MUHAMMAD AND THE MURDER OF ABU
AFAK
by Silas
INTRODUCTION
After Muhammad arrived in Medina
around 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 article deals with
Muhammad's request to have his men murder a Jewish man named Abu Afak. Abu Afak was 120 years old. What was Afak's crime? He had urged his fellow Medinans to doubt
Muhammad.
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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).
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FROM THE KITAB AL TABAQAT AL KABIR (BOOK OF THE MAJOR CLASSES), Volume 2, BY IBN SA'D, (2), page 31:
"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 622 AD], 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.
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FROM
A CONTEMPORARY 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."
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DISCUSSION
Afak urged the people who lived in
Medina to doubt and leave Muhammad.
Afak found Muhammad's sayings
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.
When I think of what type of
people order their followers to commit murder, I only can think of organized
crime bosses, corrupt political figures, and cult leaders. Saddam Hussein comes to mind. How would an Iraqi be treated if he spoke
out about Saddam? Amnesty International just reported that
over 1500 political prisoners were executed in Iraq last year.
Or better yet, take the Ayatollah
Khomenni. His fundamentalist Islamic
regime had other dissident Iranians murdered all over the world. These people represent exactly what Muhammad
was all about. They followed Muhammad's
methodology: kill those who are a
threat to your credibility.
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QUESTIONS
1) What kind of man was Muhammad that he
would have a 120 year old man murdered because he urged his fellow citizens to
doubt Muhammad?
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 Jewish 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.
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? Is this type of
brutal murder what Muslims want to live under?
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?
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CONCLUSION
In order to achieve his carnal
desires Muhammad had people murdered in cold blood. One was a 120 year old man named Abu Afak. We see that Muhammad's efforts were really
driven by his flesh and ego, not by God.
Abu Afak was a nuisance to Muhammad no doubt, just as people on
different sides of an issue disagree and upset each other. But no fair person could justify Muhammad's
murder of this man.
Jesus taught to love your enemies,
to pray for those that persecute you.
Jesus didn't teach to go around murdering people in the night. Take the example of Christ and the
Samaritans opposition to Jesus.
"As the time approached for Him
to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he set messengers on ahead, who went
into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did
not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this,
they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy
them?" And he said, "You do
not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to
destroy men's lives, but to save them."
And they went to another village."
Luke 10:51-56
Who then really brought God's
message of His love to mankind?
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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.
abu-afak.htm
Rev. A: 4-9-98
Articles by Silas
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