http://www.answering-islam.org.uk/Muhammad/Enemies/abuafak.html
The Murder of Abu `Afak
INTRODUCTION
After Muhammad arrived in Medina in 622 AD, a number of local people began
to dislike him. Many of them were Jews, some were Pagan Arabs. One by one,
Muhammad's critics were silenced; some became Muslims, some were murdered,
others were driven out of Medina. This paper deals with Muhammad's request
to have his men murder a Jewish man named Abu Afak. Abu Afak was a 120 year
old man. Afak's crime: he urged his fellow Medinans to leave Muhammad.
_____
PRESENTATION OF ISLAMIC SOURCES
NOTE: My comments will be enclosed by [ ] type brackets. Other brackets like
( ) are in the translations.
FROM THE SIRAT RASUL ALLAH (THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET OF GOD), BY IBN ISHAQ
(1), page 675:
SALIM B. UMAYR'S EXPEDITION TO KILL ABU AFAK
Abu Afak was one of the B. Amr b. Auf of the B. Ubayda clan. He
showed his disaffection when the apostle killed al-Harith b. Suwayd b. Samit
and said:
"Long have I lived but never have I seen
An assembly or collection of people
More faithful to their undertaking
And their allies when called upon
Than the sons of Qayla when they assembled,
Men who overthrew mountains and never submitted,
A rider who came to them split them in two (saying)
"Permitted", "Forbidden", of all sorts of things.
Had you believed in glory or kingship
You would have followed Tubba.
[NOTE: the Tubba was a ruler from Yemen who invaded that part of
what is present Saudi Arabia: the Qaylites resisted him]
The apostle said, "Who will deal with this rascal for me?" Whereupon
Salim b. Umayr, brother of B. Amr b. Auf, one of the "weepers", went forth
and killed him. Umama b. Muzayriya said concerning that:
You gave the lie to God's religion and the man Ahmad! [Muhammad]
By him who was your father, evil is the son he produced!
A "hanif" gave you a thrust in the night saying
"Take that Abu Afak in spite of your age!"
Though I knew whether it was man or jinn
Who slew you in the dead of night (I would say naught).
_____
FROM THE KITAB AL TABAQAT AL KABIR (BOOK OF THE MAJOR CLASSES), Volume 2, BY
IBN SA'D, (2), page 32:
Then occurred the "sariyyah" [raid] of Salim Ibn Umayr al-Amri
against Abu Afak, the Jew, in [the month of] Shawwal in the beginning of the
twentieth month from the hijrah [immigration from Mecca to Medina in AD
622], of the Apostle of Allah. Abu Afak, was from Banu Amr Ibn Awf, and was
an old man who had attained the age of one hundred and twenty years. He was
a Jew, and used to instigate the people against the Apostle of Allah, and
composed (satirical) verses [about Muhammad].
Salim Ibn Umayr who was one of the great weepers and who had
participated in Badr, said, "I take a vow that I shall either kill Abu Afak
or die before him. He waited for an opportunity until a hot night came, and
Abu Afak slept in an open place. Salim Ibn Umayr knew it, so he placed the
sword on his liver and pressed it till it reached his bed. The enemy of
Allah screamed and the people who were his followers, rushed to him, took
him to his house and interred him.
_____
FROM A CONTEMPORY MUSLIM SCHOLAR ON ISLAM
FROM ALI DASHTI'S "23 YEARS: A STUDY OF THE PROPHETIC CAREER OF MOHAMMAD",
(3) page 100:
Abu Afak, a man of great age (reputedly 120 years) was killed
because he had lampooned Mohammad. The deed was done by Salem b. Omayr at
the behest of the Prophet, who had asked, "Who will deal with this rascal
for me?" The killing of such an old man moved a poetess, Asma b. Marwan, to
compose disrespectful verses about the Prophet, and she too was
assassinated."
And prior to listing all of the assassinations Muhammad had ordered, Ali
Dashti writes on page 97:
"Thus Islam was gradually transformed from a purely spiritual
mission into a militant and punitive organization whose progress depended on
booty from raids and revenue from the zakat tax."
_____
DISCUSSION
Afak urged the people who lived in Medina to doubt and leave Muhammad. Afak
found that Muhammad's sayings were strange and dictatorial. He chided the
Arabs that put their faith in Muhammad. Muhammad heard of this and viewed
the 120 year old man as a threat to his credibility, not to his life.
Nowhere does it say that Afak urged his fellow Arabs to attack or harm
Muhammad. Certainly a 120 year old man was not a physical threat to Muhammad
or his followers.
What I find interesting is the last statement in Umama b. Muzayriya's verse:
"Though I knew whether it was man or jinn
Who slew you in the dead of night (I would say naught)."
This statement displays that the Muslims knew exactly what they were doing.
They knew it was cold-blooded murder that they were doing at Muhammad's
request. They wanted to keep it secret, they wanted to hide their evil deeds
from the populace at large. That's why Umama said he wouldn't reveal who
murdered Afak. The line "Take that Abu Afak in spite of your age!" also
indicates a certain bad conscience about this deed even though it is
overlayed with triumphalism trying to silencing this inner voice indicating
that this was wrong.
Does anyone ever wonder why the news from the Islamic world are as they are?
Ammnesty International just reported that over 1500 political prisioners
were executed in Iraq last year.
In Algeria the extremist groups are killing by the thousands those who do
not support them.
Ayatollah Khomenni. A reformer and reviver of Islam. His fundamentalist
Islamic regime had dissident Iranians murdered all over the world.
Can we really accuse them to be unIslamic in their behavior? Are they not
following their role model, Muhammad himself in his methodology of killing
those who are a threat to your credibility?
_____
QUESTIONS
1)
What does it say about Muhammad that he would have a 120 year old man
murdered because he urged his fellow citizens to doubt his message and not
to follow him?
2)
Yes, Abu Afak was a threat to Muhammad's credibility. But did he deserve to
be murdered, in cold blood, in the night, secretly, while he was sleeping?
Was his opinion that much of a threat to Muhammad? Didn't the angels help
Muhammad at the Battle of Badr? If so, why was Muhammad afraid of a 120 year
old man?
3)
Are these "Islamic" values compatible with our values in America? Should
Americans who criticize Muhammad expect to have their freedom of speech
threatened, or should they live in fear of being killed for speaking their
mind? Remember, Muslims in America have already begun to murder Americans
for the sake of their religion, both abroad and in the USA itself.
4)
If Muhammad put this system in place, i.e., the murdering of people who
disagree with him, how does it affect Islamic society? How does it relate to
what we have seen done in Islamic societies such as Algeria, Iran, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Egypt, and Sudan?
5)
If Muhammad were alive today, and we knew of the people he had murdered,
what would America say? What would you say? Wouldn't we want to see this
type of man pay for his crimes, put in jail for life, or even executed?
6)
Don't we have the right to judge Muhammad according to the best moral
standards we know of? He claimed to be the last prophet of God. He claimed
his system was God's final system for all mankind. So by our standards,
don't you think that what Muhammad did was terribly wrong? If our standards
are better than his, then how does his self asserted "prophethood" really
rate? Why should our standards eclipse those of God's final prophet?
In the end, everyone has to draw his own conclusions. But we should draw
conclusions only on the basis of being presented all the information. And
then everyone is responsible before God what he does with it. May the Lord
help us all.
_____
REFERENCES
(1)
"The Life of Muhammad", a translation of Ibn Ishaq's "Sirat Rasul Allah"
(The Life of the Prophet of God) by A. Guillaume. This book is the best
biography of Muhammad available. Note that Guillaume added in other
references from Tabari, and other early Islamic writings.
(2)
"Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir", (Book of the Major Classes), by Ibn Sa'd.
Translated by Moinul Haq, published by the Pakistan Historical Society
(3)
"23 YEARS: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad", by Ali Dashti.
Translated by F.R.C. Bagley.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
--------------------------
Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL
PROTECTED]
--------------------------
Brooks Isoldi, editor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.intellnet.org
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has
not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of
The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT
YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of
intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods,
techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other
intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use
this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,'
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
