The Prophet and the Poets
By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
20 July 2022
If Islamic Literature Is To Be Believed, Then the Prophet
Was Not Sent As a Mercy To Mankind
Main Points:
1.
Islamic literature
tells us that the Prophet was sent as a mercy to whole of mankind.
2.
The same literature
tells us that he was ruthless in ordering the executions of those who made fun
of him and his new religion.
3.
The killing of an
elderly (Abu Afaq) and a woman (Asma bint Marwan) is recorded in various Hadith
and Sira literature, including some of the earliest ones.
4.
Muslims need to
figure out which is the real Muhammad that is described in their scriptures:
the one who forgave his opponents, or the one who had them killed.
------
The received narrative about Prophet Muhammad which has been
handed down to Muslims is that he was sent down to earth as a mercy to mankind.
In the Quran 21:107, the Prophet is called the “a mercy to the worlds”. He is
also referred to as an “illuminating lamp” which dispels darkness. Various
traditions recorded in the Sira literature and Hadith also tell us the same
thing: that he used to forgive even the bitterest of his opponents, that he was
always mild mannered, courteous towards the elderly and women. One oft-quoted
act attributed to him is his visit to an old woman who regularly used to throw
garbage at him when he used to preach in Mecca. The story goes that when this
woman did not do so for a few days, the prophet went to see her and inquired
about her well- being. Millions of Muslims do in fact believe in the narrative
and understand that being kind and forgiving is one of the important virtues of
being Muslim.
The problem is that this incident is nowhere mentioned in
any of the Hadith collections. One wonders therefore, from where Muslims picked
this piece of information and for what purposes they used it. It is good on the
part of Muslim exegetes to present the Prophet as benevolent and merciful, but
their own literature also tells us a very different story: one of revenge and
killing those with whom he was most uncomfortable with. There can be debate
about whether they were actual historical events but what is beyond dispute is
that Muslim exegetes have themselves written about the Prophet and his ways of
dealing with his opponents. Since such a literature is available and considered
Islamic, it is not surprising that terrorists have used the action of the
Prophet to legitimize their inhuman actions.
After the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet forgave a lot of
people who conspired against him and fellow Muslims. Amongst them was the ill
famous Abu Sufyan, an important leader of Quraish, who was the arch enemy of
the Prophet. He was forgiven after the intercession of al Abbas, one of the
Prophet’s uncle, in whose name the Abbasid Empire would be formed later on.
That’s not all, the Prophet made the house of Abu Sufyan a sanctuary; anyone
taking shelter there would not be harmed. Thus, he not only forgave him but
also elevated his status in the eyes of Meccans. In fifty years, his progenies
formed the Umayyad caliphate and would very nearly wipe out the family of
Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet also forgave, Wahshi ibn Harb, the killer of his
dear uncle Hamza in the battle of Uhud and also forgave Hinda, on whose behalf
the killer had acted. One can certainly argue that all of them were the kin of
the Prophet (he was married to the daughter of Abu Sufyan), but then that is
another story.
What is more important to point out is that the Prophet did
not forgive everyone, before or after the conquest of Mecca. While in Medina,
the Prophet is supposed to have ordered the execution of Abu Afaq and Asma bint
Marwan. Abu Afaq is said to be Jewish but more importantly as someone who did
not believe in the message of the Prophet of Islam. When Muslims returned
victorious from Badr, Abu Afaq is said to have composed a poem which was
critical of the victors and the prophet. This seems to have displeased the
prophet. Abu Afaq, who in some sources is said to be more than hundred years
old, was killed by Muslims for this disrespect shown to the Prophet. Another poet,
Asma bint Marwan would protest this killing, exhorting her men to harm and
injure Muhammad. She was a mother of five children but the Prophet asked
Muslims to “get rid of her”. She was killed in the dead of the night in the
most brutal fashion by a Muslim convert from her tribe. When the Prophet of
informed of this, he is said to have remarked: “two goats won’t butt their
heads about her”, thus making it abundantly clear that he wanted this happen.
After the conquest of Mecca, Muslims give the image that the
Prophet generally pardoned everyone. However, this is not true either. The
famous Salafi scholar, Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri, argues in his biography of
the Prophet (The Sealed Nectar) that “shedding blood of nine arch criminals was
declared lawful even under the curtains of Al-Kaabah”. We are told that
eventually only four were executed; two of them were apostates. Moreover, one
of them, had two singing girls, and at least one of them were killed. The
Prophet might not have ordered the singing girl’s execution but various
traditions suggest that he did not object to it.
Some scholars have compiled a list of 43 individuals, both
men and women, who were assassinated, most of them in the knowledge of the
Prophet. There can be a number of reasons why the Prophet did so. Apologists of
Islam have tried to argue that these individuals incited violence against
Muslims and hence their killing is justified. But this sounds unconvincing to
say the least. As someone who was sent as a mercy to the whole world, he would
have had many options before ordering those killings. In the case of Asma for
example, many of her tribe members had already converted to Islam, so it was
possible to reach out to her through such Muslims and counsel her. Moreover,
for a merciful person, the option of forgiveness is always there. But our own
Islamic literature tells us that the Prophet never even entertained these
options; he simply wanted to get rid of such people.
Similarly, the executions of the apostates tell us that from
the very beginning, Islam had become intolerant to anyone exiting its
fraternity. No wonder that the Muslim world hasn’t been able to solve this
problem till now. We also need to remember that both Asma and Abu Afaq were
poets of their age. In the context of Arabia where orality was the norm, they
were the intellectual of their time. It is entirely possible that they would
not have agreed to aspects of Islam which they saw as problematic. Their
killing perhaps underlines the anti-intellectualism of Islam, where clear lines
have been drawn beyond which one cannot venture in terms of thought and reason.
It is not true that the Prophet disliked poetry. A number of his own companions
were poets. He would triumphantly enter Mecca after the conquest amidst his
fellow companions reciting poetry. The difference being that such poetry was in
praise of Islam. But the poems of those who he ordered killed were against
Islam and Muhammad’s claim to Prophethood. Thus, what we are being told through
our own Islamic literature is that the Prophet and early Muslims were averse to
any form of criticism. Certainly, not much has changed even today!
Apologists of Islam, who are too embarrassed at such
narrations recorded within their religious literature normally argue that since
chain of such transmissions (Isnad) is weak hence these Hadiths cannot
be reliable. In other words, they discount that such killings would have been
authorized by the Prophet himself. But this censure of the Hadith and Sira
literature only happens when something has the potential to embarrass Muslims.
Those Isnads, which are classified as weak, continue to be quoted by
Muslim apologists simply because they show the Islamic Prophet and early
Muslims in a positive light; more acceptable to modern sensibilities.
The Quran (3:186) tells the believers to be “patient and
keep your duty”, despite provocation and abuse from the “idolators” and “those
who have been given the Book before you”. Some hadiths mention that the Prophet
cautioned any Muslim going to war not to “harm women, children and the
elderly”. And yet in the same Islamic literature, the Prophet is seen as not
paying any heed to the Quranic injunction and even going against his own
advice. After reading these contradictory narratives, one is really left wondering
who the real Muhammad was.
----
A regular
contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam
and Muslims in South Asia.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/prophet-poets-quranic-islamic-literature/d/127525
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