Countering Islamic Propaganda: Fartana and Sara

TheReligionofPeace

TROP is a non-partisan, fact-based site which examines the ideological threat that Islam poses to human dignity and freedom

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It's much easier to act as if critics of Islam have a problem with Muslims as people than it is to accept the uncomfortable truth that Islam is different

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What can we learn about
Islam from this woman?

"Discover the Truth's" Game

The Murder of
Two Slave Girls

From Discover the Truth:

It is claimed by critics that Mohammad (p) wanted Sarah to be killed because she verbally abused him. However, as we have documented before using authentic Hadith, these allegation s hold no weight whatsoever.
(March 24, 2015, March 25, 2015)

What the Apologists Want You to Believe

DTT has two articles pertaining to the three girls ordered put to death by Muhammad upon his return to Mecca. The reason given is that the girls used to make up mocking songs about him. DTT attests that the story could not be true.

What They Offer as Proof

It's a pretty clear sign of a snow job when apologists quote other apologists and leave out the Sira. DTT's argument is as follows:

   1) Muhammad never killed a woman (assuming you throw out accounts like this, in which he did)

   2) Muhammad "never took revenge for his own sake (but "only for Allah's")

   3) Muhammad once "forgave" a woman who tried to poison him

What They Leave Out and Why They are Wrong

When Muhammad marched his army into Mecca, victorious from having caught the people there by surprise, he began ordering the execution of former critics - at least those who would not convert to Islam.

Two of these people were "Fartana and her friend", a pair of slave girls who composed songs about him:

"Two singing-girls Fartana and her friend who used to sing satirical songs about the apostle, so he ordered that they should be killed..." (Ibn Ishaq 819, Ibn Kathir v.3 p. 403)

Another was Sara, a freed slave, executed because she use to insult Muhammad years earlier:

Then there was Sara (who was also executed), a freed-woman of Banii 'Ahd al-Muttalib and of 'Ikrima b. Aha Jahl, because she used to insult the Messenger of God while he was in Mecca. (Ibn Kathir v.3 p.403)

As to their fate: one was put to death immediately and the other two ran away. Of those, one (Sara) was later found and trampled beneath a horse.

As for Ibn Khatal's two singing girls, one was killed and the other ran away until the apostle, asked for immunity, granted it to her [Ibn Kathir: she "also accepted Islam"]. Similarly Sara, who lived until the time Umar [when] a mounted soldier trod her down in the valley of Mecca and killed her. (Ibn Ishaq 819)

The story includes details and was deemed reliable by earlier biographers. Even Ibn Kathir, writing several centuries later, voices no objection to it. A sahih hadith verse from Abu Dawud (2683) confirms that there were women "not given protection" at Mecca. Another verse graded hasan gives more detail:

On the day of the Conquest of Makkah, the Messenger of Allah [SAW] granted amnesty to the people, except four men and two women. He said: 'Kill them, even if you find them clinging to the covers of Ka'bah.' Sunan an-Nasa'i 4067

As for DTT's first argument, that the story can't be true because Muhammad never killed a woman... well, Muhammad killed many women - usually fo r such "high crimes" as consensual sex - so, by reverse logic, this must mean the story is true!

The "prophet never took personal revenge for his own self" is a game of semantics. The Quran gives Muhammad special status, so that insulting him is akin to insulting Allah. Thus, killing his detractors (which he had done on many occasions) would qualify as "taking revenge for Allah's sake" (see also, Myth: Muhammad Never Took Revenge). It's all the same to the victims.

Finally, the accounts relating the episode in which Muhammad "forgave" a woman for poisoning him are addressed in this article: Did Muhammad Forgive a Jewish Woman?, where it is shown that the story is not what it appears to be. Even so, it is not positive proof that these two girls were not killed, particularly since the historians say they were.

TheReligionofPeace

Jihad Report Jan 16, 2021 - Jan 22, 2021

Jihad Report December, 2020

List of Attacks

The Murder of Two Slave Girls

From Discover the Truth:

What the Apologists Want You to Believe

What They Offer as Proof

What They Leave Out and Why They are Wrong

Further Reading

Jihad Report
Jan 16, 2021 -
Jan 22, 2021

Jihad Report
December, 2020

The Murder of
Two Slave Girls