Jihad (Struggle, effort, endeavour) - Part 9

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('Jihad' - Struggle, effort, endeavour. [Muhammad Prophet For Our Time Glossary

pg. 217].)

 

 

Jihad - Part 9

 

(p.149) Muhammad had to recover the prestige he had lost at Uhud. He could not

risk another open confrontation with the Quraysh, but nor could he afford to

show his weakness. Two incidents in the summer of 625 showed how vulnerable he

was. Two of the Bedouin tribes of Najd, a region to the west of Medina, had

asked for instruction in Islam, so Muhammad sent six of his ablest men. During

their journey they were attacked by one of the chiefs of Qudayd, the city of the

goddess Manat, one of the three gharaniq [goddesses]. Three of the Muslims were

killed; the others taken prisoner. One was stoned to death when he tried to

escape and the other two were sold as slaves in Mecca, and afterwards taken

outside the sanctuary and crucified.

 

At about the same time, Muhammad's new father-in-law, Abu Bara', chief of 'Amir,

asked for help against warring factions in his own tribe. Forty Muslims were

dispatched, and nearly all of them were massacred just outside 'Amir's

territory, by members of the tribe of Sulaym. When one of the Muslim survivors

came across two 'Amiris lying peacefully asleep under a tree, he killed them,

assuming that their tribe had been responsible for the killing and taking

revenge in the traditional fashion. When he returned to Medina, Muhammad told

him that he had done wrong, but the tradition of retaliation was so deeply

engrained in Arabia that it was nearly impossible to eradicate. Muhammad

insisted on paying the usual compensation to Abu Bara'. (p.150) His willingness

to do so in spite of the fact that the crime had technically been committed by

tribesmen of Sulaym made some of the Bedouin more kindly disposed towards the

ummah [community]. Some of the Sulaymites had been so impressed by the courage

of their Muslim victims that they entered Islam themselves.

 

Muhammad's position in Medina remained precarious, and he could not afford to

drop his guard. When he called upon the Jewish tribe of Nadir to collect the

blood money for 'Amir, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt: some

members of Nadir had planned to drop a boulder on the Prophet from a nearby roof

top. Ibn Ubayy had promised to support them and they probably assumed that

Muhammad had been so discredited by Uhud that the Medinese would rally behind

them. So they were astonished to receive a grim message from their former ally,

the tribe of Aws: they had broken their treaty with the Prophet and could no

longer remain in the city.

 

Like Qaynuqa' before them, the Nadiris withdrew to their fortress and waited for

their allies to relieve them, but again no help was forthcoming. Even the

powerful Jewish tribe of Qurayzah, which was also hostile to Muhammad, told them

that they were on their own. After two weeks, Nadir knew that they could no

longer sustain the siege, and when Muhammad gave the order to cut down their

palm trees--an unmistakable sign of war in Arabia--they surrendered, begging

only that their lives be spared. Muhammad agreed, on condition that they left

the oasis immediately, taking with them only those goods that they could carry

on their camels. So Nadir packed up their possessions, even taking down the

lintels of their doors rather than leave them to Muhammad, and left Medina in a

proud procession, as though they were going in triumph. (p.151) The women

dressed in all their jewels and finery, beating tambourines and singing to the

accompaniment of pipes and drums. Weaving their way through the orchards and

hamlets of the oasis, they finally took the road to Syria, though some stayed in

the nearby Jewish settlement of Khaybar, where they helped Abu Sufyan build his

confederacy against the Muslims by drumming up support among the northern

tribes. [36]

 

In the space of two short years, Muhammad had expelled two powerful tribes from

Medina, and the Muslims now managed the market vacated by Qaynuqa'. As we have

seen, this was not Muhammad's intention. He had wanted to cut the cycle of

violence and dispossession, not continue it. Muhammad had shown that he was

still a man to be reckoned with, but he must have reflected on the moral and

political sterility of this type of success, because Nadir remained just as much

of a threat in nearby Khaybar.

 

It was nearly time to make good on Abu Sufyan's parting shot after Uhud: " Next

year at Badr! " but Muhammad was playing a very dangerous game. He had to make a

show of strength, but his troops were so dispirited that he could not risk

another pitched battle. Nevertheless, during the week of Badr's annual suq

[market, trade fair], he rode there with 1,500 men. Fortunately for the Prophet,

Abu Sufyan did not appear. He had not expected the Muslims to keep the

appointment and had set out with his army as a mere show, planning to turn back

as soon as he heard that Muhammad had failed to leave Medina. It was a year of

severe drought and there was not a blade of grass to feed the camels during the

journey, so with only a few days' supplies packed, Abu Sufyan had to lead his

men home. (p.152) He was bitterly reproached by the Meccans, because the Bedouin

were full of admiration for the Muslims' courage. [37]

 

Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time)

Chapter 4, 'Jihad', p. 149-152

Karen Armstrong

Harper Perennial - London, New York, Toronto and Sydney

ISBN-13 978-0-00-723248-2

ISBN-10 0-00-723248-9

 

Notes:

 

[36] Lings, 'Muhammad', 203-4; Watt, 'Muhammad at Medina', 185, 211-17; Aslan,

'No god but God', 90-91; Bamyeh, 'Social Origins of Islam', 201-2.

 

[37] Lings, 'Muhammad', 207-8.