Shedding some Light on the Warfare in the Prophet Muhammad’s Lifetime....Is it Justifiable?!

‘Islam has been dubbed the religion of the sword, a faith which has abandoned true spirituality by sanctifying violence and intolerance. it is an image that has dogged Islam in the Christian West ever since the middle ages, even though Christians were fighting their own holy wars in the middle East at this time. Today popular books and television programs frequently sport titles like Rage of Islam, Sword of Islam, Scared Rage or Holy Terror’.¹ It is in this light that we should consider the Islamic Jihad which some Westerners usually translate wrongly as a “holy war”.

THE MEANING OF JIHAD

As a matter of fact, the root GHD has nothing to do with holy war. ‘It signifies a physical, moral, spiritual and intellectual effort. There are plenty of Arabic words denoting armed combat, such as harb (war),
sira’a (combat), ma’araka (battle) or qital (killing), which the Quran could easily have used if war had been the Muslims’ principal way of engaging in this effort. The Jihad is not the central prop of Islam, despite the common Western view. But it was and remains a duty for Muslims to commit themselves to a struggle on all fronts- moral, spiritual, and political- to create a just and decent society’.²

According to the Islamic Faith, it is utterly prohibited to initiate a war, though some wars are inevitable and justifiable, unless the opposing party makes an attack. Allah the Almighty said (in the Quran):

 “And fight in the way of God those who fight against you but do not transgress; indeed God does not like transgressors.” [2:190]

“Whoever commits aggression against you, then respond within the same degree of aggression waged against you.” [2:194]

“And if they incline to peace, then incline to it; and put your trust in God, it is He who is the All-Hearing, the All-knowing.” [8:61]

THE GHAZAWAT IN THE PROPHET’S TIME: WHAT DOES IT REFER TO?!

The ghazu or Ghazawat (the plural of Ghazua) that occurred during the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime caused much argument among the Orientalists who interpreted the word as a raid considering that all the Prophet’s Ghazawat involved fighting, bloodshed, bestiality, etc; they simply made a gross generalization based on superficial knowledge of the issue as this is not the reality; maybe the word denoted this meaning during the pre-islamic period; yet it is totally misleading. Mulling over the Prophet’s life, we will find out that the Ghazua is any journey the prophet- together with his companions- goes on whatever its motive is. He took part in about 27 Ghazua in only nine of which a confrontation happened. Muslims used to do Ghazu for various reasons like defending themselves as in the Ghazua of Uhud and Alkhandak, retrieving their rightful property as in the Ghazua of Badr, performing the pilgrimage as in the Ghazua of Alhudaibiya and Omratu Alkada’a or forging treaties with other tribes as in the Ghazua of Dhi Alasheera. Still, it is worthy of mention that ‘when Muhammad (pbuh) ³ brought his revelation to his people, Arabia was outside the civilized world and its political and social order was disintegrating. Christianity, however, came to birth in the Roman Empire, which imposed, however, brutally, a certain peace and social security. Jesus and St Paul did not have to worry about the social and political order because it was already set up while in Arabia an unprotected man could be killed with impunity on the road’. ⁴ 

THE SUFFERING OF THE PROPHET (PBUH)

 In a nutshell, any warfare that broke out in the Prophet’s era was merely a by-product of historical circumstances. When Muhammad first began preaching in response to receiving divine revelation, he became the butt of insults and slurs. His followers were regularly beaten and tortured by their Meccan opponents, with virtually no recourse for the injurious treatment they received; but that is not all; some of them were even killed simply for reverting to Islam. After the death of his uncle, Abu talib who used to shield him, Muhammad (pbuh) became helpless. He spent a pretty long time searching in vain for a protector, facing all types of humiliation until he met a group of 6 Arab pagans from Medina who, after being told about his mission and listening to the Quran, believed in him as a messenger of God at once, with great hopes for Medina. At this point, Medina was an oasis where its heterogeneous ‘tribal groups lived check by jowl in a state of deadly hostility in their hamlets.’ ⁵  The six pilgrims from Medina saw that as a prophet of God, he will be an impartial leader who would be able to unite all these tribes putting a stop to the cycle of violence they are caught up in. The next year, the six converts from Medina   returned to Mecca and gave allegiance to the prophet (pbuh). Such a meeting became known as First Aqaba. It appeared that ‘the old paganism had failed to solve the crisis in Yathrib (Medina) and people  were ready for a new ideology’.⁶  The people of Medina selected Muhammad (pbuh) willingly, which negates that what is mentioned about Muhammad (pbuh) concerning his use of religion as a means to power is an absolute distortion of the truth.

THE PROPHET (PBUH) NARROWLY ESCAPED DEATH & FLED TO MEDINA

 Aware that the Meccan pagans were virtually plotting against his life and that he narrowly escaped death, Muhammad (pbuh) eventually took the decision of fleeing to Medina in an attempt to bring an end to the years of persecution and defeat he endured. Soon after he settled in Medina, he established the constitution of Medina so that the Muslims would live peacefully with the pagans and Jews of Medina. Besides, he drew up a treaty particularly with the Jews providing full freedom in faith and wealth. It was comprised of various clauses according to one of which the Jews should back up the Muslims if attacked by a third party and vise versa. Plus they ‘should boycott Quraish (Meccans) commercially and abstain from extending any support to them’.⁷

THE JEWISH TRIBES OF MEDINA BREACHED THE COVENANT OF NON-AGGRESSION

 Nevertheless, the three Jewish tribes breached the covenant of co-operation and non-aggression. The Qainuqa’ tribe was the first, which led to the Banu Qainuqa’ Ghazua. It all started when one of the Jewish goldsmiths played a trick on a Muslim woman trading there, which caused her exposing herself involuntarily. Consequently, one of the Muslims leaped on the goldsmith with rage, the fighting between them intensified, and both of them were killed. Casualties were thus equal and Muhammad (pbuh) was called in to restore the peace; but the Jews refused to accept his arbitration, barricaded themselves into their fortress and called upon their Arab allies to come to their aid. Ultimately, they were expelled out of Arabia, without a combat. 

 Two years later, the other Jewish tribe, Banu Alnadir conspired to assassinate the prophet (pbuh). Realizing their wicked intentions, he gave them an ultimatum: they have to leave Medina within 10 days or the death penalty will be imposed on them; they are convicted of high treason. Though the prophet (pbuh) gave them a chance to depart, they resorted to their castles and started shooting arrows and pelting stones at the Muslims. After about two weeks of the siege, they surrendered begging only that Muhammad (pbuh) should spare their lives; he agreed and they left immediately. The incident was called the Banu Alnadir Ghazua.

 After a year or so, the Nadir tribe negotiated an alliance with the Meccans provoking them to attack the Muslims. Hence, ‘the Meccans and their confederates were on the march with an army of 10,000 while Muhammad (pbuh) could muster only about 3,000 men from Medina’ ⁸, which  makes the confrontation utterly inequitable. What made matters even worse was that the chief of Alnadir tribe, Huyai, tried to get the Jewish tribe of Qurayzah, in the south of Medina, to let them into the city. The chief of the Qurayza tribe, Ka’ab, refused in the beginning since there was a pact between him and the prophet (pbuh) to run to his aid in times of war; but Huyai was clever enough to manipulate Ka’ab. The treachery of the Qurayzah tribe placed the muslims in a real predicament. After the Muslims’ victory, the tribe of Qurayza knew that as unfaithful allies, they could expect no mercy. The prophet (pbuh) anyway did not take the initiative and gave a verdict on their act but instead he asked them if they would accept the decision of Sa’d Bin Mu’adh, one of their former allies and they agreed. Sa’d judged that all their warriors will be sentenced to death for their treachery during wartime. Such a happening was named Banu Qurayza Ghazua.

MORTALITY RATE IN THE BATTLES WAS LOW!!

‘The Qu’ran teaches that war is always abominable. Muslims must never open hostilities, for the only just war is a war of self-defense, but once they have undertaken a war, Muslims must fight with absolute commitment in order to bring the fighting to an end as soon as possible. If the enemy proposes a truce or shows an inclination towards peace, Muslims are commanded by the Qu’ran to end hostilities immediately, provided that the terms of peace are not immoral or dishonorable’. ⁹ The Prophet Muhammad and his companions were never the type who goes to war on account of a thirst for blood, claiming as many lives as they could. This is not so; as far as this issue is concerned, Dr. Muhamad Emara conducted a research endeavoring to work out the rate of mortality wrought by the battles that broke out in Arabia over about ten years starting from preaching Islam in Medina till the death of the prophet (pbuh); He concluded that the number of war fatalities was 183 Muslims and 203 non-Muslims, which is relatively a small number. ¹⁰ 

 WARS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH COMPELLING PEOPLE TO ENTER ISLAM!!

 One last thing! Wars were never waged for the sake of converting people to Islam by force. When an armistice was stipulated as an outcome of negotiations in Alhudaibiya incident- also called  Alhudaibiya Ghazua – after the Meccans prevented the Muslims, who marched out to Mecca with no intention of fighting, from doing pilgrimage, twice as many people entered Islam than ever before only within two years, rising from 1,400 to 10,000 Muslims. Their conversion was out of conviction, not out of compulsion since peace prevailed at the time and there was an opportunity for people to meet and consult together. In brief, wars had nothing to do with that. Freedom in religion is a main element in the Islamic teachings. ¹¹

1.Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, 2001.

2.Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, 2001.

3.“pbuh” is a contraction that stands for peace be upon him.

4.Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, 2001.

5.Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, 2001.

6.Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, 2001.

7.Al-Mubarakpuri, Safiur-Rahman. The Sealed Nectar. Darussalam, 2002.

8.Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, 2001.

9.Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, 2001.

10.Dr. Emmara, Muhamad. The West and Islam.

11.Allah said in the Qura’an:

“Then whosoever wills, let him believe (in Islam), and whosoever wills, let him disbelieve  (in Islam)” [18:29]

“There is no compulsion in religion.” [2:256]

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