Picture courtesy: Wikipedia: Caption: Detail from miniature painting The Prophet, Ali, and the Companions at the Massacre of the Prisoners of the Jewish Tribe of Beni Qurayzah, illustration of a 19th-century text by Muhammad Rafi Bazil. Manuscript now in the British Library.
Muslim scholars often argue that what the terrorist outfit, Islamic State, does is un-Islamic and the savagery displayed by terrorists of the outfit has no parallels in the Islamic history. Although Islam has acquired many humanizing qualities in the course of its development, its history is replete with stories of cruelty and savagery. In a TV discussion, a Pakistani scholar once remarked: “Muslims in Indian sub-continent are moderate and civilized because they have been converted from Hindus. We are not like Arabs.”
Treatment of Banu Quraiza by Prophet Muhammad
There are many similarities in the way different communities such as Yezidis or Banu Quraiza, a Jewish tribe, or Kashmiri Pandits for that matter were treated by Muslim fanatics.
In 627, Muslim army led by Muhammad besieged Banu Quraiza alleging that they had broken a contract with the Muslims. On this raid, Aisha (Prophet Muhammad’s wife) says: “The Prophet had just returned from the battle of Ditch, and had hardly taken off his armour when the angel Gabriel appeared and told him to destroy Banu Quraiza (Hadith no: 4364 — Muslim).
There is a mention about this in the Quran, where Allah says: “And He (Allah) brought down those of the people of the Book, who supported them from their fortresses and cast terror in their hearts; some you (Muhammad) slew, some you made captive. And He (Allah) bequeathed upon you their lands, their habitations, and their possessions, and a land you never trod. God is powerful over everything.” (The Confederates, XXXIII: 25)
After their defeat, the Jews surrendered on the condition that their fate will be would be judged by Saad bin Muaadh, a chieftain of the Ansar. The Hadith no 4369 of the Sahih Muslim contains his judgement which states “…kill their fighters and capture their women and children.”
The Muslims dug up a long and deep trench and all the captive Jews with hands tied were taken to the edge of the trench. Anwar Shaikh in his book Islam: The Arab Imperialism writes: “Having said prayers to the Most Compassionate Allah, the Prophet, who claimed to be mercy for all beings, took a seat by the dreadful pit to supervise the operation peacefully. “ The Prophet’s son-in-law Ali and Zubair beheaded 800 Jewish men. Later, their children were enslaved and “women turned into concubines with a view to providing the faithful with the foretaste of paradisiac delights”.
Among the women, there was a 20-year-old beauty called Rihana, whose husband, parents and other kin were massacred by the Prophet’s army. The Prophet asked her to convert to Islam and become one of his wives. When she refused to convert, she was made a concubine, just as Islamic State caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi used Yezidi women who refused to convert were made his sex slave.
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