Myth: Muhammad and the Banu Qaynuqa

TheReligionofPeace.com Presents:

The Myths of Muhammad

The Myth:

Muhammad Lived at Peace with the Jews
Part 1: The Banu Qaynuqa

The Truth:

The early part of the Qur’an was written while Muhammad lived in Mecca, a town with very few Jews and no Jewish tribes. At the time, he presented himself to the Meccans as a Jewish prophet based on the stories that he learned from the Jews that he met on his travels – and from his cousin Waraqa, a convert from Judaism (the Qur’an addresses this accusation, but responds merely by denying it).

When Muhammad relocated to Medina, there were three Jewish tribes living there already whose good graces he needed to stay in initially, since he and his small band of Muslim immigrants were in a position of relative weakness. He tried to convince the Jews that he was the last in the succession of their own prophets and even changed the Qibla (direction of prayer) toward Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish world.

The Jews at Medina were not impressed with Muhammad’s esoteric claims, particularly since there were obvious discrepancies between their Torah and his version of the same stories. In the Qur’an, history from the Bible is presented immaturely and sounds more like a series of fairy tales with the same redundant moral – believe in Muhammad’s claims about himself or face earthly destruction and eternal torment.

When asked why he didn’t provide proof of his prophethood by performing some sort of miracle as the prophets of the past had done, Muhammad came up with a clever excuse by saying that there was not point in doing so since the Jews had rejected those past prophets anyway (Quran 3:183-184). Thus, Muhammad had nothing to offer but his own testimony.

The prophet of Islam did not handle the Jewish rejection well, particularly since his people had been heavily relying on the truth of his earlier claims to being a prophet in the same “mode” as Moses, Abraham and Jesus. Muhammad "resolved" his dilemma by claiming that the Jews of Medina were heretics and he arbitrarily dismissed their “version” of the Torah by claiming that they had corrupted it and “hidden” the verses that supported his claims of being a prophet. (Interestingly, despite the many Jews who converted to Islam, either out of compulsion or free will, no one ever produced the “uncorrupted” Torah that was supposed to have existed).

Following Muhammad’s victory against the Meccans at Badr, his wealth and power had increased to the point of being able to take care of his “Jew problem.” The words of the Qur’an become noticeably harsher toward the “People of the Book” in the Medina portion of the text, and his actions become confrontational.

Although much is made of the “Constitution” of Medina, the treaty that Muhammad created for all of the local tribes on his arrival, contemporary Muslims are often reluctant to admit the injunction that cancelled out this treaty less than two years later:

"While we were in the Mosque, the Prophet came out and said, "Let us go to the Jews" We went out till we reached Bait-ul-Midras. He said to them, "If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle." (Bukhari 53:392)

Having announced his intentions, Muhammad looked for an excuse to take land from those Jews who refused to convert to Islam. His first target was a tribe that had recently been aligned in a conflict against the other two. Muhammad guessed correctly that the other Jewish tribes would not come to the assistance of the Banu Qaynuqa if he laid siege to them.

Muhammad’s excuse is said to be an incident in which a Muslim was killed by an angry Jewish mob. That the mob was angry because the Muslim in question had just murdered a Jewish merchant over a woman's honor is sometimes forgotten by contemporary apologists, who nonetheless admit that Muhammad chose to lay siege to the Qaynuqa stronghold rather than mediate a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Less than two years after welcoming Muhammad to their community, the Qaynuqa surrendered to their guest without a fight.

The prophet of Islam wished to slay the entire tribe outright, but was talked out of it by a mutual Arab friend, who was horrified by his intentions:

Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul went to him when God had put them in his power and said, “O Muhammad, deal kindly with my clients” (now they were allies of Khazraj), but the apostle put him off. He repeated the words, and the apostle turned away from him, whereupon he thrust his hand into the collar of the apostle's robe; the apostle was so angry that his face became almost black. He said, “Confound you, let me go.” He answered, “No, by God, I will not let you go until you deal kindly with my clients. Four hundred men without mail and three hundred mailed protected me from all mine enemies; would you cut them down in one morning? By God, I am a man who fears that circumstances may change”' The apostle said, “You can have them.” (Ibn Ishaq 546)

Muhammad stood by the decision, allowing the Jews of Qaynuqa to escape only with a few tools and the clothes on their back. He confiscated their wealth and land, taking a fifth for himself and giving the rest to the other Muslims. (According to the Qur’an, this was their punishment for not believing in Muhammad 3:10-12).

The man who had saved the lives of the Jews was later called a hypocrite by Muhammad, and it is evident that he deeply regretted his decision not to slay the Qaynuqa. One of the nine Qur’anic verses that prohibit Muslims from taking Jews and Christians as friends was “revealed” at this time.

Thus was Muhammad able to fulfill his own promise that “those who resist Allah and his Messenger will be humiliated” (Quran 58:20), further solidifying his credibility with the Muslims – and inspiring fourteen centuries of relentless Jihad in the name of following his example.

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