MUHAMMAD
AND THE DEATH OF ASMA BINT MARWAN
by Silas
INTRODUCTION
After Muhammad came to Yathrib he
began to grow in power. However, a
number of people, both Jew and Arab, opposed him. Muhammad began to silence his opposition by various means. One of these means was to have them
murdered.
Muhammad did have a number of
enemies and critics, some were dangerous, others were ordinary people who lived
in the area and thought nil of Muhammad.
Unfortunately for them, they spoke their minds.
One by one, they were silenced. Through treaties, intrigue, or outright
terror, Muhammad gained power in Medina.
Eventually, he became the area’s master. He knew his followers loved him, and would die for him. They were at his disposal and at times used
them to do his bidding.
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PRESENTATION
OF ISLAMIC SOURCES
(NOTE: MY COMMENTS WILL BE IN [ ] TYPE
BRACKETS. NOTES BY THE TRANSLATORS OF
THE TEXTS WILL BE IN { } BRACKETS.)
FROM
THE SIRAT RASUL ALLAH, by Ibn Ishaq (A. Guilaume's translation "The Life
of Muhammad") page 675, 676.
"UMAYR
B. ADIYY'S JOURNEY TO KILL ASMA D. MARWAN
"She was of B. Umayyya b.
Zayd. When Abu Afak had been killed she
displayed disaffection. Abdullah b.
al-Harith b. Al-Fudayl from his father said that she was married to a man of B.
Khatma called Yazid b. Zayd. Blaming
Islam and its followers she said:
"I despise B. Malik and
al-Nabit
and Auf and B. al-Khazraj.
You obey a stranger who is none of
yours,
One not of Murad or Madhhij. {1}
Do you expect good from him after
the killing of your chiefs
Like a hungry man waiting for a
cook's broth?
Is there no man of pride who would
attack him by surprise
And cut off the hopes of those who
expect aught from him?"
Hassan b.
Thabit answered her:
"Banu Wa'il and B. Waqif and
Khatma
Are inferior to B. al-Khazrahj.
When she called for folly woe to her
in her weeping,
For death is coming.
She stirred up a man of glorious
origin,
Noble in his going out and in his
coming in.
Before midnight he dyed her in her
blood
And incurred no guilt thereby."
When the apostle heard what she had
said he said, "Who will rid me of Marwan's daughter?" Umayr b. Adiy al-Khatmi who was with him
heard him, and that very night he went to her house and killed her. In the morning he came to the apostle and
told him what he had done and he [Muhammad] said, "You have helped God and
His apostle, O Umayr!" When he
asked if he would have to bear any evil consequences the apostle said,
"Two goats won't butt their heads about her", so Umayr went back to
his people.
Now there was a great commotion
among B. Khatma that day about the affair of bint [girl] Marwan. She had five sons, and when Umayr went to
them from the apostle he said, "I have killed bint Marwan, O sons of
Khatma. Withstand me if you can; don't
keep me waiting." That was the
first day Islam became powerful among B. Khatma; before that those who were
Muslims concealed the fact. The first
of them to accept Islam was Umayr b. Adiy who was called the
"Reader", and Abdullah b. Aus and Khuzayma b. Thabit. The day after Bint Marwan was killed the men
of B. Khatma became Muslims because they saw the power of Islam."
{1} The note reads "Two tribes of Yamani
origin."
[END OF IBN
ISHAQ QUOTE]
FROM IBN SA'D'S "KITAB AL-TABAQAT AL-KABIR", translated by S. Moinul Haq, volume 2, pages 30-31.
"SARIYYAH OF UMAYR IBN
ADI"
Then (occurred) the sariyyah of
Umayr ibn adi Ibn Kharashah al-Khatmi
against Asma Bint Marwan, of Banu Umayyah Ibn Zayd, when five nights had
remained from the month of Ramadan, in the beginning of the nineteenth month
from the hijrah of the apostle of Allah.
Asma was the wife of Yazid Ibn Zayd Ibn Hisn al-Khatmi. She used to revile Islam, offend the prophet
and instigate the (people) against him.
She composed verses. Umayr Ibn
Adi came to her in the night and entered her house. Her children were sleeping around her. There was one whom she was suckling. He searched her with his hand because he was blind, and separated
the child from her. He thrust his sword
in her chest till it pierced up to her back.
Then he offered the morning prayers with the prophet at al-Medina. The apostle of Allah said to him: "Have you slain the daughter of
Marwan?" He said: "Yes.
Is there something more for me to do?" He [Muhammad] said:
"No. Two goats will butt
together about her. This was the word
that was first heard from the apostle of Allah. The apostle of Allah called him Umayr, "basir" (the
seeing).
[END OF IBN
SA'D QUOTE]
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CORROBORATING
WRITINGS
In "23
Years; A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad", by Ali
Dashti, (Mazda Press, 1994), Dashti also references the murders of Abu Afak and
Asma b. Marwan. He wrote (page 100):
"Abu Afak, a man of great age
(reputedly 120 years) was killed because he lampooned Mohammad. The deed was done by Salem b. 'Omayr at the
behest of the Prophet, who had asked, "Who will deal with this rascal for
me?" The killing of such an old
man moved a poetess, Asma b. Marwan, to compose disrespectful verses about the
Prophet, and she too was assassinated."
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DISCUSSION
Let's sum this up and put it in
perspective.
Muhammad had Abu Afak murdered. Asma b. Marwan spoke out against Muhammad
for having the old man murdered. She
encouraged her fellow tribesmen to take action against the murderer. When Muhammad heard of what she had said, he
continued his killing spree and had her murdered.
How much of a threat was she to Muhammad? In all likely-hood, she would have great
difficulty in attacking Muhammad herself.
She needed men to stand up to Muhammad.
Look deeper at the event and examine the context of Asma's relationship
to her tribe.
1) First of all, her tribe was not under
Muhammad's rule. Perhaps they had a
treaty with Muhammad, perhaps not.
Either way, this women was free to speak her mind. If a treaty existed, and she was out of
line, Muhammad could have complained to her tribe's leaders, and they could
have commanded her to be silent.
2) What's more noteworthy about this event
is that after she was murdered, Muhammad said "Two goats won't butt their
head about her", meaning no one will care about her death. (Well except her children and her family).
Also note, that there were already
people from her tribe who had become Muslims.
Certainly these people were not going to listen to her.
The point
is this: if no one really cared about
her being murdered, then no one really cared about what she had to say. Her people also knew about Muhammad having
Abu Afak murdered, and they didn't seem to care about that either. Even in that light, no one would take her
serious enough to listen to her urgings to murder Muhammad, who was the leader
of a powerful group of people. None of
her people were willing to put their lives on the line for her words.
The
bottom line is this: Asma b. Marwan was
not a legitimate threat to Muhammad.
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Let's explore a similar
example. Throughout the Mideast, there
are Muslims who call America the Great Satan.
These Muslims have called for the violent destruction of America. Frequently great crowds have gathered to
chant "death to America, death to Reagan, or Bush, Clinton, or
???". Now, if America, or Reagan,
or Bush, etc. were to use Muhammad's standards, they would engage in killing
quite a few Arabs. But we know that the
chanting of a crowd of hot-heads does not justify the use of violence against
them. There are better ways of dealing with
critics and criticisms. Frequently, in
the passion of youth, people do and say things they don't intend to act out, or
are not able to carry out.
So why then did Muhammad really
request Asma's murder?
Try multiple choice:
a) Muhammad believed that she
constituted a legitimate threat to himself, so he ordered her murdered
b) Muhammad was bothered by her words,
and wanted her silenced
c) God told Muhammad to have this woman
murdered
Obviously, the only real choice is
b. She didn't scare him, she was not
the leader of her tribe, and she had little or no influence. She was little more than a nuisance to
him. If God told Muhammad to go and
kill her, Muhammad would have claimed to have a revelation like "Oh
Muslims, Allah says to go and kill Asma b. Marwan". And it would have happened immediately. If that was the case then Muslims would have
attacked her in force in the daylight.
The
only conclusion is that Asma challenged Muhammad’s ego and actions. This troubled Muhammad and he wanted her
silenced.
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ADDITIONAL
OBSERVATIONS
1) What alarms me the most about Islam is
its disposition to violence and use of violence as a standard of God's will.
Umayr is a perfect example of
this. Here is a Muslim man, a friend of
Muhammad's, acting upon Muhammad's request and going into a woman's home under
the cover of night. He comes upon the
women, sleeping in her bed with her child, and murders her by plunging a sword
through her body.
Afterwards, Muhammad tells the man
that he has "helped God and his apostle". If Allah were really threatened by this woman, I think He could
have killed her Himself, don't you?
Does God need men to sneak around in the night and murder sleeping
women?
2) Further, what kind of religion is Islam
really? Soon after Umayr murdered Asma,
he went to her family and mocked them!
He was laughing in their faces that he had murdered their mother and
that they were powerless to do anything about it! Here is the quote again:
"She had five sons, and when
Umayr went to them from the apostle he said, "I have killed bint Marwan, O
sons of Khatma. Withstand me if you
can; don't keep me waiting."
3) I also have to criticize the non-Muslim
Arabs in Muhammad's time. They did lack
a sense of the value of human life.
Here one of their own woman was murdered, and instead of being appalled,
they began to convert to Islam because they "saw the power of Islam".
4) Finally, similar to observation #1,
look at the power of Islam. Here is the
quote:
"That was the first day Islam
became powerful among B. Khatma..... The day after Bint Marwan was killed the
men of B. Khatma became Muslims because they saw the power of Islam."
So then, the power of Islam is to go
about and murder sleeping women in the night, and get away with it?
Does "might make right"
ring true in Islam? Is it "he who
has the biggest sword is from Allah?
The only people I know who respect
that kind of power are criminals, Mafia
type people who also go in the night and murder people while they sleep.
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QUESTIONS
1) What kind of a man was Muhammad? Did he really need to ask his men to murder
a mother of five, a women who was no legitimate threat to him?.
2) Why couldn't Muhammad murder her
himself? Why is it that every time
Muhammad wanted someone killed, he always got someone else to do his killing?
3) Look at this dark side of Islam. This is the Islam Muhammad practiced. When the founder of a religion has to have
powerless women murdered in the night for opposing him, how can that religion
be described?
4) Where are "women's rights",
or "human rights" now in Islam?
If Muhammad denied freedom of speech to others, how does that reflect
upon Islam and what we see occurring in the Islamic world today? Why is it that the more fundamentalist
Muslim nations become, the more oppressive they are toward all basic human
rights?
5) Is this Muhammad a man that you could
really trust?
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CONCLUSION
We know that there are good and bad
in all religions, but this case is different.
This event reflects upon the man who started Islam: Islam is built upon Muhammad's words and
deeds. We see here that Muhammad had a
woman brutally murdered. She was killed
because she spoke out against him, and became more of a nuisance, not a
legitimate threat. Further, Muhammad
had no legal right to kill her. He took
the situation into his own hands and had her murdered. Muhammad felt that this murder was helping
God; he felt no guilt, or sense of repentance.
Jesus condemned those who murdered
...."Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually
immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices
falsehood" Revelation 22:15. Muhammad falls into that category. Surely, this man Muhammad was not a real
prophet of God.
asma.htm
Rev A: 2-10-98, Rev B: 9/8/01
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