Mohammed had now gained effective control over the
tribes of Medina. He quickly turned his attention back to the Quraysh of Mecca.
The caravans that supplied Mecca from the North came close to Medina and
Mohammed began sending out war parties to attack them. These caravans were
usually well armed and the first seven attempts were unsuccessful.
All the
tribes of Arabia had an agreement at that time. During the four holy months,
fighting of any sort was taboo. This was probably to facilitate the trade on
which the Arabs depended for their livelihoods. During these months, large or
costly items could be moved around without expensive armed guards. This
benefited everybody and was therefore rigidly adhered to.
On the last day of one these months, a Muslim raiding
party came across a Meccan caravan. The next day they would be free to attack
the caravan. Unfortunately for them, by this time the caravan would be within
the boundaries of Mecca. Within these boundaries fighting was forbidden at any
time, since Mecca was a holy city. They were in a quandary as to what to do. Eventually,
they decided to attack the caravan anyway.
For the benefit of the sceptics amongst you,
(scepticism is good) I am going to quote (with the kind permission of Bill
Warner), from Mohammed and the
Unbelievers. I have included the relevant pages of The Sira, faithfully translated from the original as The Life of Muhammad by Prof. A
Guillaume. If you compare the two you will see that Mohammed and the Unbelievers is clearer and easier to read. Importantly,
it doesn’t leave out anything important or distort the truth in any way. For
this reason I will mostly quote from this book from here on in.
From The Sira:
I425 The Muslims took
council. They were faced with a dilemma: if they attacked the caravan now, they
would be killing in a sacred month. Luckily, the sacred month ended that day
and the next day there would be no taboo about killing. But there was another
problem: by nightfall they would be in the sacred area of Mecca. In the
sanctified area, there could never be any killing. They hesitated and talked
about what to do. They decided to kill as many as possible and take their goods
before the next day.
I425 Islam drew first blood
against the Quraysh of Mecca. They attacked the unarmed men. Amr, the first man
to be killed by Jihad, was shot by an arrow. One man escaped and they captured
two others. The Muslims took the enemies’ camels with their goods and headed
back to Medina and Mohammed. On the way they talked about how Mohammed would
get one fifth of the stolen goods.
I425 When they got back,
Mohammed said he had not ordered them to attack in the sacred month. He
detained the caravan and the two prisoners and refused to do anything with them
or the goods. The prisoners said, “Mohammed has violated the sacred month, shed
blood therein, stolen goods, and taken prisoners.” But the Koran said:
2:217 When they ask you about fighting in the holy month,
say: Fighting at this time is a serious offense, but it is worse in Allah’s
eyes to deny others the path to Him, to disbelieve in Him and to drive His
worshippers out of the Sacred Mosque. Idolatry is a greater sin than murder.
They will not stop fighting you until you turn away from your religion. But any
of you who renounce your faith and die a Kaffir will have your works count for nothing
in this world and the world to come. These people will be prisoners of the
Fire, where they will live forever.
I426 According to Mohammed,
to resist the doctrine of Islam and persuade Muslims to drop their faith was
worse than killing. Before Islam, the rule of justice in Arabia was a killing
for a killing, but now to resist Islam was worse than murder. Those who argued
against Islam and resisted Islam could be killed as a sacred act. So the murder
and theft were sanctified. The spoils of war were distributed and a ransom was
set for the prisoners. The men who had killed and stolen were now concerned
about whether they would get their share of the spoils. So once again the Koran
spoke:
2:218 Those who believe and those who have fled their
countries and have fought for Allah’s cause [Jihad] may hope for His mercy;
Allah is forgiving and merciful.
I426 As Muslims who had
been exiled and fought they were blessed by Allah. They received their spoils
of war and Mohammed took his 20 percent.
From Bukhari’s Hadith:
B4,53,351 Allah’s Apostle
said, “The spoils of war have been made legal for me.”
A war poem from The Sira:
You [Quraysh]
count war in the holy month a grave matter
but graver is your opposition to Mohammed and
your unbelief. Though you defame us for killing Amr our lances drank Amr’s
blood.
We lit the flame of war.
—Abu Bakr (Mohammed’s right hand man)
Jihad, the New Kind of
Warfare
Before he moved to Medina, Mohammed had never used
violence. Now that he had the means, he began to attack the Meccans, who had
spurned his calls to Islam.
On the face of it, this was simply an attack by a
tribal leader; (Mohammed) to steal goods from a group of rivals. In fact this
was the start of a war which Mohammed and his followers would wage against all of
his enemies (the Kaffirs) forever.
As this war progressed, Mohammed would develop a
strategy for an entirely new system of warfare, which he called Jihad.
Westerners translate Jihad as “holy war” but it is in fact far more than this. Mohammed
was a very capable military tactician. Jihad however, barely concerns itself
with military tactics. Had it done so, Jihad would have been rendered obsolete
as soon as it encountered newer and more effective military technologies, such
as crossbows or guns.
Warfare, like all types of violent coercion, has a
psychological aspect to it. In many ways, this is more important than the
actual violence itself. Mohammed’s genius was to understand this psychology and
incorporate it into the tactics of Jihad. Because of this, Jihad is effective when
fighting with bows and arrows or laser guided rockets. As the story unfolds, we
will see how the strategy of Jihad was developed and applied. I will begin to
list these as they appear:
Rules of Jihad:
1)
Jihad is sanctioned by Allah. There
is no higher authority; therefore it is always justified.
2)
Never abide by any rules or
limitations. The ends justify ANY means no matter how shocking. Jihad can be
any action which advances Islam or weakens the Kaffirs whether by a group or an
individual. Even donating money to pay for someone else’s Jihad is a type of
Jihad itself.
3)
ALWAYS play the victim.
Mohammed twisted his situation around. Although he had attacked innocent people
without provocation he blamed them. He said that they had “stopped others from
becoming Muslims” and had worshiped idols. The attack was their fault and the
Muslims were the victims, not the Kaffirs.
4)
Keep repeating this and people
will eventually begin to believe it. If you can persuade the victim to accept
the blame you have won, because retaliation requires a sense of injustice. If
the victim accepts the blame they will turn their hatred towards themselves.
The Bible contains acts of war by the Jews against
their enemies which were approved of by their God. This approval was applied
only to specific battles and specific instances in history. It was not part of
an ongoing strategy to take over the world. The God of the Bible did not give
approval for relentless, unprovoked violence against unbelievers.
Direct Translation from the Original Arabic text (The
Sira) by Professor Guillaume
EXPEDITION OF ABDULLAH B. JAHSH AND THE COMING DOWN
OF “THEY WILL ASK YOU ABOUT THE SACRED MONTH”
The apostle sent Abdullah b. Jahsh b. Ri’ab
al-Asadi in Rijab on his return from the first Badr. He sent with him eight
emigrants, without any of the Ansar. He wrote for him a letter and ordered him
not to look at it until he had journeyed for two days, and to do what he was
ordered to do but not to put pressure on any of his companions. The names of
the eight Emigrants were, Abu Hudhayfa, Abdullah b. Jabsh, Ukkasha b Mibsan,
Utba b Ghazwan, Sa’d b. Abu Waqqas, Amir b. Rabi’a, Waqid b Abdullah, and
Khalid b. al-Bukayr. When Abdullah had travelled for
two days he opened the letter and looked into it, and this is what it
said: “When you have read this letter of mine proceed until you reach Nakhla
between Mecca and Al-Ta’if. Lie in wait there for Quraysh and find out for us
what they are doing.” Having read the letter he said, “To hear is to obey.”
Then he said to his companions, “The apostle has commanded me to go to Nakhla
to lie in wait there for Quraysh so as to bring him news of them. He has
forbidden me to put pressure on any of you, so if anyone wishes for martyrdom,
let him go forward, and he who does not, let him go back; as for me, I am going
on as the prophet has ordered.” So he went on, as did all his companions, not
one of them falling back. He journeyed along the Hijaz until at a mine called
Babran above al-Furu, Sa’d and Utba lost the camel which they were riding by
turns , so they stayed behind to look for it, while Abdullah and the rest of
them went on to Nakhla. A caravan of Quraysh carrying dry raisins and leather
and other merchandise of Quraysh passed by them,Amr b al-Hadrami (349), Uthman
b Abdullah b Mughira and his brother Naufal the Makhzumites and al-Hakam b
Kaysan, freedman of Hisham b. al-Mughira being among them. When the caravan saw
them they were afraid of them because they had camped near them. Ukkasha who
had shaved his head looked down on them and when they saw him they felt safe
and said, “They are pilgrims, you have nothing to fear from them.” Then they
encouraged each other and decided to kill as many as they could of them and
take what they had. Waqid shot Amr b. al-Hadrami with an arrow and killed him,
and Uthman and Al-Hakam surrendered. Naufal escaped and eluded them. Abdullah
and his companions took the caravan and the two prisoners and came to Medina
with them. One of Abdullah’s family mentioned that he said to his companions,
“A fifth of what we have taken belongs to the apostle” (This was before God had
appointed one fifth of the booty to him.)
So he set apart for the apostle a fifth of the caravan and divided the
rest among his companions. When they came to the apostle, he said, “I did not
order you to fight in the sacred month and he held the caravan and the two
prisoners in suspense and refused to take anything from them. When the apostle
said that, the men were in despair and thought that they were doomed. Their
Muslim bretheren reproached them for what they had done, and the Quraysh said
“Mohammed and his companions have violated the sacred month, shed blood
therein, taken booty and captured men.” The Muslims in Mecca who opposed them
said that they had done it in Shaban. The Jews turned this raid into an omen
against the apostle. “Amr g al-Hadrami whom Waqid had killed they said meant “amarate’l-harb” (war has come to life),
al-Hadrami means “hadrati’l-harb”
(means war is present) and Waqid meant “wugadati’l-harb”,(war
is kindled); but God turned this against them, not for them, and when there was
much talk about it God sent down to his apostle: they will ask you about the
sacred month and war in it. Say, war therein is a serious matter, but keeping
people from the way of God and disbelieving in him and in the sacred Mosque and
driving out his people there from is more serious with God. ie. if you have
killed in the sacred month they have kept you back from the way of God with
their unbelief in him, and from the sacred Mosque, and have driven you from it
when you were its people. This is a more serious matter with God and the
killing of those of them whom you have slain. And seduction is worse than
killing. i.e. they used to seduce the
Muslim in his religion until they made him return to unbelief after believing
and this is worse with God than killing. And they will not cease to fight you
until they turn you back from your religion if they can. i.e. they are doing
more heinous acts than that contumaciously. And when the Koran came down about
that, God relieved the Muslims of their anxiety in the matter, the apostle took
the caravan and the prisoners. Quraysh sent to him to redeem Uthman and and
al-Hakam and the apostles said, “we will not let you redeem them until our two
companions come meaning Sa’d and Utba, for we fear for them on your account. If
you kill them, we will kill your two friends.” So when Sa’d and Utba turned up
the apostle let them redeem them. As for al-Hakam he became a good Muslim and
stayed with the apostle until he was killed as a martyr at Bi’rMa’una. Uthman
went back to Mecca and died there as an unbeliever. When Abdullah and his
companions were relieved of their anxiety when the Koran came down, they were
anxious for reward, and said, “can we hope that it will count as a raid for
which we shall be given the reward of combatants?” so God sent down concerning
him: “those who believe and have emigrated and fought in the way of God, these
may hope for God’s mercy, for God is forgiving and merciful.” That is, God gave
them the greatest hopes there in. The tradition about this comes from al-Zuhri
and Yazidb.Ruman from Urwa b al-Zubayr. One of Abdullah’s family mentioned that
God divided the booty when he made it permissible and gave up four fifths to
whom God had allowed to take it and one fifth to God and his apostle. So it
remained on the basis of what Abdullah had done with the booty of that caravan.
Abu Bakr said concerning Abdullah’s raid [though
others say that Abdulla himself said it], when Quraysh said, “Muhammad and his
companions have broken the sacred month shed blood therein and taken booty and
made prisoners”
You count war in the holy month a grave matter, but
graver is, if one judges rightly, your opposition to Muhammad’s teaching, and
your unbelief in it, which God sees and witnesses. Your driving God’s people
from his mosque so that none can be seen worshiping him there. Though you
defame us for killing him, more dangerous to Islam is the sinner who envies.
Our lances drank of Ibn al-Hadrami’s blood.
In Nakhla when Waqid lit the flame of war, Uthhman Ibn Abdullah is with
us, a leather hand, streaming with blood restrains him
Chapter Eight
OR BUY AS A PAPERBACK FOR US$6.95 CLICK HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment