The History of Jihad- From Muhammad to ISIS

by Robert Spencer

  The Quraysh added: “You must retire from us this year and not enter Mecca against our will, and next year we will make way for you and you can enter it with your companions and stay there three nights. You may carry a rider’s weapons, the swords in their sheaths. You can bring in nothing more.”64

  Muhammad shocked his men by agreeing that those fleeing the Quraysh and seeking refuge with the Muslims would be returned to the Quraysh, while those fleeing the Muslims and seeking refuge with the Quraysh would not be returned to the Muslims.

  Muhammad insisted that the Muslims had been victorious despite all appearances to the contrary, and Allah confirmed this view in a new revelation: “Indeed, We have given you a clear conquest.” (Qur’an 48:1) As if in compensation, Allah promised new spoils to the Muslims: “Certainly was Allah pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquillity upon them and rewarded them with an imminent conquest and much war booty which they will take. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise. Allah has promised you much booty that you will take and has hastened this for you and withheld the hands of people from you—that it may be a sign for the believers and He may guide you to a straight path.” (Qur’an 48:18–20)

  Soon after this promise was made, a Quraysh woman, Umm Kulthum, joined the Muslims in Medina; her two brothers came to Muhammad, asking that she be returned “in accordance with the agreement between him and the Quraysh at Hudaybiya.”65 But Muhammad refused. He was following Allah’s orders: “O you who have believed, when the believing women come to you as emigrants, examine them. Allah is most knowing as to their faith. And if you know them to be believers, then do not return them to the disbelievers; they are not lawful for them, nor are they lawful for them.” This odd locution is generally understood as meaning that neither wives nor husbands are lawful for the disbelievers.

  The passage continues: “But give the disbelievers what they have spent. And there is no blame upon you if you marry them when you have given them their due compensation. And hold not to marriage bonds with disbelieving women, but ask for what you have spent and let them ask for what they have spent. That is the judgment of Allah; He judges between you. And Allah is Knowing and Wise.” (Qur’an 60:10)

  In refusing to send Umm Kulthum back to the Quraysh, Muhammad broke the treaty, claiming that the treaty stipulated that the Muslims would return to the Quraysh any man who came to them, not any woman.66 However, Muhammad soon began to accept men from the Quraysh as well, thus definitively breaking the treaty.67 The breaking of the treaty in this way would reinforce the principle that nothing was good except what was advantageous to Islam, and nothing evil except what hindered Islam.

  THE KHAYBAR RAID

  Allah had promised the Muslims disgruntled by the Treaty of Hudaybiyya “much booty” (Qur’an 48:19). To fulfill this promise, Muhammad led them against the Khaybar oasis, which was inhabited by Jews—many of them exiles from Medina. One of the Muslims later remembered: “When the apostle raided a people he waited until the morning. If he heard a call to prayer he held back; if he did not hear it he attacked. We came to Khaybar by night, and the apostle passed the night there; and when morning came he did not hear the call to prayer, so he rode and we rode with him.… We met the workers of Khaybar coming out in the morning with their spades and baskets. When they saw the apostle and the army they cried, ‘Muhammad with his force,’ and turned tail and fled. The apostle said, ‘Allah Akbar! Khaybar is destroyed. When we arrive in a people’s square it is a bad morning for those who have been warned.’”68

  The Muslim advance was inexorable. “The apostle,” according to Ibn Ishaq, “seized the property piece by piece and conquered the forts one by one as he came to them.”69 Ibn Sa’d reports that the battle was fierce: the “polytheists…killed a large number of [Muhammad’s] Companions and he also put to death a very large number of them.… He killed ninety-three men of the Jews.”70 Muhammad and his men offered the fajr prayer, the Islamic dawn prayer, before it was light, and then entered Khaybar itself. The Muslims immediately set out to locate the inhabitants’ wealth. A Jewish leader of Khaybar, Kinana bin al-Rabi, was brought before Muhammad; Kinana was supposed to have been entrusted with the treasure of the Banu Nadir. Kinana denied knowing where this treasure was, but Muhammad pressed him: “Do you know that if we find you have it I shall kill you?” Kinana said yes, that he did know that.

  Some of the treasure was found. To find the rest, Muhammad gave orders concerning Kinana: “Torture him until you extract what he has.” One of the Muslims built a fire on Kinana’s chest, but Kinana would not give up his secret. When he was at the point of death, Muhammad bin Maslama, killer of the poet Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf, beheaded him.71

  Muhammad agreed to let the people of Khaybar go into exile, allowing them, as he had the Banu Nadir, to keep as much of their property as they could carry.72 The Prophet of Islam, however, commanded them to leave behind all of their gold and silver.73 He had intended to expel all of them, but some farmers begged him to let them stay if they gave him half their yield annually.74 Muhammad agreed: “I will allow you to continue here, so long as we would desire.”75 He warned them: “If we wish to expel you we will expel you.”76 They no longer had any rights that did not depend upon the goodwill and sufferance of Muhammad and the Muslims. And indeed, when the Muslims discovered some treasure that some of the Khaybar Jews had hidden, he ordered the women of the tribe enslaved and seized the perpetrators’ land.77 A hadith notes that “the Prophet had their warriors killed, their offspring and woman taken as captives.”78

  During the caliphate of Umar (634–644), the Jews who remained at Khaybar were banished to Syria, and the rest of their land was seized.79 To this day, Muslims warn Jews of impending massacres by chanting, “Khaybar, Khaybar. O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.”

  MUHAMMAD’S SEX SLAVE

  One of the Muslim warriors, Dihya ibn Khalifa, came to Muhammad and said: “O Allah’s Prophet! Give me a slave girl from the captives.” The Prophet of Islam was agreeable, telling Dihya: “Go and take any slave girl.” Dihya chose a woman named Safiyya bint Huyayy.80 Safiyya was the daughter of Huyayy bin Akhtab, who had induced the Banu Qurayzah Jews to repudiate their alliance with Muhammad. Muhammad had killed Huyayy along with the rest of the men of the Qurayzah. Safiyya’s husband was Kinana ibn Rabi, who had just been tortured and killed by the warriors of jihad. Once captured herself, she had won the admiration of the warriors of Islam, who told their prophet: “We have not seen the like of her among the captives of war.”81 One man added: “O Allah’s Messenger! You gave Safiyya bint Huyai to Dihya and she is the chief-mistress of [the ladies] of the tribes of Quraiza and An-Nadir, she befits none but you.”82

  Muhammad accordingly called for Dihya and Safiyya. When the Prophet of Islam saw Safiyya, he told Dihya: “Take any slave girl other than her from the captives.” Muhammad then immediately freed her and married her himself—since she agreed to convert to Islam, she was able to be elevated beyond the position of a slave. That night Safiyya was dressed as a bride, and a wedding feast was hastily arranged. On the way out of Khaybar that night, Muhammad halted his caravan as soon as they were outside the oasis, pitched a tent, and consummated the marriage.83 Safiyya went from being the wife of a Jewish chieftain to being the wife of the man who murdered her father and husband in a single day.

  TAKING MECCA

  Muhammad then marched on Mecca with an army of, according to some reports, ten thousand Muslims.84 When the Meccans saw the size of their force, which Muhammad exaggerated by ordering his men to build many extra fires during the night as his men were assembled outside the city, they knew that all was lost. Many of the most notable Quraysh warriors now deserted and, converting to Islam, joined Muhammad’s forces. As they advanced, they were met by Abu Sufyan himself, who had opposed Muhammad bitterly as a leader of the Quraysh; but now Abu Sufyan
wanted to become a Muslim. Allowed into Muhammad’s presence, Abu Sufyan recited a poem that included these lines:

  I was like one going astray in the darkness of the night,

  But now I am led on the right track.

  I could not guide myself, and he who with God overcame me

  Was he whom I had driven away with all my might.

  According to Ibn Ishaq, when he got to the lines “he who with God overcame me / Was he whom I had driven away with all my might,” Muhammad “punched him in the chest and said, ‘You did indeed!’ ”85 But when Muhammad said, “Woe to you, Abu Sufyan, isn’t it time that you recognize that I am God’s apostle?” Abu Sufyan replied, “As to that I still have some doubt.”86

  At that, one of Muhammad’s lieutenants, Abbas, said to Abu Sufyan: “Submit and testify that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the apostle of God before you lose your head.” Abu Sufyan complied.87

  When Muhammad “forced his entry” into Mecca, according to Ibn Sa’d, “the people embraced Islam willingly or unwillingly.”88 The Prophet of Islam ordered the Muslims to fight only those individuals or groups who resisted their advance into the city—except for a list of people who were to be killed, even if they had sought sanctuary in the Ka’bah itself.89

  CONSOLIDATING POWER IN ARABIA

  Muhammad was the master of Mecca, but there was one additional great obstacle between him and mastery of all Arabia. Malik ibn Awf, a member of the Thaqif tribe of the city of Ta’if, south of Mecca, began to assemble a force to fight the Muslims. The people of Ta’if had rejected Muhammad and treated him shabbily when he presented his prophetic claim to them ten years earlier. They had always been rivals of the Quraysh and viewed the conversion of the latter to Islam with disdain. Malik assembled a force and marched out to face the Muslims; Muhammad met him with an army twelve thousand strong, saying, “We shall not be worsted today for want of numbers.”90

  The two forces met at a wadi—a dry riverbed—called Hunayn, near Mecca. Malik and his men arrived first and took up positions that gave them an immense tactical advantage. The Muslims, despite their superior numbers, were routed. As they broke ranks and fled, Muhammad called out: “Where are you going, men? Come to me. I am God’s apostle. I am Muhammad the son of Abdullah.”91 Some of the Muslims did take heart, and gradually the tide began to turn—although with tremendous loss of life on both sides.

  The Muslims eventually prevailed, wiping out the last major force that stood between the Prophet of Islam and mastery of Arabia. After the battle, Muhammad received another revelation explaining that the Muslims had won because of supernatural help:

  Allah has already given you victory in many regions and on the day of Hunayn, when your great number pleased you, but it did not avail you at all, and the earth was confining for you with its vastness; then you turned back, fleeing. Then Allah sent down His tranquility upon His Messenger and upon the believers and sent down soldier angels whom you did not see and punished those who disbelieved. And that is the recompense of the disbelievers. Then Allah will accept repentance after that for whom He wills; and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. (Qur’an 9:25–27)

  With Malik defeated, the Muslims later conquered Ta’if with little resistance. On his way into the city, Muhammad stopped under a tree and, finding the area to his liking, sent word to the owner of the property: “Either come out or we will destroy your wall.”92 The owner refused to appear before Muhammad, so the Muslims indeed destroyed his property.93 Endeavoring, however, to win the tribesmen of Ta’if to Islam, Muhammad was lenient toward them. In his distribution of the booty, he likewise favored some of the recent converts among the Quraysh, hoping to cement their allegiance to Islam. His favoritism, however, led to grumbling. One Muslim approached him boldly: “Muhammad, I’ve seen what you have done today…I don’t think you have been just.”

  The Prophet of Islam replied incredulously: “If justice is not to be found with me then where will you find it?”94

  CALLING THE WORLD TO ISLAM

  Muhammad was determined to extend that justice to the world. Islamic tradition holds that he wrote to Heraclius, the Eastern Roman emperor in Constantinople:

  In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the Most Merciful. [This letter is] from Muhammad, the slave of Allah, and His Messenger, to Heraclius, the ruler of the Byzantines. Peace be upon him, who follows the [true] guidance. Now then, I invite you to Islam [that is, surrender to Allah], embrace Islam and you will be safe; embrace Islam and Allah will bestow on you a double reward. But if you reject this invitation of Islam, you shall be responsible for misguiding the peasants [that is, your nation].95

  Then the letter quoted the Qur’an: “Say, ‘O People of the Book, come to a common word between us and you—that we will not worship except Allah and not associate anything with Him and not take one another as lords instead of Allah.’ But if they turn away, then say, ‘Bear witness that we are Muslims.’” (3:64).

  The letter contains a clear threat: “embrace Islam and you will be safe.” Presumably, then, Heraclius and his people would not be safe if they did not embrace Islam. Heraclius, of course, did not accept Islam, and soon the Byzantines would know well that the warriors of jihad indeed granted no safety to those who made such a choice.

  Muhammad sent a similar letter to Khosrau, the ruler of the Persians. After reading the letter of the Prophet of Islam, Khosrau contemptuously tore it to pieces. When news of this reached Muhammad, he called upon Allah to tear the Persian emperor and his followers to pieces.96 He told his followers that they would enjoy the fruits of jihad victories over both Heraclius and Khosrau: “When Khosrau perishes, there will be no [more] Khosrau after him, and when Caesar perishes, there will be no more Caesar after him. By Him in Whose hands Muhammad’s life is, you will spend the treasures of both of them in Allah’s Cause.”97

  JIHAD AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS

  Allah gave Muhammad a revelation commanding Muslims to fight even against Jews and Christians until they accepted Islamic hegemony, symbolized by payment of a poll tax (jizya) and discriminatory regulations that would ensure that they would be constantly reminded of their subordinate position: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, of the People of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)

  He told his followers to offer these unbelievers conversion to Islam, as he had offered to the rulers, and if they refused, to offer them the opportunity to pay tribute as vassals of the Islamic state, and if they refused that also, to go to war:

  Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate [the dead] bodies; do not kill the children. When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to [accept] Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them.… If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them.98

  After commanding his followers to make war against Christians, Muhammad resolved to set an example for his followers by doing just that. In 631, he ordered the Muslims to begin preparations for a raid on the Byzantine Empire, at its northern Arabia garrison at Tabuk. The journey across the desert sands in the height of summer was arduous, and when Muhammad and his large Muslim force arrived at the Byzantine holdings in northwestern Arabia, they found that the Byzantine troops had withdrawn rather than trying to engage them.

  On the way back, Allah gave Muhammad revelations scolding the Muslims who had declined t
o go along on the expedition. Allah reminded the Muslims that their first duty was to him and his prophet, and that those who refused to wage jihad would face terrible punishment:

  O you who have believed, what is with you that, when you are told to go forth in the cause of Allah, you adhere heavily to the earth? Are you satisfied with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter? But what is the enjoyment of worldly life compared to the Hereafter except a little. If you do not go forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment and will replace you with another people, and you will not harm Him at all. And Allah is over all things competent. (Qur’an 9:38–39)

  Not that Muhammad needed their help, of course, because he had Allah on his side:

  If you do not aid the Prophet, Allah has already aided him when those who disbelieved had driven him out as one of two, when they were in the cave and he said to his companion, “Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us.” And Allah sent down his tranquility upon him and supported him with angels you did not see and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowest, while the word of Allah, that is the highest. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise. (Qur’an 9:40)

  THE PREEMINENCE OF JIHAD

  Nonetheless, to go forth in jihad for the sake of Allah (jihad fi sabil Allah, which denotes in Islamic theology armed struggle to establish the hegemony of the Islamic social order) is the best deed a Muslim can perform:

  Go forth, whether light or heavy, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah. That is better for you, if you only knew. (Qur’an 9:41)