?Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as [they] believe in neither God nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what God and His apostle have forbidden, and do not embrace the true Faith?? (Qur'an 9:29)
?Every event in the life of the Prophet must be studied carefully in order to learn how to respond should one find oneself in similar circumstances.? (Salahi, Muhammad: Man and Prophet, p. 382)
It is absolutely mind-boggling that people are often unable to see the simple truth, even when they are looking directly at it. A good example is A.B. Yehoshua, a stalwart of the Israeli liberal Left. In a July 21 article in the Jerusalem Post, speaking about "a new wave of hatred towards Jews [that] swept across the Arab and Muslim world" he suggests that "the cause and motive of this outbreak of animosity and rejection [of the Jews] must be analyzed." He writes that "we Jews [must] become more adept at deciphering reality, take pains not to delude ourselves." However, he then completely fails to do this, because he takes the Six-Day War as the starting point of the Jewish-Arab conflict. While criticizing traditional Orthodox Jewry for its refusal "to confront the issue of anti-Semitism and study its causes," he himself does not even touch the issue of Muslim Judeo-phobia, thus missing the only chance to "decipher reality." He deludes himself and his readers by completely ignoring the religious component of the Arab "rejection of the Jews." Only by taking it into account can we understand why all efforts at appeasement in dealing with the Arabs will always fail. One must analyze the ways that the Prophet Muhammad dealt with the Jews 1,400 years ago in order to gain insight into what can be expected from Muslims today.
Professor Akbar Ahmed from Cambridge writes about the enormous role that Muhammad plays in the Arab world. Muslims revere him above any and all human beings. Ahmed wrote, "As the Prophet is the messenger, the Qur'an is the message of God. Together they provide the basis for the ideal type of Muslim behavior and thought? The Prophet himself had said in his last sermon: 'I leave behind me two things, the Qur'an and my example - the sunnah [traditions about the words and deeds of the Prophet], and if you follow these you will never go astray."(1)
In our research on Prophet-Jewish relations we shall assign the role of adviser to Adil Salahi, a British journalist of Arabic origin, and will rely on his fundamental book Muhammad: Man and Prophet.(2) Salahi spent countless days studying various biographies of the Prophet. He writes "I could not put down the Life of the Prophet by ibn Hisham. I do not recall how many times I read that invaluable book, written over a thousand years ago?" While writing the book, he serialized the Prophet's history "attending to details and commenting on events. It took four years and a total of 200 episodes to complete." The book presents the "standard Islamic view in detail, trying to elucidate it as much as possible." In the introduction to the book, Salahi wrote: "There is always an example to follow, an attitude to adopt or a lesson to learn from the Prophet. Whether you are Muslim or not, a careful study of his blessed life will enable you to have a much better understanding of Islam."
We begin our journey with Muhammad's arrival in Medina. At that time three main Jewish tribes lived there, "whose adult males numbered in excess of 2000." These tribes were the Qainuqaa', An-Nadheer and Quraithah. The Jews lived in their own quarters and constituted almost half of the city's population. While Salahi provides in his book examples of "good Jews" - i.e. ones that accepted the Prophet and converted to Islam - one will be hard pressed to find in the book good words about the Jews as a people. On the contrary, Salahi presents them in a very negative way. He writes: "It was easy for the Jews to operate their usurious system? In their pawn shops, the Jews did not only accept valuable articles as pledges, but would also take women and children as security against the repayment of loans? This system? secured a strong financial position for the Jews, which enabled them to manipulate the market and exploit it to their own advantage. Hence, the whole population hated them for their selfishness, usury and for the means they adopted to get rich."
Two major Arab tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj, lived in Medina at the time of the Prophet's arrival there. Salahi states that the Jews governed their relations with these tribes based on their own interests: "They would do anything which ensured any material gain. Hence they tried to cause war to flare up between two tribes, whenever they judged that such a war would be to their own advantage. Indeed, it was the Jews who caused all the civil wars which considerably weakened both the Aws and Khazraj tribes."
In his narrative Salahi constantly presents the Jews as the enemies of Islam. He writes, "Little did [the Prophet] think in the beginning that blind hatred of anything that did not emanate with the Israelites would determine the Jews' attitude towards Islam?. Shas ibn Qais was an old Jew with unparalleled hatred for Islam.? The Jews of Madinah [Medina] were fierce enemies of Islam, waiting for every chance to deal a devastating blow to Muslims."
Let us follow the development of the events that lead to the expulsion of Qainuqaa', the first Jewish tribe. Salahi writes, "Despite the fact that the Prophet made a treaty with the Jews when he first arrived in Madinah, which stipulated that the Jews would support the Muslims in any fight against any enemy who threatened the Muslims in Madinah, it was soon to become clear that the Jews had no intention of putting that provision into effect." Salahi continues, "Indeed, their hatred of Islam, which has no cause except the fact that the Prophet himself was not Jewish, became self-evident - so much so that when they realized that the Muslims had achieved a resounding victory at Badr, they felt very sorry for the non-believers and felt insecure in Madinah? Hence the Jews gave every indication that they considered their peace treaty with the Prophet broken. Their poets started to ridicule the Muslims and belittle their victory. Unashamedly, they also spoke ill of the Prophet and started a barrage of ridicule against him."
Salahi continues to build his case against the Jews. "The tribe of Qainuqaa' [was] the closest to the Arabs in their quarters. It was perhaps this proximity that led the Jewish tribe of Qainuqaa' to show more hostility to the Muslims then the rest of the Jews. Any provocation would surely be enough to start a war between the two parties." The "provocation" happened very soon, when a Muslim woman went into a jeweler's shop in the Jewish market. "In order to have a laugh at her, a Jew came from behind her and took the lower edge of her dress and stuck it to her shoulders, but she was totally unaware? When she stood up the lower part of her body was visible and all the Jews around her laughed. She cried for help and a Muslim man nearby attacked the Jew who perpetrated this and killed him. Several men then attacked the Muslim and killed him."
From this episode, it is hard to conclude that the Jews are on the verge of breaching the agreement, but it is exactly the conclusion at which the Prophet arrives. Let us listen to Salahi, "The Prophet? quickly came over and tried to calm everybody down. The Prophet called notables in the Qainuqaa' tribe and spoke to them, warning them against breach of their treaty: 'You had better guard against a calamity, like that which befell the Quraish. You will be well advised to adopt Islam'? Their hatred, however, had become very strong and they would not listen. Their answer was far from conciliatory: 'Muhammad, do you think that we are an easy prey?? If we were to fight you, you would certainly know that we are the true fighters.'"
Now the case is built. Salahi concludes, "The Jewish tribe of Qainuqaa' moved over to the enemy camp? There was certainly no chance that the Muslims would feel easy about probable treachery by the Qainuqaa' Jews when the state of war still existed between the Muslims and the Quraish."
It is important to note that these accusations against the Jews were based on assumptions, feelings and probabilities. So far, the Jews had not really done anything criminal. However, this was enough for Muhammad. Salahi writes, "The Prophet received the following instruction from Allah: 'If you have reason to fear treachery from people with whom you have made a covenant, cast it back at them in an equitable manner. For, indeed, Allah does not love the treacherous.'" (Qur'an 8:58) Armed with this instruction the Prophet declared to [the Jews] that "The treaty between two parties no longer has any value. He also warned them that he considered himself at war with them. They, on their part, went into their fortifications while the Muslims put them under siege. The siege continued for 15 days, during which the Qainuqaa' Jews received no help whatsoever from any quarter."
As we'll see later, the fate of the Qainuqaa' Jews was the best of all three Jewish tribes. When they "realized that their case was hopeless, they were overtaken by fear and decided to ask the Prophet to let them leave Madinah. He accepted their offer to leave and let them go with their women and children, provided that they left behind their property and arms." Salahi explains the relatively mild "punishment" of the Jews. The Prophet stopped short of much more severe measures because one of the leaders of the hypocrites Abdullah ibn Ubbai asked him to spare the Jews, since they "are 700 fighters who always protected me against all my enemies." Before the Prophet came to Medina, Abdullah was very influential and Muhammad decided not to alienate the large non-Muslim community, hoping to attract them to Islam in the future.
The Prophet dealt out punishment to individual Jews as well. Salahi presents an episode in Muhammad's life that culminated in the death of "Ka'ab ibn Al Ashraf, a prominent personality of the Jewish tribe An-Nadheer." In this case, the straw that broke the camel's back was the fact that Ka'ab "wrote obscene love poems mentioning Muslim women. This was extremely offensive to the Muslims, who valued their honor very highly." The Prophet decided that Ka'ab must be stopped. "He therefore said to some of his companions: 'Who will rid us of Ibn Al-Ashraf, for he has declared his hostility openly?' A man from the Ansar called Muhammad ibn Maslamah said: 'I volunteer for that. I will kill him.' This man requested and was granted permission from the Prophet to pretend to Ka'ab that he and his friends were against the Prophet and against Islam. It is important to note that the Prophet did not hesitate to grant them such permission?"
Ibn Maslamah went to Ka'ab with Silkan ibn Salamah. As Salahi explains, "Silkan was Ka'ab's brother by virtue of their both being breast-fed by the same woman. There was therefore an element of trust between them." Silkan deceived Ka'ab and convinced him to meet his friends. The Prophet was involved in the final preparation for the killing. Salahi writes, "They all met at the Prophet's place. Then they set out and the Prophet walked with them part of the way. Before they left him, he blessed their mission and prayed Allah to help them." The Muslims lured Ka'ab out into the street.
Salahi describes the killing: "When they had walked for quite a while, Silkan suddenly held Ka'ab by his head and shouted to his friends: 'Kill the enemy of Allah'. They hit him with their swords, but he apparently has his armor on and they did not harm him.? Muhammad ibn Masalamah, however, had a knife. He stabbed Ka'ab in the lower part of his abdomen and pulled the knife down. Ka'ab fell. When they had made sure that Ka'ab could not live, they started to run.
"One of the killers, Al-Harith ibn Aws was wounded during the mission. The other Muslims carried him and went "straight to met the Prophet? He went out to see them and they told him of the success of their mission. He wiped Al-Harith's wound with his saliva and it cleared up? The incident struck fear in the hearts of the Jews, who realized that the Muslims would tolerate hostility from no one."
1. Akbar S. Ahmed, Islam Today: A Short Introduction to the Muslim World. I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2001. p.28.
2. Adil Salahi. Muhammad: Man and Prophet. A Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet of Islam. Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 1995.
[End Part 1 of 3]
--------------------------------------------
Boris Shusteff is an engineer. He is also a research associate with the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies.
?Every event in the life of the Prophet must be studied carefully in order to learn how to respond should one find oneself in similar circumstances.? (Salahi, Muhammad: Man and Prophet, p. 382)
It is absolutely mind-boggling that people are often unable to see the simple truth, even when they are looking directly at it. A good example is A.B. Yehoshua, a stalwart of the Israeli liberal Left. In a July 21 article in the Jerusalem Post, speaking about "a new wave of hatred towards Jews [that] swept across the Arab and Muslim world" he suggests that "the cause and motive of this outbreak of animosity and rejection [of the Jews] must be analyzed." He writes that "we Jews [must] become more adept at deciphering reality, take pains not to delude ourselves." However, he then completely fails to do this, because he takes the Six-Day War as the starting point of the Jewish-Arab conflict. While criticizing traditional Orthodox Jewry for its refusal "to confront the issue of anti-Semitism and study its causes," he himself does not even touch the issue of Muslim Judeo-phobia, thus missing the only chance to "decipher reality." He deludes himself and his readers by completely ignoring the religious component of the Arab "rejection of the Jews." Only by taking it into account can we understand why all efforts at appeasement in dealing with the Arabs will always fail. One must analyze the ways that the Prophet Muhammad dealt with the Jews 1,400 years ago in order to gain insight into what can be expected from Muslims today.
Professor Akbar Ahmed from Cambridge writes about the enormous role that Muhammad plays in the Arab world. Muslims revere him above any and all human beings. Ahmed wrote, "As the Prophet is the messenger, the Qur'an is the message of God. Together they provide the basis for the ideal type of Muslim behavior and thought? The Prophet himself had said in his last sermon: 'I leave behind me two things, the Qur'an and my example - the sunnah [traditions about the words and deeds of the Prophet], and if you follow these you will never go astray."(1)
In our research on Prophet-Jewish relations we shall assign the role of adviser to Adil Salahi, a British journalist of Arabic origin, and will rely on his fundamental book Muhammad: Man and Prophet.(2) Salahi spent countless days studying various biographies of the Prophet. He writes "I could not put down the Life of the Prophet by ibn Hisham. I do not recall how many times I read that invaluable book, written over a thousand years ago?" While writing the book, he serialized the Prophet's history "attending to details and commenting on events. It took four years and a total of 200 episodes to complete." The book presents the "standard Islamic view in detail, trying to elucidate it as much as possible." In the introduction to the book, Salahi wrote: "There is always an example to follow, an attitude to adopt or a lesson to learn from the Prophet. Whether you are Muslim or not, a careful study of his blessed life will enable you to have a much better understanding of Islam."
We begin our journey with Muhammad's arrival in Medina. At that time three main Jewish tribes lived there, "whose adult males numbered in excess of 2000." These tribes were the Qainuqaa', An-Nadheer and Quraithah. The Jews lived in their own quarters and constituted almost half of the city's population. While Salahi provides in his book examples of "good Jews" - i.e. ones that accepted the Prophet and converted to Islam - one will be hard pressed to find in the book good words about the Jews as a people. On the contrary, Salahi presents them in a very negative way. He writes: "It was easy for the Jews to operate their usurious system? In their pawn shops, the Jews did not only accept valuable articles as pledges, but would also take women and children as security against the repayment of loans? This system? secured a strong financial position for the Jews, which enabled them to manipulate the market and exploit it to their own advantage. Hence, the whole population hated them for their selfishness, usury and for the means they adopted to get rich."
Two major Arab tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj, lived in Medina at the time of the Prophet's arrival there. Salahi states that the Jews governed their relations with these tribes based on their own interests: "They would do anything which ensured any material gain. Hence they tried to cause war to flare up between two tribes, whenever they judged that such a war would be to their own advantage. Indeed, it was the Jews who caused all the civil wars which considerably weakened both the Aws and Khazraj tribes."
In his narrative Salahi constantly presents the Jews as the enemies of Islam. He writes, "Little did [the Prophet] think in the beginning that blind hatred of anything that did not emanate with the Israelites would determine the Jews' attitude towards Islam?. Shas ibn Qais was an old Jew with unparalleled hatred for Islam.? The Jews of Madinah [Medina] were fierce enemies of Islam, waiting for every chance to deal a devastating blow to Muslims."
Let us follow the development of the events that lead to the expulsion of Qainuqaa', the first Jewish tribe. Salahi writes, "Despite the fact that the Prophet made a treaty with the Jews when he first arrived in Madinah, which stipulated that the Jews would support the Muslims in any fight against any enemy who threatened the Muslims in Madinah, it was soon to become clear that the Jews had no intention of putting that provision into effect." Salahi continues, "Indeed, their hatred of Islam, which has no cause except the fact that the Prophet himself was not Jewish, became self-evident - so much so that when they realized that the Muslims had achieved a resounding victory at Badr, they felt very sorry for the non-believers and felt insecure in Madinah? Hence the Jews gave every indication that they considered their peace treaty with the Prophet broken. Their poets started to ridicule the Muslims and belittle their victory. Unashamedly, they also spoke ill of the Prophet and started a barrage of ridicule against him."
Salahi continues to build his case against the Jews. "The tribe of Qainuqaa' [was] the closest to the Arabs in their quarters. It was perhaps this proximity that led the Jewish tribe of Qainuqaa' to show more hostility to the Muslims then the rest of the Jews. Any provocation would surely be enough to start a war between the two parties." The "provocation" happened very soon, when a Muslim woman went into a jeweler's shop in the Jewish market. "In order to have a laugh at her, a Jew came from behind her and took the lower edge of her dress and stuck it to her shoulders, but she was totally unaware? When she stood up the lower part of her body was visible and all the Jews around her laughed. She cried for help and a Muslim man nearby attacked the Jew who perpetrated this and killed him. Several men then attacked the Muslim and killed him."
From this episode, it is hard to conclude that the Jews are on the verge of breaching the agreement, but it is exactly the conclusion at which the Prophet arrives. Let us listen to Salahi, "The Prophet? quickly came over and tried to calm everybody down. The Prophet called notables in the Qainuqaa' tribe and spoke to them, warning them against breach of their treaty: 'You had better guard against a calamity, like that which befell the Quraish. You will be well advised to adopt Islam'? Their hatred, however, had become very strong and they would not listen. Their answer was far from conciliatory: 'Muhammad, do you think that we are an easy prey?? If we were to fight you, you would certainly know that we are the true fighters.'"
Now the case is built. Salahi concludes, "The Jewish tribe of Qainuqaa' moved over to the enemy camp? There was certainly no chance that the Muslims would feel easy about probable treachery by the Qainuqaa' Jews when the state of war still existed between the Muslims and the Quraish."
It is important to note that these accusations against the Jews were based on assumptions, feelings and probabilities. So far, the Jews had not really done anything criminal. However, this was enough for Muhammad. Salahi writes, "The Prophet received the following instruction from Allah: 'If you have reason to fear treachery from people with whom you have made a covenant, cast it back at them in an equitable manner. For, indeed, Allah does not love the treacherous.'" (Qur'an 8:58) Armed with this instruction the Prophet declared to [the Jews] that "The treaty between two parties no longer has any value. He also warned them that he considered himself at war with them. They, on their part, went into their fortifications while the Muslims put them under siege. The siege continued for 15 days, during which the Qainuqaa' Jews received no help whatsoever from any quarter."
As we'll see later, the fate of the Qainuqaa' Jews was the best of all three Jewish tribes. When they "realized that their case was hopeless, they were overtaken by fear and decided to ask the Prophet to let them leave Madinah. He accepted their offer to leave and let them go with their women and children, provided that they left behind their property and arms." Salahi explains the relatively mild "punishment" of the Jews. The Prophet stopped short of much more severe measures because one of the leaders of the hypocrites Abdullah ibn Ubbai asked him to spare the Jews, since they "are 700 fighters who always protected me against all my enemies." Before the Prophet came to Medina, Abdullah was very influential and Muhammad decided not to alienate the large non-Muslim community, hoping to attract them to Islam in the future.
The Prophet dealt out punishment to individual Jews as well. Salahi presents an episode in Muhammad's life that culminated in the death of "Ka'ab ibn Al Ashraf, a prominent personality of the Jewish tribe An-Nadheer." In this case, the straw that broke the camel's back was the fact that Ka'ab "wrote obscene love poems mentioning Muslim women. This was extremely offensive to the Muslims, who valued their honor very highly." The Prophet decided that Ka'ab must be stopped. "He therefore said to some of his companions: 'Who will rid us of Ibn Al-Ashraf, for he has declared his hostility openly?' A man from the Ansar called Muhammad ibn Maslamah said: 'I volunteer for that. I will kill him.' This man requested and was granted permission from the Prophet to pretend to Ka'ab that he and his friends were against the Prophet and against Islam. It is important to note that the Prophet did not hesitate to grant them such permission?"
Ibn Maslamah went to Ka'ab with Silkan ibn Salamah. As Salahi explains, "Silkan was Ka'ab's brother by virtue of their both being breast-fed by the same woman. There was therefore an element of trust between them." Silkan deceived Ka'ab and convinced him to meet his friends. The Prophet was involved in the final preparation for the killing. Salahi writes, "They all met at the Prophet's place. Then they set out and the Prophet walked with them part of the way. Before they left him, he blessed their mission and prayed Allah to help them." The Muslims lured Ka'ab out into the street.
Salahi describes the killing: "When they had walked for quite a while, Silkan suddenly held Ka'ab by his head and shouted to his friends: 'Kill the enemy of Allah'. They hit him with their swords, but he apparently has his armor on and they did not harm him.? Muhammad ibn Masalamah, however, had a knife. He stabbed Ka'ab in the lower part of his abdomen and pulled the knife down. Ka'ab fell. When they had made sure that Ka'ab could not live, they started to run.
"One of the killers, Al-Harith ibn Aws was wounded during the mission. The other Muslims carried him and went "straight to met the Prophet? He went out to see them and they told him of the success of their mission. He wiped Al-Harith's wound with his saliva and it cleared up? The incident struck fear in the hearts of the Jews, who realized that the Muslims would tolerate hostility from no one."
1. Akbar S. Ahmed, Islam Today: A Short Introduction to the Muslim World. I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2001. p.28.
2. Adil Salahi. Muhammad: Man and Prophet. A Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet of Islam. Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 1995.
[End Part 1 of 3]
--------------------------------------------
Boris Shusteff is an engineer. He is also a research associate with the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies.