Faith Mattters

Did Muhammad teach slaughter in the name of Allah? (Part 1)

I pick up the Wall Street Journal from the front yard and flip through the pages as I walk up the driveway. All four pages I glimpse have news stories of slaughter and mayhem by the so-called Muslims. My head bows in shame. I wonder what is happening to Muslims across the world as I sink into my rocking chair distraught.

Most of these are atrocities against mankind in the name of religion, many of these deaths being Muslims at the hands of Muslims. This is nothing new. Previously, and even now, Christians have committed unbelievable crimes against fellow beings in the name of Christ. Jews have done it, Hindus and Buddhists have done it, pagans and animists have done it -- maybe not in the name of a deity, but in the name of tribes and races. No continent has been spared.

So what is wrong with Islam today? I know Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) as a paragon of virtue, full of love for humanity and a prince of peace. A cursory look at his life belies all that is associated with him and Islam these days. He was commissioned by God to teach humanity the universal message of true and undivided devotion to God and to love and serve all his creatures selflessly. Muhammad started out at Mecca, where the tribal chiefs and the high priests saw this message as an assault against the established polytheistic religion. They also saw it as a threat to the city's economic enterprise, resulting from the pilgrimage from across Arabia to the most holy shrine, Kaaba, at Mecca. Muhammad was well known among Meccans as a kind-hearted man, always tending to the needs of the weak and the downtrodden. He did not own any slaves himself. Even as he got married at the age of 25 to a rich businesswoman who presented all she had to him, the first thing he did was to emancipate all the slaves.

Muhammad's honesty, his commitment to human equality and his devotion to God attracted true nobility as well as slaves and the dispossessed to Islam. Within a few years, Meccan religious leaders were committing brutal atrocities against this small band of believers to stop the message from catching on. For them, "apostasy" had to be checked at any cost -- through torture and death. The persecution became so unbearable, the early Muslims were forced to flee to Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) to seek refuge under a just Christian king, Negus. The Meccans followed them there to plead with the king for their extradition. Prophet Muhammad himself fled to a nearby town, Taif, hoping for a better reception for his message. He was ridiculed by the chiefs and was stoned by the street gangs at their behest, so much so that he was bleeding profusely as he left the town. In that state of devastation, he prayed to God for their forgiveness and salvation. Having no other refuge, he was forced to return to his tormentors in Mecca.

The persecution became even more intense for the Prophet and his followers. Meccan clans together held a "synod" in the holy precinct of Kaaba and decided to implement a total boycott of Muhammad and all his supporters -- Muslims or otherwise. A compact was drawn up and hung on the wall of Kaaba. The Prophet and his supporters were forced to live in a small valley under extreme deprivation. This went on for two years until it was found that termites had eaten away the document. There was not much relief in the ongoing torture of the believers, though. Their perseverance in the face of suffering made their enemies even more enraged. The Meccan chiefs finally joined hands once again and decided to assassinate Muhammad to end this problem once and for all. Having been informed by God of their secret plan, Muhammad fled Mecca in the company of his trusted lieutenant, Abu Bakr, the first among believers, to a town 200 miles to the north, now known as Medina. Having found their prey had gotten away, the embarrassed Meccans set a bounty of 100 red camels for his head. Muhammad made it to Medina safely in a few days, where he received great welcome and honor.

In the next column (June 20), we will see his life as it unfolded in Medina. Did Muhammad flip-flop on his teachings of patience and perseverance to one of forced conversions, death to apostates, a choice between Islam and sword, and aggression against neighbors near and far for war booty, slaves and women, and political hegemony? In the meantime, I would suggest reading Karen Armstrong's Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time (HarperOne, 2007) to get an in-depth look at the formative days of Islam.

NAN Religion on 04/25/2015

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