Killing

Jews Beheaded

According to traditional Muslim sources, Huwayyisa was converted to Muhammad’s religion by the religious fervor with which his brother, Muhayyisa, beheaded a prominent Jew named, Yahudha.  It seems that Huwayyisa was impressed that Muhayyisa enjoyed beheading Yahudha who had actually benefited him in times past.  Furthermore, Huwayyisa was struck with the fact that that Muhayyisa would have beheaded him, if Muhammad had requested him to do it.  Muhammad pacified the Aus by letting them behead some of the Jews too.  The following is a quotation of the account as given in “The Life of Muhammad” by Ibn Ishaq on page 752.

Abu ‘Ubayda told me on the authority of Abu ‘Amr, the Medinan, when the apostle got the better of the B. Qurayza he seized about four hundred men from the Jews who had been allies of Aus against Khazraj, and ordered that they should be beheaded.  Accordingly Khazraj began to cut off their heads with great satisfaction.  The apostle saw that the faces of Khazraj showed their pleasure, but there was no such indication on the part of Aus, and he suspected that that was because of the alliance that had existed between them and the B. Qurayza.  When there were only twelve of them left he gave them over to Aus, assigning one Jew to every two of Aus, saying, ‘Let so-and-so strike him and so-and-so finish him off.’  One of those who was so handed over to them was Ka’b b. Yahudha, who was an important man among them.  He gave him to Muhayyisa and Abu Burda b. Niyar (it was Abu Burda to whom the apostle had given permission to sacrifice a young goat on the feast of Adha).  He said, ‘Let Muhayyisa strike him and Abu Burda finish him off.’  So Muhayyisa fetched him a blow, which did not cut in properly, and Abu Burda dispatched him and gave him the finishing stroke.  Huwayyisa, who was still an unbeliever, said to his brother, Muhayyisa, ‘Did you kill Ka’b b. Yahudha?’, and when he said he did, he said, ‘By God, much of the flesh on your belly comes from his wealth; you are a miserable fellow, Muhayyisa.’  He replied, ‘If the one who ordered me to kill him had ordered me to kill you, I would have done so.’  He was amazed at this remark and went away astounded.  They say that he used to wake up in the night astonished at his brother’s words, until in the morning he said, ‘By God, this is indeed a religion.’  Then he came to the prophet and accepted Islam.  Muhayyisa then spoke the lines which we have written above.

The Sunan of Abu Dawud states,

Narrated Muhayyisah: The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: If you gain a victory over the men of Jews, kill them. So Muhayyisah jumped over Shubaybah, a man of the Jewish merchants. He had close relations with them. He then killed him. At that time Huwayyisah (brother of Muhayyisah) had not embraced Islam. He was older than Muhayyisah. When he killed him, Huwayyisah beat him and said: O enemy of Allah, I swear by Allah, you have a good deal of fat in your belly from his property. 
Book 19, Number 2996

Last edited 02/22/2000

Ripped Apart

Zayd ibn Haritha, who was Muhammad’s ex-slave, was the third person to be converted to Muhammad’s religion. Although he was Muhammad’s companion for a long time, Zayd was revengeful, cruel, and without compassion. What a contrast between the companions of Muhammad and the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ.  The followers of Jesus saw an example of one who walk in submissive love and healing power among men.  

Umm Qirfa Fatima, daughter of Rabi’a, was a very old women when Zayd led an attack against her village. This old lady was capture and ordered to be killed. As cruel as it is to kill an old helpless woman, Muhammad’s disciple had lost all feelings of human decency and ordered Qays b. Al-Musahhar to kill her. 

Like cruel animals sporting with prey, Muhammad’s warriors decided to rip Umm’s body in two. They were getting excited, soon they would hear her cries for mercy, screams, and the sounds of her bones breaking inside her stretched out body. They grabbed her legs and tied each leg to a separate rope. They did not want to kill her first and then desecrate her body. They needed the screams, the breaking bones, the tearing flesh, and the hot pulsating blood flowing from her body to have a climax of sadistic pleasure. After the ropes were tied firmly and securely to two strong camels, they whipped the camels, driving them to pull with their greatest force. At first there were just the cries for mercy, and then the screams of unbearable pain. After that, the bones started to break and joints between bones pulled apart. Finally, the flesh and blood vessels tore apart and her frail body ripped in two. Their diabolic sport had no sense of modesty when they exposed her body to their prying eyes. Finally, the sadistic pleasure was over, and they had to untied the ropes from the camels that were pulling the two pieces of her mangled and bloody corpse.

Qays b. Al-Musahhar had supervised the killing of Umm. Afterwards, he could not contain his bragging and boasting. So, Qays wrote a poem in honor of himself for killing Mas’ada. He believed there was no greater joy than killing for Muhammad and his religion.

The ancient Muslim sources leave us the following record, 

ZAYD B. HARITHA’S RAID ON B. FAZARA AND THE DEATH OF UMM QIRFA

Zayd also raided Wadi’l-Qura, where he met B. Fazara and some of this companions were killed; he himself was carried wounded from the field. Ward b. ‘Amr b. Madash, one of the b. Sa’d b. Hudhayl, was killed by one of B. Badr (whose name was Sa’d b. Hudhaym—T. And I.H.) When Zayd came he swore that he would use no ablution until he raided b. Fazara; and when he recovered from his wounds the apostle sent him against them with a force. He fought (T. He met) them in Wadi’l-Qura and killed some of them. Qays b. Al-Musahhar al-Ya’muri killed Mas’ada b. Hakama b. Malik b. Hudhayfa b. Badr, and Umm Qirfa Fatima d. Rabi’a b. Badr was taken prisoner. She was a very old women, wife of Malik. Her daughter and ‘Abdullah b. Mas’ada were also taken. Zayd ordered Qays b. Al-Musahhar to kill Umm Qirfa and he killed her cruelly (T. By putting a rope to her two legs and to two camels and driving them until they rent her in two). Then they brought Umm Qirfa’s daughter and Mas’ada’s son to the Apostle. The daughter of Umm Qirfa belonged to Salama b. ‘Amr b. Al-Akwa’ who had taken her. She held a position of honour among her people, and the Arabs used to say, ‘Had you been more powerful than Umm Qirfa you can have done no more.’ Salama asked the apostle to let him have her and he gave her to him and he presented her to his uncle Hazn b. Abu Wahb and she bare him ‘Abdu’l-Rahma b. Hazn.

Qays b. Al-Musahhar said about the killing of Mas’ada:

I tried as his mother’s son would to get revenge for Ward.
As long as I live I will avenge Ward.
When I saw him I attacked him on my steed,
That doughty warrior of the family of Badr.
I impaled him on my lance of Qa’dabi make
Which seemed to flash like a fire in an open space.¹

It is our desire that our readers will consider their sins before the Day of the Last Judgment.  The answer to your deep spiritual need is found in Jesus Christ who died for others.

¹ Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, Translated by A. Guillaume, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, (Re-issued in Karachi, Pakistan, 1967, 13th impression, 1998) 1955, p.665.

Last edited 03/11/2001