31- SA‘D’S AWARD IN HARMONY WITH THE BIBLE
Turning to the Banu Quraiza he asked the same question,and they also agreed. Then shyly he pointed to the side where the Prophetsa was sitting and asked if the people on that side also agreed to abide by his award. On hearing this, the Prophetsa replied, “Yes” (Tabari and Hisham). Then Sa‘dra gave his award in accordance with the following commandment of the Bible. Says the Bible:
When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amoiites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee: That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God (Deut. 20: 10-18).
According to the teaching of the Bible, if the Jews had won and the Prophetsa had lost, all Muslims—men, women and children—would have been put to death. We know from history that this was the very intention of the Jews. The least the Jews would have done was to put to death the men, to enslave the women and children and make away with the belongings of the Muslims, this being the treatment laid down in Deuteronomy for enemy nations living in distant parts of the world. Sa‘dra was friendly to the Banu Quraiza. His tribe was in alliance with theirs. When he saw that the Jews had refused to accept the award of the Prophetsa and refused thus to have the lighter punishment prescribed for such an offence in Islam, he decided to award to the Jews the punishment which Mosesas had laid down. The responsibility for this award does not rest with the Prophetsa or the Muslims, but with Mosesas and his teaching and with the Jews who had treated the Muslims so cruelly. They were offered what would have been a compassionate award. But, instead of accepting this, they insisted on an award by Sa‘dra. Sa‘dra decided to punish the Jews in accordance with the Law of Mosesas. Yet Christians to this day continue to defame the Prophetsa of Islam and say that he was cruel to the Jews. If the Prophetsa was cruel to the Jews, why was he not cruel to other people or on other occasions? There were many occasions on which the Prophet’ssa enemies threw themselves at his mercy, and never did they ask in vain for his forgiveness. On this occasion the enemy insisted on a person other than the Prophetsa making the award. This nominee of the Jews, acting as umpire between them and the Muslims, asked the Prophetsa and the Jews in public whether they would accept his award. It was after the parties had agreed, that he proceeded to announce it. And what was his award? It was nothing but the application of the Law of Mosesas to the offence of the Jews. Why then should they not have accepted it? Did they not count themselves among the followers of Mosesas? If any cruelty was perpetrated, it was by the Jews on the Jews. The Jews refused to accept the Prophet’ssa award and invited instead the application of their own religious law to their offence. If any cruelty was perpetrated it was by Mosesas, who laid down this penalty for a beleaguered enemy and laid this down in his book under the command of God. Christian writers should not pour out the vials of their wrath on the Prophetsa of Islam. They should condemn Mosesas who prescribed this cruel penalty or the God of Mosesas, Who commanded him to do so.
The Battle of the Ditch over, the Prophetsa declared that from that day onwards pagans would not attack Muslims; instead, Muslims would now attack pagans. The tide was going to turn. Muslims were going to take the offensive against tribes and parties which had so far been gratuitously attacking and harassing them. What the Prophetsa said was no empty threat. In the Battle of the Ditch the Arab confederates had not suffered any considerable losses. They had lost only a few men. In less than a year’s time they could have come and attacked Medina again and with even better preparations. Instead of any army of twenty thousand they could have raised for a new attack an army of forty, or even fifty, thousand. An army numbering a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand was not beyond their capacity. But now for twenty-one years, the enemies of Islam had done their utmost to extirpate Islam and Muslims. Continued failure of their plans had shaken their confidence. They had begun to fear that what the Prophetsa taught was true, and that their national idols and gods were false, that the Creator was the One Invisible God taught by the Prophetsa. The fear that the Prophetsa was right and they wrong had begun to creep upon them. There was no outward sign of this fear, however. Physically, the disbelievers went about as they had always done. They went to their idols and prayed to them as national custom required. But their spirit was broken. Outwardly they lived the lives of pagans and disbelievers; inwardly their hearts seemed to echo the Muslim slogan, ‘There is no God but Allah.’
After the Battle of the Ditch the Prophetsa, as we have observed already, declared that henceforward disbelievers would not attack Muslims but that, instead, Muslims would attack disbelievers. Muslim endurance had reached its limit. The tide was going to turn (Bukhari, Kitabal Maghazi ).
(Source: LIFE OF MUHAMMAD (pbuh))
BY HADRAT MIRZA BASHIRUDDIN MAHMUD AHMAD
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