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This article seeks to reconsider the meaning(s) of the phrase al-shaytan al-rajim. It surveys the controversy surrounding the meaning of rajim in this context and argues two points: first, that by the time the phrase was employed in the Qur'an its original meaning had been forgotten, and second, that the original meaning of the term was related to Satan's role as a heavenly accuser.
Satan appears in the Qur'an over seventy times, either as Iblïs or as al-shaytän,1 the latter sometimes accompanied by the epithet al-rajïm.2 It will be argued below that the phrase al-shaytän al-rajïm originally referred to Satan's occupation as a prosecutor in the heav- enly court. In time this original meaning of the phrase came to be forgotten and the term rajïm was eventually reinterpreted by Near Eastern monotheists to mean either "pelted with stones" or "accursed."
RAJÎM MEANING "PELTED WITH STONES"
A commonly held view among early Muslim exegetes, lexicographers, jurists, and others is that the term al-shaytän al-rajïm means "the stoned Satan," referring to the fact that Satan is physically pelted with stones, both on earth and in the astral sphere.3 The earthly stoning of Satan takes place during the hajj ritual, on the tenth to twelfth days of Dhü 1-Hijja, when pilgrims hurl stones at three pillars at Minä (the ritual of ramy al-jamarät). The practice is believed to re-enact Abraham's pelting of Satan with stones during his pilgrimage to Mecca in the remote past.4 Anthropologists of religion have interpreted the ritual in other ways, suggesting that it originally signified the expiation of sins by casting them into an abyss.5 Whatever the case may be, from contexts other than the hajj it is clear that in pre- or, at the very latest, early Islamic times, stoning a site associated with evil was a common practice. Most famous perhaps is the stoning of Abu Righäl's grave (for his guidance to Abraha during the latter's campaign against Mecca),6 which is well attested already in Umayyad poetry.7 To this well-known evidence should be added the Biblical case of Achan, who pillaged and concealed booty acquired in the conquest of Jericho, for which "All Israel stoned him with stones . . . And they raised over him a great heap of stones,...