LESSON 7
JIHĀDIn Medina Muhammad was the leader of the Emigrants (muhājirūn) from Mecca and only an arbiter of the Medinans. He was accepted as a prophet in the sense that he had religious experiences like so many other men, and could preach about the religion and morality. It took time for him to consolidate his political and prophetic authority.
Almost immediately Muhammad made a treaty (the "Constitution of Medina") establishing peace between the Medinan factions and outlining the rights and duties of all, including the Jews. He arranged for the support of the Emigrants by pairing each with a Medinan host. He also organized times for prayer, adding the midday prayer (Q 2:238).
A crisis developed because many accepted Muhammad as no more than an arbiter. "When Islam became the public religion the people agreed upon, these were compelled to pretend to be Muslims to avoid being killed, but they held a different view in private". These were called the Hypocrites (munāfiqūn; Q 63 etc.).
Although the treaty said that the Jews "are one community with the believers, while they have their religion and the Muslims have theirs", later events indicate that Muhammad expected the Jews to combine their own religion with recognition of him as a prophet. In any case, Muhammad came to see that any challenge to his claim to be a prophet would undermine his overall authority in Medina.
At first Muhammad had hopes of winning the Jews. Friday was chosen as a day of common prayer, coinciding with the gathering of the people for market in preparation for the Sabbath. The qibla, or direction of prayer, was towards Jerusalem. Muslims were permitted to eat food prepared by Jews, and the main Jewish dietary prohibitions, such as of pork, also applied to Muslims. Muhammad claimed the title not merely of rasūl ("messenger") but also that of nabī, the Hebrew term for a prophet. The two religions seemed equal and parallel.
Since very few Jews accepted him as a prophet, Muhammad transformed his case, arguing that Judaism and Christianity were imperfect early stages of revealed religion, while Islam was the perfect and final stage. He insisted that his coming was prophesied in the Torah, which described and mentioned him by name. He accused the Jews of deliberate bad faith in rejecting or concealing what their own Scripture said about him. He even asserted that by not recognizing him the Jews were breaking their covenant with God (Q 2:40). The Jews replied, "No covenant was ever made with us about Muhammad", but Muhammad insisted there was (Q 2:100). He attacked the Jews and Christians who claimed to have Moses or Jesus, by claiming Abraham for himself, who antedated Moses and Jesus: "Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a hanīf" (a traditional monotheist, Q 3:67; compare Romans 4).
Since Muhammad's best arguments did not convince the Jews, he threatened them with eternal hell-fire. In the meantime, even though their lives and property were to be respected as long as they were not actively hostile, the Muslims were warned against taking them as friends or allies (Q 3:118-19; 5:62; 2:1-100). Muhammad was afraid of the Jews' influence on the Medinan Muslims whom he was moulding into a single party with a single ideology. This explains his extreme anger at a whispered conversation the Jews and some Hypocrites were having one day in the mosque, and he had them dragged out. An end to the attempt to woo the Jews was marked by the change of the qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca at the beginning of the 17th month of Muhammad's stay in Medina (Q 2:144).
In April 623 Muhammad began normal married life with `Ā'isha, whom he had married a few years before. The difference was great between a man of 53 and a girl of 9 who continued to play with her dolls, but such a marriage was not shocking in the Arabian society of his time. `Ā'isha never bore children. Yet she was the leading woman in Muslim political life for years after Muhammad's death.
Around August 623 Muhammad gave his daughter Fātima in marriage to his cousin `Alī. Fātima had two children, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, and only through them did Muhammad have a lasting line of descendants.
The Emigrants in Medina were guests and, apart from menial jobs and petty trading, they had no means of support. If steps were not taken to provide for them they would very quickly be looked on as unwelcome parasites. The Arabian custom of raiding unprotected caravans was an answer. Besides yielding booty, such raids would force the Emigrants and the Medinans to cooperate, and thus consolidate Muhammad's power.
Religion transformed raiding into jihād. This meant a "striving" for the sake of God, normally by force of arms, although later Muslims also speak of a spiritual jihād of the heart or of the tongue which is more valuable before God. The Qur'ān justifies Muslim raids as retaliation upon the Meccans for driving the Muslims from house and home. The Muslims took the offensive to recuperate what was rightfully theirs. Besides, the Qur'ān envisages the establishment of a society in which Islam is supreme: "Fight them [the pagans] until there is no more scandal and all religion belongs to God" (8:39). "Fight those Scripturary people who do not believe in God and the Last Day and do not forbid what God and his Messenger forbid and do not practice the true religion, until they pay the jizya-tax with their own hands in a state of humiliation" (9:29). It was natural for Muslims to understand these passages as a mandate to extend Islamic rule as far as they could beyond Arabia (2:190, 4:74-77,84,89 ff, 5:35, 8:38-9, 9:13,29, 22:39-40, 47:4, 61:10 ff).
After a few inconclusive raids, Muhammad sent small group under `Abdallāh ibn-Jash. He wrote a letter for him and told him not to look at it until he had travelled for two days. Then he should look at it and do what he was ordered to do, but not put pressure on his companions. The letter told him to go to Nakhla and lie in wait for the Meccans and find out what they are doing. The raiders said, "If you leave them alone tonight they will get into the sacred area and will be safe from you; and if you kill them, you will kill them in the sacred month." After some hesitation they attacked and killed one man and captured two, while another escaped. The violation of the sacred month embarrassed Muhammad, who said, "I did not order you to fight in the sacred month." Then the Muslims became discouraged and afraid, and the Jews began to taunt them, until the matter was resolved by a Qur'ān verse justifying it (2:217). So the booty was kept and the prisoners were held as hostages until ransom was paid for them.
Next, with about 300 men Muhammad attacked a Meccan caravan at Badr. The Meccans learned of the intended attack and had about 700 men ready to fight. The battle took place on Friday morning, the 17th of Ramadān. Muhammad incited his men saying, "If any of you fight courageously today, advancing and not retreating, and is killed, God will bring him into Paradise" (Q 47:4-6). `Umayr ibn-al-Humām said, "Very well! Is being killed by these people all that is required to enter Paradise?" Then he took his sword and fought until he was killed.
Then the Messenger of God took some pebbles and faced the Meccans saying, "Your faces be deformed," and threw the pebbles at them. Then he ordered his companions to attack. The enemy was defeated. God killed many of their chiefs and made captive many of their nobles.Altogether the Meccans lost from 45 to 70 men at Badr, and 68 or 69 prisoners, against the Muslims' loss of 14 men. The Muslim success did not win the war but it gave them a stronger hand. The victory was taken as a sign of God's blessing on Islam and was attributed to the help of angels: "The angels did not fight in any battle but Badr. In other battles they were on hand as reinforcements but did not fight" (Q 8:9).
The Muslims quarrelled about their shares of the booty (Q 8:41), until Muhammad collected it and divided it equally, keeping a fifth for himself. Meanwhile, in Medina Muhammad's daughter Ruqayya died, who had been married to `Uthmān ibn-`Affān. Many prisoners were held for ransom, but two poets who tried to discredit Muhammad's claim to prophecy were executed. Before being killed, one of them said, "Muhammad, who will look after my children?" He answered, "The Fire." Intellectual or literary opposition such as theirs Muhammad could never tolerate or pardon.
Among the prisoners was Abū-l-`Ās ibn-ar-Rabī`, a wealthy man and the husband of Muhammad's daughter Zaynab. Khadīja, his aunt, used to regard him as her son. When Muhammad began to preach publicly the Meccans told Abū-l-`Ās, "Divorce your wife and we will give you any Quraysh woman you like." He refused, and Muhammad praised his son-in-law for this. When the Meccans sent ransom for their prisoners, Zaynab, daughter of the Messenger of God, sent a ransom for Abū-l-`Ās including a necklace given to her by Khadīja as a wedding present. When Muhammad saw that, he was greatly moved and said, "If you would like to let her have her captive husband back and return the ransom to her, do so." The people said, "Yes, Messenger of God." So they let him go and returned the ransom.
Muhammad then sent for Zaynab to join him in Medina. Leaving her husband, she set out for Medina in the company of her brother-in-law. The Meccans pursued them, and one threatened her with his lance. She was pregnant, and the fright made her have a miscarriage. The Meccans demanded that she return, but later allowed her to leave secretly. Muhammad was furious at the treatment of his daughter and the loss of his grandchild, and ordered the death of the guilty.
Six years later Abū-l-`Ās went to Syria to trade. On his way back, a Muslim raiding party took everything he had, while he escaped. Abū-l-`Ās then came to Medina by night looking for his property, and went to Zaynab, asking for a warrant of protection. She gave it and Muhammad told everybody: "The least Muslim can give a warrant of protection on behalf of the community." Then he told his daughter, "Honour your guest, but do not let him approach you, because you are not lawful to him." At Muhammad's request, the raiders restored his goods in their entirety, withholding nothing. Abū-l-`Ās went to Mecca, paid his debts and then returned to Medina as a Muslim. Muhammad restored his wife Zaynab to him without any further ceremony.
This story is the basis for the Islamic law forbidding marriage with non-Muslim women (Q 2:221), except Jews or Christians (Q 5:5), and dissolving the marriage of two non-Muslims if one of them becomes Muslim, unless the wife is a Jew or a Christian.
QUESTIONS
- Explain why the Jews and the Hypocrites were Muhammad's greatest problem once he got to Medina.
- Explain why jihād became a necessity for the young Muslim community, and what were the incentives to take part in it.
- How did marriages in Muhammad's family serve the cause of Islam?
«Back West Africa and Islam Lesson 8»