean they have a mane, live in the jungle, or eat raw meat. It means they share the characteristic of strength or courage with a lion — and nothing more.

The Ruling of Imam al-Suyuti

Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti — on the bell simile in revelation “If it is said: how is a praiseworthy matter likened to a dispraised thing? For the ringing of the bell, which is authentically proved to be forbidden and that the Angels do not accompany travelers who have with them a bell — the answer shall be: In similes it is not necessary that the two ends of the simile are identical in all characteristics; it is enough that they share one characteristic. The simile in the hadith is to represent what is intangible by mentioning something the audience is familiar with in order to be easily understood.”

Al-Suyuti’s answer is precise on both counts. First, he acknowledges the prohibition on bells directly — he does not sidestep it. Second, he explains that the logic of simile does not require the two things compared to be alike in their moral status, their nature, or their other properties. It requires only that the one characteristic being invoked — in this case, a particular quality of penetrating continuous sound — applies to both.

A Parallel Case: Faith Compared to a Serpent

The same principle of partial simile operates elsewhere in the hadith corpus:

Sahih Muslim 147 — Narrator: Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Verily, faith would recede to Medina just as the serpent crawls back into its hole.” Grade: Sahih

Numerous hadith enjoin the killing of snakes and warn of their danger. Is the Prophet ﷺ saying that faith is like a snake in every respect — dangerous, to be killed, a creature of harm? Obviously not. He is comparing faith’s withdrawal to the motion of a serpent retreating into its hole: a single characteristic of purposeful, directed movement toward a place of shelter. The serpent’s other qualities — its venom, its danger, the injunction to kill it — are entirely irrelevant to the comparison being made.

The bell simile works the same way. The bell’s association with Satan in the first hadith is entirely irrelevant to the characteristic being invoked in the second. What the Prophet ﷺ described was the quality of intensity and penetration in the sound — not the instrument, not its religious status, not its association.

Conclusion

The objection rests on a misreading of how simile functions in Arabic — and in every language. A comparison that says X is like Y in one respect does not assert that X shares Y’s nature, status, or associations in any other respect. The Prophet ﷺ compared the intensity of one mode of revelation to the penetrating quality of a bell’s ring to help his companion understand an otherwise indescribable experience. The prohibition on bells pertains to their use as musical instruments and their association with Satan — it has no bearing on whether the sound they produce can be invoked as a point of comparison for something entirely different. Imam al-Suyuti addressed this question directly and settled it with the elementary principle: in similes, shared identity in one characteristic is sufficient. Nothing more is required, and nothing more was claimed.
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