The Emergence of Islam: Classical Traditions in Contemporary Perspective

Chapter 2: Muhammad in Medina

31 and he answered you (saying): I will help you with a thousand of the angels, rank on rank [Q 8:9].” (Tabari, 7:54) The Fight for Islam The Prophet’s migration from Mecca to Medina held such great significance to later Muslims that they chose it to mark the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Thus Islamic years are abbreviated ah, from the latin anno hegirae,“in the year of the hijra.”(One Islamic year corresponds to twelve cycles of the moon, and not the revolution of the earth around the sun, and so it is shorter than the standard Gregorian year.) This choice suggests that the When it was the day of Badr, and the Messenger of God looked at the polytheists and their number, and then looked at his companions, who were something over three hundred, he turned toward [Mecca] and began to pray, saying, “O God, fulfill what you have promised me. O God, if this band of Muslims perishes, you will not be worshipped on the earth.” He continued to say this until his cloak fell off. Abu Bakr picked it up and put it back on him, then grasped him from behind and said, “O Prophet of God, whom I value more than my father and mother, this is enough of calling upon your Lord. He will assuredly fulfill what he has promised you.” Then God revealed,“When ye sought help of your Lord Chapter 2 Muhammad in Medina v The Emergence of islam 32 key moment in Islam’s emergence was not the birth (570 ce) or the death (632 ce) of the Prophet, or the year in which he was called by God (610 ce), but rather his arrival in Medina (622 ce), where Islamic rules would first be established and Islamic law enforced. In fact, the move to Medina is a watershed in the traditional biography of Muhammad. From this point on, Tabari changes the organization of his history. He now groups his reports Islamic year by Islamic year. Moreover, Ibn Ishaq and Tabari (and most other biographers ) now focus their attention above all on the Prophet’s battles against and raids on the unbelievers. (A third early historian, named al-Waqidi, names his entire biography of Muhammad “The Book of Raids [maghazi].”) For all of these biographers, the Prophet’s call in Medina for an Islamic holy war (or jihad) is not a problem to explain away but a pious act to celebrate. We see this conviction in a hadith preserved by Bukhari: A man came to Allah’s Apostle and said, “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad [in reward].” He replied, “I do not find such a deed.” Then he added,“Can you, while the Muslim fighter is in the battlefield , enter your mosque to perform prayers without cease and fast and never break your fast?” The man said, “But who can do that?” (Bukhari, 4:44) Today, however, jihad is a controversial topic. Anti-Islamic polemicists, following a long tradition of Western caricatures, often present Muhammad as an immoral, intolerant, and merciless bandit who converted people to Islam by the sword. Robert Spencer titles one of his recent books to this effect: The Truth about Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion. For their part, Muslim apologists, deliberately ignoring the most ancient Islamic traditions, present Muhammad as a man of peace rivaling Gandhi. Muhammad Abdel Haleem, for instance, writes that Muhammad fought all of his raids in self-defense, even if Ibn Ishaq reports that the Prophet “went forth raiding” (281) almost immediately after his arrival in Medina (only to be frustrated when he could not find any Quraysh to attack). Later in this work, I will discuss further the question of the Prophet’s moral standing on matters such as war. For now, we note simply that for the authors of the classical sources the Prophet’s moral standing is not a problem. The Prophet’s feats in war are miraculous signs of divine blessing, similar to his other miraculous signs. In the story of the tree that comes forth to meet Muhammad, the point is not whether doing so was good or bad for the tree. The point is that only a prophet could do such a thing. In the same way, the point of stories in which Muhammad outsmarts, outmaneuvers, and triumphs over superior forces in battle is neither that war is good or bad, nor that Muhammad always...