Bismika Alllahuma

Biased Criticism

European criticism seems to have lost its sense of justice in dealing with the Prophet(P). All the rates of that criticism seem to be subject to the one consideration that whatever is unfavourable and damaging to the Prophet’s reputation must be accepted as true. For example, Answering Islam, a website which is full of lies and deception follows in this tradition as per the methods of their satanic apostle from Tarsus by collecting a series of so-called “assassination” orders. Not the least attempt has been made on their part to consider them critically before baselessly condemning a man who is looked upon as a model of virtue and kindness by 1.4 billion Muslims around the world.

In this article, the cases of the alleged “assassinations” are five in all, and a sixth case is that of Banu Qurayzah, which has already been dealt with elsewhere. The last charge is that of permitting a rape, a charge propagated by the atheist website Faithfreedom International and false even on the face of it and unknown even to one such as Muir. A brief discussion of these cases is given below.

How Muslims Bore Abuses

The first thing that strikes us here is that five out of the six alleged cases of “assassination” and “massacre” relate to Jews. The Jews were “the people of the Book,” and ordinarily the dealings of Muslims with the people of the Book were much more lenient than their dealings with Arab idolaters. How was it then that the people of the Book, people whose Prophets are frequently mentioned with the utmost respect in the Holy Qur’an - how was it that these very people were chosen for assassination and such crimes were not perpetrated against the Arab idolaters who had most relentlessly persecuted the Muslims for thirteen years at Makkah, and had taken up the sword to deal a decisive blow at Madinah? Sir William Muir assert that all these persons were murdered for no offence other than that of composing verses “which annoyed the Mussalmans.” Poetry was not a special vocation of the Jews, and verses abusing Islam and the Muslims were produced in much greater abundance by idolatrous Arabs than by Jews. In fact, it was the Arab, not the Jew, whose particular vocation was poetry, and satire and abusive poetry were used as weapons to discredit and defame Islam specially by the Arabs. Neither Muir nor the missionaries has taken the trouble of testing the reliability of the record on whose basis he has dared to condemn the most merciful and truest of men as cruel and treacherous. If the writer had gone to the root of the question, he would have found that the Prophet and the Muslims bore patiently the severest abuses and the annoying verses of all their opponents, whether Jews or idolaters. Indeed, the Holy Qur’an had plainly enjoined on them that they should bear all abuses patiently, whether they came from idolaters or from Jews and Christians. Here is a verse belonging to a period when the Muslims had already entered on a state of war with their opponents:

“And you will certainly hear from those who have been given the Book before you and from the idolaters much abuse. And if you are patient and keep your duty, surely this is an affair of great resolution” (3:186)

This verse occurs in a chapter which contains an account of the battle of Uhud, fought in the 3rd year of Hijrah, and could not therefore have been revealed earlier than that year, and this is just the period to which most of the alleged assassinations relate. How was it possible for the Prophet and his follower’s to go directly against the plain injunction of the Holy Qur’an? The Holy Prophet could not go against any Quranic injunction, and the Qur’an says plainly, and says it at a time when war was going on with both the polytheistic Arabs and the Jews, that Muslims shall have to hear such abuse, and they must not only bear the abuse patiently but should even guard against doing similar evil, to say nothing of murdering their abusers. How could the Prophet in the face of such a plain injunction order the murder of those who abused him, and how could the Muslims carry out an order which was directly opposed to the Holy Qur’an? It was simply impossible, and if Ibn Hisham or Waqidi says that the Prophet(P) ordered the assassination of his abusers, it is Ibn Hisham or Waqidi — a frail authority after all — that must be rejected, and not the Qur’an, which is admittedly the most reliable source of information as to the doings of the Prophet. The Qur’an had allowed fighting against an aggressive enemy, yet it refused to give sanction to the murder of any who abused the Prophet(P) and Islam; nay, it plainly required such abuse to be borne patiently. It is simply inconceivable that the Prophet(P) should order the murder of people for annoying poems and, at the same time and in the same breath, forbid that abuse should be met with otherwise than by patient endurance.

Interdiction against Killing Women

Let us now take the cases individually. The first case cited is that of Asma’ of the tribe of Aus. She is said to have been a poetess who wrote some verses stating that the Prophet(P) was an upstart who had slain many of their chiefs, referring to the battle of Badr. It is stated that she was brutally murdered for this abuse by a Muslim named `Umair, and that the Prophet not only approved of this murder but also praised `Umair for the deed. The authorities quoted are Waqidi, Ibn Hisham and Ibn Sa’d. That this is not a reliable record is shown not only by what has been stated above — that the Holy Qur’an never allowed the murder of an abuser — but also by clear directions repeatedly given by the Prophet(P) that no woman was to be killed even though she took part in actual war with the Muslims. No less an authority than Bukhari has a chapter on the “Murder of Women during War” (Kitab al-Jihad) in which the following report from Ibn `Umar is recorded:

“A woman was found killed in one of the battles fought by the Holy Prophet, so the Holy Prophet forbade the killing of women and children.”

If the Holy Prophet forbade the killing of women even when they were actually accompanying the enemy forces, how could he approve or applaud the killing of a woman for simply abusing or composing some annoying verses? Even the Companions of the Holy Prophet were so well aware of his strict orders against the killing of women that when Abul Huqaiq’s wife interposed herself between them and Abul Huqaiq, they had to withhold their raised swords “because they remembered that the Holy Prophet had forbidden the killing of a woman”¹. In the face of this clear testimony, none but a biased mind can accept as reliable a report which relates that the Holy Prophet had ordered and applauded the killing of a woman simply for the offence that she composed annoying verses. This report is undoubtedly a forgery.

The fact is thus established beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Holy Prophet gave a clear interdiction against the murder of women even in wars. In this connection, a saying of the Holy Prophet has been quoted from the most reliable traditionist of Islam, the Imam Bukhari. The heading under which Bukhari quotes this saying is “Murder of Women during Wars,” thus showing that the interdiction against the murder of women was to be observed even in wars. Bukhari is not alone in reporting the incident and the interdiction; it is contained in all the books of the Sahih as-Sittah² with the exception of only one, and therefore its authenticity is beyond dispute. Moreover, their interdiction is accepted as a basic principle by later jurists. Thus according to Malik and Auza’i, the killing of women and children is not allowed under any circumstances whatsoever, and according to Shafi’i and Kufis, a woman may be killed only when she is a combatant, while according to one authority, even when a woman is a combatant it is not lawful to kill her intentionally unless she is about to kill or attack a man with the intention of killing him. ³.

According to Malik and Auza’i, however, as already stated, a woman should not be killed under any condition, so much so that if a fighting force takes the shelter of women and children or takes shelter in a fort or a boat in which there are also women and children with them, it is not lawful to shoot at or set fire to the fort or the boat ⁴. In the face of these facts it is simply unthinkable that the Prophet should have ordered the assassination of a woman, under peaceful conditions, for no other fault than singing certain annoying verses.

Abu Afak

The next incident is that relating to the alleged assassination of Abu Afak, “an aged Jewish proselyte, whose offence was similar to that of Asma’.” We have no hesitation in calling this story as baseless a fabrication as that relating to the murder of Asma’. Our reason for doing this is that the interdiction against the murder of women also included two other classes, viz., children and old men. It is true that the saying of the Prophet as reported in the Bukhari mentions only women and children, and not aged persons, but there is a hadith in Abu Dawud⁵ reported by Anas, son of Malik, according to which the Holy Prophet said:

“Do not kill an aged person, nor a child, nor a minor, nor a woman.”

That the Prophet expressly forbade the killing of old men appears also from the directions given by Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, to Yazid, son of Abu Sufyan, when he sent him in command of an army to Syria. In the directions given to him the following relates to our subject:

“Do not kill children, nor women, nor old men.”⁶

It is clear that Abu Bakr could give such directions only on the authority of the Holy Prophet. Hence there was an interdiction against the killing of old men as there was against the killing of women. And it is impossible, we repeat, that the Holy Prophet should have given such clear injunctions and then himself ordered the killing of “an aged Jewish proselyte,” as Abu Afak is said to have been, and for no offence but that he composed some annoying verses.

Only Combatants Could Be Killed

In fact, as the Hidayah has put it clearly, a person’s life, unless he is a murderer, cannot be taken on any ground other than that he is a combatant: “And they should not kill a woman, nor a child, nor an aged person, nor one who does not take part in a war, nor a blind man, because what makes it lawful to take a man’s life, according to us, is his being a combatant, and this is not true in their case”⁷. In fact, this conclusion, which is the basic principle of the Hanifite law, is based on the express words of the Holy Prophet himself. As Abu Dawud reports on the authority of Rabah, son of Rabi`:

“We were with the Prophet in a certain battle, and he saw the people gather together in one place. So he sent a man to make an inquiry as to why the people had gathered together. The messenger came back and said, “There is a woman killed.” The Holy Prophet said, She was not fighting. The reporter says that Khalid was leading at the time. So the Prophet sent a man to Khalid and asked him to tell Khalid that he should not kill a woman nor a hireling”.⁸.

By remarking that “she was not fighting”, the Prophet(P) made it plain that even in battle only such persons could be killed as actually took part in fighting, and along with women he excepted hirelings, because they were only hired for other work and did not take part in actual fighting. It is on this basis that the Hanifite law excepts, along with women, children and old men, all such persons as cannot take part in fighting. And the conclusion is inevitable that according to the Prophet’s own injunctions the killing of a person was not lawful unless he took part in fighting, and any report to the effect that a person was killed though he was not a combatant is either untrue or defective, even if it is met with in a reliable collection of traditions. And as for biographies, they cannot be trusted at all in such matters, and the case of Ibn Sunainah’s murder must be rejected as untrue. The statement that this murder was due to the Prophet(P) giving a general order for the slaughter of the Jews is sufficient to discredit this report, for not only would such an order be against the clear injunctions of the Qur’an, but also because if such an order were given it would not have resulted in the murder of a single Jew.

This concludes Part I of the series. Continue to Part II

1. Fath al-Bari, ch. Killing of Abul Huqaiq [back]
2. The six reliable collections of the Traditions of the Prophet(P) [back]
3. `Aun al-Ma’bud, Commentary on Abu Dawud, ch. Murder of Women [back]
4. Fath al-Bari, ch. Ahl al-dar-i yabitun [back]
5. ch. Du’a al-Mushrikin [back]
6. Fath al-Qadir, vol. v, p. 202 [back]
7. ibid., ch. Kaifiyyat al-Qital [back]
8. ibid., ch. Qatl al-Nisa’ [back]