Muhammad annihilated those, who were critical of him and his doctrines. The not-so-well-known story of the murder of Sallam Ibn Abu’l-Huqayq, a Jewish leader of Khayber, is one amongst many.


Introduction

This is the sad story of the assassination of Sallam Ibn Abu’l-Huqayq. The full story can be found in Ibn Ishaq’s The Life of Muhammad (trs. A. Guillaume, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 482-3).

Background

No sooner than the Prophet moved to Medina, he did not waste much time, and started his robberies and lootings, as well as assassinations of those, who said something negative about him, right away. There were two pagan Arab tribes in the Medina, named Aws and Khazraj. Those tribes worked mostly in menial jobs in the service of the rich Jewish tribes in Medina. The Aws and Khazraj quickly joined the Muslim camp as their leaders adopted Islam and saw Muhammad as a source of their future riches and strength (through attacking other surrounding tribes, and through attacking commercial caravans).

Now, Muhammad assassinated many people, who said ‘unpleasant’ things about him. One of the people, assassinated by Muhammad’s henchmen, was Ka’b Ibn Al-Ashraf. Those killers belonged to the Aws tribe. This matter, supposedly, gave them favor in the eyes of Muhammad, leader of the newly-formed ‘religious’ gang. Some Khazraj men got ‘jealous’ of special favor Aws tribes received in Muhammad’s eyes through this assassination. To please Muhammad and to even the score with the Aws, they wanted to assassinate another important person.

The story, although may sound somewhat bizarre, continues that those ‘jealous’ men went to Muhammad for his permission to assassinate Sallam Ibn Abu’l Huqayq, a Jewish leaders in Khaybar. The prophet, being kind-hearted by nature, did not want to frustrate his followers and ‘agreed’ to let them go and assassinate Sallam (He actually gave them permission). However, the prophet made sure to tell them not to kill any women and children in the process. What a kind-hearted man Prophet Muhammad is! It is okay to assassinate Sallam, but leave the women and young ones unharmed.

Five men left Medina on this mission. While leaving, Muhammad appointed Abdullah Bin Atik their leader. Upon reaching Khayber, the assassins went to Sallam’s house at night. His wife came to the door, and they told her that they were Arabs in search of supplies. She let them in. Once she realized they are up to no good, she warned her husband, who was in bed. They ran to him with their swords, and inflict many fatal wounds on him; then ran out like cowards. They went out and hid themselves in a water channel. Khayber residents, who went out in search of them, gave up on finding them after a while. Sallam died from his injuries, and the killers went to Muhammad with the ‘good news’.

Analysis and Conclusion

Muhammad’s assassinations are well-documented in early Islamic sources. This story is just one of many. Muhammad does bear the final responsibility in this assassination incident. Let us assume that those men decided they wanted to assassinate Sallam and came to Muhammad asking for his permission. The prophet gave them permission. Not only that, but he also appointed who is going to be their leader during their mission. Because of those two factors, Muhammad, in my view, is the main perpetrator of this ugly and evil assassination of a man who was getting ready to sleep for the night. Muhammad could have easily denied permission to the assassination request, and this action would have stopped the assassination. He did not. This is consistent with Muhammad’s nature of targeting anyone, who did not agree with him. What an Evil man Muhammad was!!

Comments powered by CComment

Joomla templates by a4joomla