What a guy! Drink, feast and girls
playing music present a jolly character of Abu Jahl, who cared less about a
complicated life. Abu Jahl is probably the most hated name in Islam. Muslims
have pictured him as an evil man in the history. It’s true Abu Jahl humiliated
Muhammad in
Mecca
, but only in response to Muhammad’s deliberate insult to the Gods of Quraish.
Abu Jahl was beheaded in this battle and his head was, literally, rolled to
Muhammad’s feet. Apart from the character analysis of Abu Jahl, the whole
situation points to one obvious proof: Quraish, by no means, were offensive and
had no plan to attack or kill Muhammad.
When Abu Sufyan
thought he had successfully evaded the robbers, he send message to the Quraish
who had come to protect him and his caravan to return home. They decided to put
an end to the marauding attacks of Muhammad and meet him at Badr anyway.
Muhammad was still resting in a temporary hut made by his supporters. With his
blessing and the green signal, armed robbers of Islam immediately attacked the
caravan; two of them were carrying two black flags. Although it’s not
mentioned anywhere in Islamic scriptures, I am confident that each of those two
black flags was engraved with a skull and two bones. They plundered the caravan,
killed mercilessly, looted all precious goods and took prisoners to make more
money as ransom.
Another important
aspect of this raid was the ratio of Muslims and Quraish. All historians agree
that Quraish outnumbered Muslims at three to one. So, Muslims inadvertently
claim it must be a miracle that fewer Muslims defeated a large number of Quraish.
Allah was kind enough to support these robbers by sending thousands and
thousands of angels, as he claimed in sura ‘Al-Anfal’. This is an
interesting sura of the Quran: ‘Al-Anfal’, which means ‘spoils of war’
or ‘booty’, is indeed suggestive and all 75 verses of this sura were made in
relating to the Battle of Badr or robbery at Badr, to be exact.
Imagine cheerleader
Allah inspiring the Muslims from the sideline of the battle: ‘Go Muslims, Go,
kill and plunder’. Well, the actual verse is worse than what I imitated. Allah
applauded in verse
8:12
- “Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message):
"I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instill terror into
the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their
fingertips off them."
The reason of
victory was not a miracle. Usually, robbers and murderers are more desperate
than normal people. They have nothing to lose if they are caught so they take a
chance. We often see dozens of police officers chasing a handful of bank
robbers; still, they manage to escape after committing the crime. Most
importantly, it was a win-win situation for the Muslims who fought at Badr. If
they died they were promised to go to heaven, which is full of see-through
virgins; if they survived they would receive the spoils of war. Fleeing from the
battle was not a good option, either. While explaining the sura An-Anfal, Ibn
Kathir confirms in the ‘tafsir’,
“Fleeing from
Battle
is prohibited, and it’s Punishment: Allah said, while warning against fleeing
from the battlefield and threatening those who do it with the Fire.”
In contrast, the
people of Quraish were reluctant to fight. They had no intention of shedding
blood if their property was safe. When the people of Quraish were asked to
fight, they said they wanted to avoid the war. Ishaq describes, “So, all
went; not of their nobles remained behind except Abu Lahab. He sent in his place
al-As b. Hisham al-Mughira, who owed him four thousand dirhams, which he could
not pay. So he hired him with them on the condition that he should be cleared of
his debt (Ishaq 432). It clearly shows that the people of Quraish were not
bloodthirsty, as Muhammad was; they merely wanted to bring their caravan to
safety. They were also worried that another tribe of ‘Abdu Manat b. Kinana’,
with whom they had quarreled, may attack them from the rear.
“Booty” is a
contemporary slang that refers to butt. There is a nice song, “Shake, Shake,
Shake (Shake your booty)”. In this song, the singer inspires the audience to
shake their butts and dance. However, Webster’s dictionary defines booty as,
“That which is seized by violence or obtained by robbery, especially
collective spoil taken in war; plunder; pillage.” Apparently, Mohammad was
also fond of booty most of his life; he shook his booty to earn booty. He
profusely claimed, “Booty has been made legal for me. (Narrated Jabir bin
Abdullah): (Khumus, Sahi Bukhari). Also in the Quran, 008.069. “But
(now) enjoy what ye took in war, lawful and good: but fear Allah: for Allah is
Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.”
After the
successful robbery, the outlaws of ‘Wild Wild Arabia’ confronted each other
over their share of the looted goods. Just like we see in action movies, one
criminal tries to cheat the others to have all the wealth. Ishaq describes, “Then
the apostle ordered that everything that had been collected in the camp should
be brought together, and Muslims quarreled about it. ….” (Ishaq:
456).
Allah,
the shadow of Muhammad, had to make a special verse, Q 8:01. “They
ask thee (O Muhammad) of the spoils of war. Say: The spoils of war belong to
Allah and the messenger, so keep your duty to Allah, and adjust the matter of
your difference, and obey Allah and His messenger, if ye are (true)
believers.” Allah continues
(Q.8:41), “And know that out of all the booty that ye may acquire (in war),
a fifth share is assigned to Allah,- and to the Messenger, and to near
relatives, orphans, the needy, and the wayfarer,……..” It’s beyond
anyone’s imagination that God would be greedy enough to take a share of the
booty. What the heck will God do with a piece of jewelry? Well, it
unquestionably helped Muhammad to support his dozens of wives and run the
administration. What an innovative way of earning revenue for a government!
Another prominent
and contemporary Muslim scholar, Muhammad al-Ghazali (1917-1996, not the
theologian of the twelfth century), writes in his book, ‘Journey through the
Quran’, “It is clear that gaining booty in the struggle to Islam,
fighting against the enemies of Allah and his messenger, has always been a major
means of livelihood for Muslims in situations when the Muslim community
is truly fulfilling its role of ensuring ‘the deen is Allah’s alone….”
(p.110).
Quraish people
surely knew Muhammad very well. They used to call him ‘Mudhammam’,
which means a troublemaker or a rascal, instead of Muhammad, meaning the
laudable (Ishaq: 234).
It
was all about money, power and greed for Muhammad. Religion was simply a tool
and an incentive for the mercenaries of Islam, provoking them to sacrifice their
lives without hesitation. Muslims
of today do not see any problem in Muhammad’s action. Raiding the caravan,
killing and kidnapping by the prophet have been justified because it was
necessary to establish Islam. Allah, the fantasized figure of Muhammad,
validated all unholy scams into holy acts. It’s mind-boggling how a God can
approve those crimes and how a prophet can commit such crimes to spread a
religion!
Is
it only me who sees 1.2 billion pre-programmed robots, without any gray cells
beneath their skull?
< back
|