Boris Shusteff brings us a wealth of knowledge concerning not only the
historical facts of Islam's founder, Mohammed, and the Jews of Arabia,
but also Islamic "official" beliefs treatment of these facts. This important
study will give the reader a broad look into many things that have an important
influence on what is happening in today's world.
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." 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" (ix). 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" (xi).
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" (x).
We begin our journey with Muhamad's arrival in Medina. At that time
three main Jewish tribes lived there, "whose adult males numbered in excess
of 2000" (208). 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 woman 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" (210).
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" (210).
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" (277). "Shas ibn Qais
was an old Jew with unparalleled hatred for Islam" (282). "The Jews of
Madinah [Medina] were fierce enemies of Islam, waiting for every chance
to deal a devastating blow to Muslims" (283).
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"
(283).
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" (283).
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" (282). 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" (284).
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' " (284).
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" (284).
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) " (284).
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" (285).
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"
(286).
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" (290).
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" (291).
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" (291).
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"(292).
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" (292).
One of the killers, Al-Harith ibn Aws was wounded during the mission.
The other Muslims carried him and went "straight to meet 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" (293).
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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.
Barn and Nobles Books, New York, 1995.
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Boris Shusteff is an engineer.
He is also a Research Associate
with the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies.
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