this religion has never been unjust to anyone; rather, justice is
the slogan of Islam which was, for the first time in history, realized and
practiced in the most perfect form and at the loftiest level by our Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Let's start from a further point in history
when Jews were not there in the Arabian Peninsula. Like any other immigrants,
the Jews came to the Arabian Peninsula from somewhere else, most probably the
Levant area. In their march into the peninsula, some of them stopped at one
point in Khaybar and Fadak and preferred to stay there while others decided to
continue journeying till they settled in the city of Yathrib, which came to be
known afterwards as Madinah. Therefore, referring to Arabia and especially
Madinah as their motherland is questionable.
From the very beginning, the
Jews started to develop a kind of relation with their Arab neighbors that was
not always peaceful. Of course, they knew the language and the second and third
Jewish generations knew the language. But they were still classed as Jews and
not as either Aws or Khazraj, the two main tribes that existed in Madinah at
that time.
The three main concentrations of the Madinan Jews were known
as three distinguished tribes: Banu An-Nadir, Banu Quraizhah and Banu Qaynuqa`.
These three ghettos were unique in many ways, including avoiding mixed marriage
with the Arabs.
In their dialogues with the Arabs, the Jews kept telling
them that soon there would appear a prophet from among themselves and that he
would lead them to humiliate the Arab idolaters. They kept on repeating this
Jewish dream in front of their fellow residents until Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) appeared and came to Madinah. Thereupon, everything changed because
they started to deny their dream and claimed that he was not the long-awaited
prophet but just a pseudo-prophet, completing a package of falsifications woven
by their Arab contemporaries.
They knew in their hearts that he was a
prophet and not a liar, yet they opted to be arrogant rather than surrender to
the truth. They wondered why the long-awaited prophet came from the Arabs. In
the Jews' opinion, they themselves were the most deserving of that honor, and as
they saw it jumping in someone else's lap, they decided to destroy
it.
Two of their rabbis were conversing when the Prophet reached Madinah
and one of them said to the other, "Is that him?" i.e., is he the prophet? And
the other answered, "Yes, it is him." The other continued, "Are you sure it is
him?" and the answer came, "By God, I know him as much as I know my own son."
"So what will you do with him?" And the final answer came, "I will bear enmity
to him till my death." (Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakfuri, Ar-Rahiq Al-Makhtum, Dar
As-Salam, 1998, p. 145)
When the Prophet settled in Madinah, he
wanted to create a cooperating human community and establish an exemplary civil
society at a time when these poor Arabs could never imagine what a civil society
could mean. So for the first time in history, he established the pact of Madinah
or what I like to call the constitution of coexistence.
In this
constitution, all signing parties — including Muslims, Jews, and other (pagan)
Arabs — agreed that they would live in Madinah together as a society and would
defend it in case of an attack and would never help any outsider against any of
the other signing parts and would never betray the agreement.
Yet, at the
first juncture, the Jews started disrupting the society when one of them,
knowing he was backed by others, attacked a Muslim woman who went to buy
something from a Jewish shop in the Jewish district of Banu Qaynuqa`. They
simply created chaos and disruption in the society (Saifur Rahman
al-Mubarakfuri, Ar-Rahiq Al-Makhtum, Dar As-Salam, 1998. p. 191).
In
order to stop the chaos and let society enjoy the peacefulness reached in the
agreement, the Prophet gave them the option to leave Madinah or else people
whose children were killed would start avenging them. The decision was they
would leave, and that was really the best and easiest option. It needed no
justification because their offense was very clear.
The relationship
between the Jews of Banu An-Nadir and the Arabs was not much better. Banu
An-Nadir conspired to kill the Prophet when he was going to talk with them.
Imagine how you would feel, Mohsin, if you were visiting one of your friends and
he was preparing to kill you at his house instead of offering you food and
hosting you. Imagine if he met you with a conspiracy rather than with
hospitality. The threat here was against the leader of the Muslim community and
the head of the state; it was actually a conspiracy that reflected how much
hatred they bore for the Prophet and how betraying they were.
Thereupon,
they had to leave, not because of the Prophet but because of their own
handiwork. The Qur'an tells us at the beginning of Surat Al-Hashr that the
believers never imagined that the Jews would leave Madinah and were not even
planning for that, but the Jews themselves brought that to themselves. And when
the Prophet gave them the option, they chose to leave. Actually, that was the
least punishment they could get.
Banu Quraizhah, on the other hand,
remained in Madinah, but again they did not keep their word and breached the
agreement. They helped a confederate army consisting of Quraish and other Arab
idolaters who came to attack Madinah.
The Muslim army, which by the
highest estimates was only one thousand-strong, was facing a ten thousand-strong
army in full arms. The Muslims had to dig a trench in a desperate attempt to
defend themselves, and all of a sudden, they discovered that their fellow
citizens (the Jews), who were entrusted to defend from the back, were actually
helping the enemy.
It was the mercy of Allah that the confederates left
without fighting and He blew fear into their hearts, but the unforgivable
offense of these betraying Jews was not to pass unnoticed. The kind Prophet went
to them and asked them to choose someone who would issue a judgment in their
case. Banu Quraizhah chose Sa`d ibn Mu`adh because they knew he was their friend
and would be fair with them. Sa`d chose a verdict from their own holy
scriptures, the Torah: that the men were to be killed and the women and children
were to be enslaved.
Thereupon, many Companions of the Prophet, driven by
mercy, told them that they could intercede and get them an amnesty from the
Prophet. But Banu Quraizhah said,
"No, we will never violate the judgment of
the Torah." Actually, this verdict given by Sa`d is purely from the Torah, and
no similar punishment can be found in any Islamic source. Some of them chose to
seek forgiveness and were exempted from killing, but many others chose to die to
apply the Torah. If they had chosen the merciful Prophet, he would have forgiven
them, but arrogance took them to their destiny.
Even the Jews who went to
settle up north with their fellows in Khaybar, did not stop conspiring and
stirring enmity against the emerging little Muslim community in Madinah. These
actions reached such a degree that we can conclude that, like any criminal, they
were a massive threat to the public security of the society and were to be dealt
with accordingly.
Brother Mohsen Haredy, a member of the Ask About Islam
team, would like to add the following:
As for the Prophet's treatment of
the Jews in general, there are many examples that show his kindness to them. For
example, a young Jewish boy used to serve the Prophet and he became sick, and so
the Prophet went to visit him.
It is reported that a funeral of a Jew
passed before the Prophet (peace be upon him). As a sign of respect, the Prophet
stood up. The Prophet was asked "Why did you stand up for a Jewish funeral?" The
Prophet replied, "Is it not a human soul?" (Al-Bukhari).
It is reported
that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had a Jewish neighbor who used to
throw garbage in his way, but when the Prophet heard one day that the neighbor
was sick he went to visit him.
In order to show his nearness to the Jews,
the Prophet married Safiyyah bint Huyay, daughter of the chief of the Jewish
tribe of Banu An-Nadir. She was captured during the Battle of Khaybar. As an
honorable gesture showing the magnanimity of Islam, the Prophet freed and
married her.
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موضوع: Was the Prophet Unjust to the Jews ? The answer 
الجمعة 06 فبراير 2009, 22:17
