Accusation No.4

“A Mass Murderer”

One reason why Ali Sina calls the Holy Prophet (S) a “mass murderer” is because of the Banu Quraiza incident. Here are
some hadiths which will perhaps shed some more light on this topic:

Sahih Muslim

Book 19, Number 4368:

It has been narrated on the authority of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri who said: The people of Quraiza surrendered accepting the
decision of Sa'd b. Mu'adh about them. Accordingly, the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) sent for Sa'd who came
to him riding a donkey. When he approached the mosque, the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said to the
Ansar: Stand up to receive your chieftain. Then he said (to Sa'd): These people have surrendered accepting your decision.
He (Sa'd) said: You will kill their fighters and capture their women and children. (Hearing this), the Prophet (may peace he
upon him) said: You have adjudged by the command of God. The narrator is reported to have said: Perhaps he said: You
have adjudged by the decision of a king.
Ibn Muthanna (in his version of the tradition) has not mentioned the alternative words.

Sahih Al-Bukhari

Volume 5, Book 58, Number 148:

Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:

Some people (i.e. the Jews of Bani bin Quraiza) agreed to accept the verdict of Sad bin Muadh so the Prophet sent for him (i.
e. Sad bin Muadh). He came riding a donkey, and when he approached the Mosque, the Prophet said, "Get up for the best
amongst you." or said, "Get up for your chief." Then the Prophet said, "O Sad! These people have agreed to accept your
verdict." Sad said, "I judge that their warriors should be killed and their children and women should be taken as captives."
The Prophet said, "You have given a judgment similar to Allah's Judgment (or the King's judgment)."

Volume 8, Book 74, Number 278:

Narrated Abu Said:

The people of (the tribe of) Quraiza agreed upon to accept the verdict of Sa'd. The Prophet sent for him (Sa'd) and he came.
The Prophet said (to those people), "Get up for your chief or the best among you!" Sa'd sat beside the Prophet and the
Prophet said (to him), "These people have agreed to accept your verdict." Sa'd said, "So I give my judgment that their
warriors should be killed and their women and children should be taken as captives." The Prophet said, "You have judged
according to the King's (Allah's) judgment." (See Hadith No. 447, Vol. 5)

Those who reached the age of puberty were eligible to fight, hence considered warriors.

Secondly, this is double standards on the part of Ali Sina, as in all of the wars fought by the Muslims, combined, only one
thousand and eighteen persons lost their lives on both sides. Out of that, only two hundred and fifty nine were Muslims. It is
interesting to note that Ali Sina is quick to comment on this, and he is quick to say that the Holy Prophet (S) was a “mass
murderer”, even though the amount of people killed are not even close to what Charles the Great did to the Pagan Saxons.
Also, the “famous answer by which the Papal Legate, in the Algerian War, quieted the scruples of a too conscientious general,
‘Kill all, God will know His own’. And how can we forget the Two World Wars, where in WWI alone, ten million soldiers were
killed, and an equal number of civilians. In WWII, twenty two million people were killed. No person can compare these numbers
to the amount of people killed in the wars fought by the Holy Prophet (S), since they do not even come close to that number!

Dr. Jamal Badawi writes:

Referring to this incident, many say the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) massacred the tribe of Banu Quraizhah,
but this is a distortion of the historical facts. In fact, it was not a sentence by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
The people of Banu Quraizhah chose their own arbitrator and former ally (Sa`d), who determined their punishment according
to the law of the Torah, which specifies killing for treason. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) simply agreed with
his sentence, but it was not the sentence of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the first place. A scholarly
article by W. N. Arafat questions the exaggerated estimate of the number of fighting men who were punished, which is found
even in some biographies about the Prophet’s life, like that of Ibn Ishaq. His argument is compelling and well researched.

Lastly, it is to be noted that the Holy Prophet (S), gave the Jews the penalty as per what their Holy Book said:

1 When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of
them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2 When you are about to go into battle,
the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: "Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against
your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. 4 For the LORD your God
is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory."

5 The officers shall say to the army: "Has anyone built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him go home, or he may die in
battle and someone else may dedicate it. 6 Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he
may die in battle and someone else enjoy it. 7 Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go
home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her." 8 Then the officers shall add, "Is any man afraid or fainthearted?
Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too." 9 When the officers have finished speaking to the
army, they shall appoint commanders over it.

10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. 11 If they accept and open their gates, all the
people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in
battle, lay siege to that city. 13 When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.
14 As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder
for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies. 15 This is how you
are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive
anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy [a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and
Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the
detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

19 When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to
them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?
[b] 20 However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war
with you falls.

(Deut Chapter 20)

It is interesting to note that even the leader who caused the problems that started the siege did not have a problem with the
penalty.

And lastly, note how it says above from verses 16 to 18 that the cities which God gave the Israelites inheritance, you must put
to death everyone in that city, leaving noone alive. From the above, we can conclude that the punishment given to the Banu
Quraiza was a lenient punishment, meaning according to the Jewish Law, everyone in Banu Quraiza was to be executed,
however only the warriors were executed. Agreeing with this view, Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Ali writes:

“The Banu Quraiza (see last note) were filled with terror an dismay when Medina was free from the Quraish danger. They shut
themselves up in the their castles about three or four miles to the east (or north east) of Medina, and sustained a siege of 25
days, after which they surrendered, stipulating that they would abide by the decision of their fate at the hands of Sa’d ibn Mu’
az, chief of the Aus tribe, with which they had been in alliance.

Sa’d applied to them the Jewish Law of the Old Testament, not as strictly as the case warranted. In Deut. Xx. 10-18,
the treatment of the city “which is very far off from thee” is prescribed to be comparatively more lenient than the treatment of a
city “of those people, which the Lord thy God gives thee for an inheritance,” i.e., which is near enough to corrupt the religion
of the Jewish people. The punishment for these is total annihilation: “thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth” (Deut. xx.
16). The more lenient treatment for far-off cities is described in the next note. According to the Jewish standard,
then, the Quraiza deserved total extermination- of men, women, and children. They were in the territory of
Medina itself, and further they had broken their engagements and helped the enemy.

Sa’d judged them the milder treatment of the “far-off” cities which is thus described in the Jewish Law: “ Thou shalt smite
every male thereof with the edge of the sword: but the women and the little ones, and the cattle, and al that is in the city, even
al the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord they God hath
given thee” (Deut.xx.13-14). The men of the Quraiza were slain: the women were sold as captives of war: and their lands and
properties were divided among the Muhajirs.”

(Source: The Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Footnotes # 3702-3704)

Now, we end by asking the following questions:

1)      If the Holy Prophet (S) was a mass murderer, then why didn’t he kill all of his enemies when he entered Makkah? In
Makkah, he had enemies who did a lot worse to him, yet they were not killed

2)      If the Holy Prophet (S) was really bent on destroying Banu Quraiza, then why didn’t he also just kill the women and
children?

3)      The Chiefs of Banu Quraiza had no problem with the penalty given to them, as it was according to their Jewish law!

4)      If the Holy Prophet (S) wanted revenge, then why didn’t he kill Abu Sufyan? Remember, this is the same Abu Sufyan who
fought against the Muslims numerous times, yet the Holy Prophet (S) forgave him, and Abu Sufyan became a Muslim.

5)      If the Holy Prophet (S) had extreme hatred for Jews, and Banu Quraiza, then why did he previously ask for the Quraiza
to renew their treaty with the Muslims? Obviously, if he wanted their land he wouldn’t have done that, nor would he have
signed any treaty with the Jews, but he would’ve just waged war on them.

And with that, we end this part of the discussion, and move on to:


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