| The Murder of Amr-ben-al Hadra’mi In pre-Islamic times, the Arabs considered four months of the year to be Sacred Months. During these months all fighting on the Peninsula stopped and life was celebrated through worship, song, dance and poetry. For at least one third of the lunar year, the entire Arabian Peninsula was at peace and everyone celebrated their faith, whatever that faith was. The Sacred Months allowed pilgrims to make their way to Mecca unmolested. Mecca, before the Prophet made Islam the only acceptable religion on the Peninsula, was not only special to Allah, but also to all the other gods and goddesses in the Arabian pantheon. In fact, anyone from anywhere who made the journey to Mecca could place a figure of his god or goddess on the altar in the Ka’ba, the structure that sheltered (and still does) the stone that Adam grabbed onto when he and Eve were cast out of Paradise. Adam and Eve were literally flung out of Paradise, which the Koran locates just above the clouds supported by invisible pillars anchored to the earth. 13:2 Allah is He Who raised the heavens without pillars that you can see; there He sat upright on the Throne and made the sun and the moon subservient, each running for an appointed term. He manages the [whole] affair and makes clear the Revelations so that you may be certain of meeting your Lord. Adam landed in present day Sri Lanka on a mountain appropriately named Adam’s Peak, and Eve near present-day Mecca. Adam, just before he was bodily thrown out of Paradise, held onto a large stone which followed him down. He dragged this rock all the way to where Eve was patiently waiting for him in the desert, and used this stone of Paradise to set up an altar to Allah around which grew the town of Mecca. This is the same stone, according to the Traditions, (sayings and stories related by the Prophet Muhammad or his companions) on which Abraham attempted the sacrifice of Ishmael (not Isaac, that is an Old Testament error, one of the many the Koran was sent to correct). By adding a relic or idol of your own omnipotent invisible friend you made the Ka’ba a place of worship for your faith as well. This made Mecca, and its surroundings not only sacred to those who believed in Allah, but just about everyone in the Middle East, if not the known world. Any pilgrim who made it to what is referred to as the Sacred Precinct of Mecca at any time of the year could not be harmed in any way. The Precinct is marked by stones a meter high on all roads leading to or from the city, and extends from six to sixteen kilometers from the Sacred Mosque, the largest mosque in the world, which surrounds the Ka’ba. Would-be conquerors approached Mecca at their risk and peril. The last one who tried, according to the Traditions, was Abraha, the Christian ruler of the principality of Saba' in Yemen (then part of the Abyssinian Empire) who is alleged to have marched on Mecca in 570, the year of Muhammad’s birth. On the approach to Mecca, the elephant Abraha was ridding stopped and knelt on the ground and refused to go any further. Suddenly, out of the sky appeared squadron after squadron of Sparrows armed with tiny stones with which they bombed the army of Abraha, killing all the estimated 60,000 men, their elephants, camels and horses. One of the last surahs (chapters of the Koran) is dedicated to this unlikely encounter of which history has no record. The Elephant In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful 105:1 Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the Companions of the Elephant? 105:2 Did he not turn their cunning into perdition? 105:3 And send upon them swarms of birds; 105:4 Hurling upon them stones of clay; 105:5 And so He reduced them to munched blades of grass. The Sacred Months severely limited any tribe’s ability to conduct a sustained military campaign to dominate the Arabian Peninsula. That was until Islam came along and set the stage for a bloody civil war between the believers and those who refused to be told what to believe by the Prophet and his armed men. What passed for warfare on the Peninsula, in pre-Islamic times, were mainly revenge raids or plundering expeditions on other clans or tribes where you scrupulously tried to avoid killing anyone because of Talion Law, the eye-for-an-eye law or law of retaliation, which remains Allah’s Law. The pre-Islamic Arabs, according to Ernest Renan (1823–92), French historian and critic were also very much into chivalry, life and all it had to offer: I am not aware in the entire history of civilisation of a more gracious, more loving, more vibrant society than that of the Arabs before Islam … [it was a time] … of unbound freedom, lofty sentiments, a nomadic and chivalrous way of life, [a land] of fantasy, joy, mischievousness, bawdy impious poetry, refined love-making … Ernest Renan, cf. Robert Montagne La Civilisation du désert This was the time and place of Muhammad, an inconspicuous (that would change) member of the ruling tribe of Mecca. The future Prophet’s main claim to fame was that he was married to the wealthy widow Khadijah whose eye he caught after she hired the young Muhammad to accompany her caravans to and from Damascus. The Quraysh, the ruling oligarchy of the holy city said to have been founded by Adam (if you ignore the fact that Eve may have been the first to disturb the sand where Mecca would rise) was made up of ten clans. At the age of 35, the unassuming Muhammad was asked to arbitrate a dispute between the clans which raised his profile somewhat, and may also have gone to his head. The structure that sheltered the stone that Adam brought from Paradise, the Ka’ba, had been severely damaged by a fire and water. It was decided to build a new Ka’ba next to the old one. When it came time to move the stone of Paradise to its new location, every leader of the ten clans vied for the honour, some willing to fight to the death for the right to move the most sacred rock in the universe. A compromise was reached. The next person to enter the Sacred Mosque, the enclosure surrounding the Ka’ba, would decide who would move the stone. Guess who showed up? Muhammad’s solution; the rock would be rolled unto a large sheet, and each clan chief would grab a hold of the sheet and moved the rock to its new enclosure. There is no mention in Gheorghiu's account as to who rolled the rock unto the sheet, but the clan leaders were very impressed with Muhammad and he was highly praised by one and all. The enthralled future Prophet then stripped to the waist to help out, and shortly suffered what we might call a “heat or sun stroke” from which he nearly died. The next time we encounter Muhammad is about five years later when he is visited by the Archangel Gabriel while meditating in a cave above Mecca. God's right-hand angel informs the astonished Muhammad that God Almighty has made him His Messenger and tasked him with delivering his final instructions for mankind, the Koran. The newly appointed Messenger of God waits three years, until he is convinced that the instructions that he is receiving almost daily from Gabriel are from God, and after the angel tells him that it’s time to tell everyone the good news. The Prophet Muhammad assumes that he only has to repeat what Gabriel has taught him and everyone will be a believer; and like what happened that day at the Ka’ba, he will be praised as a wise man and accepted as God’s earth-bound intermediary whose decisions will be binding on everyone. Even if Allah’s message at the time is conciliatory in tone (the so-called Meccan verses) with promises of Paradise to anyone who follows His Messenger’s instructions as if they came from Him personally, the Meccans will have none of it. They think the person they have known for forty years as Muhammad the son of Abdullah and Amina is out of his mind, and tell him so. 7:184 Do they not consider that their companion (Muhammad) is not mad. He is only a plain warner. 15:6 They say: “O you, to whom the Reminder (the Qur’an) is revealed, you are indeed a madman. 44:14 But they turned away from him saying: “He is a tutored madman.” 52:29 So remind [them]; for you (Muhammad) are not by the Grace of your Lord, a soothsayer or a madman. Allah, in revealing what the Meccans initially thought of His Messenger, also reminds the reader that those who said the Prophet was demented would pay dearly, and pay they did, most with their lives. 68:2 You are not (O Muhammad), by the Grace of your Lord, a madman. 68:3 You will have a wage which is unstinted; 68:4 And you are truly a man of noble character. 68:5 You shall see and they shall see, 68:6 Which of you is the demented one. The Prophet in the next six years attracted enough converts to Islam to worry the Meccan leadership. His own tribe, the Quraysh, decided it would be better if Muhammad and his followers left town. Some Muslims sought and were given refuge by the Christian king of Abyssinia i.e. Ethiopia, in what has become known as the hegira, the migration, and which marks the first year of the Islamic calendar. They would later return to bolster the Prophet’s forces in the bloody civil war that would shortly engulf the Peninsula. Muhammad is finally convinced that it’s time to go when an attempt is made on his life. He and a small band of followers escape to the oasis city of Medina about 210 miles (339 km) north west of Mecca. In Medina, lived three Jewish tribes. When Muhammad sought refuge in their city he was welcomed by the Jews, in part, because of his preaching that the god of the Old Testament was the one and only god. They even entered into a covenant with him to come to his (the Muslims) aid if he was ever attacked. In return, he signed a promise of non-aggression. The Meccans, having decided that Muhammad is too big a threat to the way of life on the Peninsula, march on Medina and demand that the people of Medina surrender the Prophet to them. They refuse. It is to the Jews of Medina that we are indebted for the survival of Islam, and to the Christian king of Abyssinia who saved so many believers to fight another day. Rather than risk the lives of the innocent, the Meccans, as is their custom, impose what authors refer to as "the blockade of Medina" but which is more like a trade embargo. Even with the so-called blockade in place, the Prophet’s raiding parties, which is his response to the embargo, leave and enter Medina at will. The Muslim raiders are too few to effectively challenge the large Meccan caravans passing between Medina and the Red Sea on their way to and from Syria. They also find no support among the tribes with whom the Meccans have negotiated agreements for safe passage. The Prophet is successful however, in convincing many Bedouins to become Muslims and join the fight, with his promise of a salacious Paradise for those who die for Allah and plunder a plenty for those who survive. But it’s still not enough men to take on the Meccan caravans which have grown to convoy proportions for protection. In any event, the Prophet is leery about the Bedouins' commitment to the fight, or at least Allah is. 9:97 The desert Arabs are more steeped in unbelief and hypocrisy and are more likely not to know the bounds of what Allah has revealed to His Messenger. Allah is All-Knowing, Wise. 9:98 And some of the desert Arabs regard what they spend as a fine, and await the turns of fortune to go against you. May the evil turn against them. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. Many of Allah’s revelations to His Messenger during his stay in Medina, unlike the revelations the Prophet received during his time in Mecca, have a blood-thirsty, pitiless war-like quality about them. It is during his stay in Medina that the Prophet decides that, if his fellow Arabs will not accept him as Allah’s mouthpiece and the Koran as the Word of God on his say-so, he will make them see the light by force. Minor setbacks, like his initial inability to plunder at will the Meccan caravans passing by Medina, did not deter the Prophet. Unlike his adversaries, God’s Messenger had a clear vision of what he wanted to accomplish, and more importantly, the wherewithal to outwit his opponents at almost every turn, combined with a single-minded ruthlessness that knew no bounds. The attack on the twin towers full of innocent men women and children is a modern manifestation of this innate ruthlessness with which he has imbued many of his followers. Virgil Gheorghiu, in his admiring biography “Le Prophet Mahomet”, from which much of the story told so far finds its inspiration, is not an apologist for the actions of God’s Messenger. But, like former nun and author Karen Armstrong who justified the Prophets dispossession and massacre of the Jews of Medina who saved him and his movement from annihilation, as a “defensive measure”, he too condones the attack on what was essentially four farmers taking their goods to market. During the attack, which is made during a holy month when all fighting is forbidden, one farmer is killed. Gheorghiu repeats the same canard as apologists for the Prophet’s questionable actions, in this case, that it was out of necessity that God's Messenger ordered a raid during a sacred month because the believers in Medina were starving to death. Starving in an oasis city famous for its orchards of dates and other fruit bearing trees where the inhabitants more than lived up to the Arab reputation for hospitality stretches credibly to the breaking point. Is it possible that the cunning farsighted Muhammad planned for the attack to occur when it did so as to do away with, once and for all, the interdiction against warfare during the Sacred Months? An interdiction which he could foresee would play havoc with his plans to Islamisize (sic) the Peninsula by force. The attack on the farmers’ caravan occurred more than 250 miles south east of Medina. The attackers’ instructions were contained in a letter from the Prophet which they were told not to read until they had reached a well some distance west of Medina. A summary on how it went down based on Virgil Gheorghiu’s account. In November 623, having failed to plunder even a single Meccan caravan passing between the Red Sea and Medina the Prophet changes tactics and decides to attack non-Meccan caravans plying another route. It is all very hush-hush. Even the men who will carry out the first raid don’t know what their ultimate target is. Abdallah-ibn-Jjach, the leader of an eight men raiding party, is given a letter by the Prophet which he is told not to read until he arrives at a famous well, two days ride by camel, west of Medina. The Prophet’s instructions tell the group to head in the opposite direction. Two weeks later, they arrive at their destination on the trade route between Mecca and Ta’if where they wait for a caravan making its way from Ta’if to Mecca. Ta’if is a small city about 46 miles or (74 km) south east of Mecca. At an elevation of 6,165 ft. (1,879 m) on the slopes of the Sarawat Mountains the area is conducive to the production of agricultural products such as grapes, roses and honey. There is still a day left in the sacred month of Rajab when they spot four men on their way to Mecca with a cargo of raisins, wine and animal skins. If they wait a day until the end of the sacred month to attack, the small caravan will have reached the precinct of Mecca and will be inviolate. What to do? Follow the Prophet’s instructions, which they believe to be from God, or respect god’s sacred month. They decide to attack, and one of the four people with the caravan is killed. Amr-ben-al Hadra’mi becomes the first person murdered in the cause of Islam. When they return to Medina the story of the murder of Hadra’mi during a sacred month has spread far and wide. A scandal has erupted. Believers and unbelievers alike are aghast that anyone would pillage and murder during a sacred month and that this sacrilege would be tolerated. The Prophet's reputation and his quest are at stake. God' Messenger is surprised by the uproar, but is unperturbed. He orders that the puny plunder for which a man was killed (raisins, wine and animal skins) be set aside and not distributed until he has heard from God. A few days later the Angel Gabriel delivers to the Prophet revelations from Allah that are intended to clarify the rules regarding this killing business during a sacred month. First, Allah establishes, as a general principal, that killing in retaliation for a killing is allowed during a sacred month; and that killing those who would violate things that are sacred to the believers is justified year round. 2:194 A sacred month for a sacred month; and retaliation [is allowed] when sacred things [are violated]. Thus whoever commits aggression against you, retaliate against him in the same way. Fear Allah and know that Allah is with those who fear Him. Next, Allah deals with the question of killing during the sacred months where there is no apparent provocation or reason. In a fine piece of hair splitting, Allah both condemns and condones the murder of Amr-ben-al Hadra’mi. In doing so He implicitly, if not explicitly, gives the believers a licence to kill anyone, anywhere at any time if they honestly believe it will advance the cause of Allah, such as killing those who would “debar people from Allah’s Way”, which could be anyone, even other Muslims. He does not stop there! Believers can also kill anyone at any time, even entire communities, if they fear they will leave Islam, the meaning of “Sedition is worse than murder”. 2:217 They ask you about the sacred month: “Is there fighting in it?” Say: “Fighting in it is a great sin; but to debar people from Allah’s Way and to deny Him and the Sacred Mosque, and to drive its people out of it is a greater sin in Allah’s Sight. Sedition is worse than murder.” Nor will they cease to fight you until they make you, if they can renounce your religion. Those of you who renounce their religion and die, while they are unbelievers, are those whose works come to grief, [both] in this world and in the Hereafter. And they are the people of the Fire, abiding in it forever. Today, the sacred months* have lost all their pre-Islamic civilizing meaning. Even the holiest of months, Ramadan, the Month of Fasting which is really the Month of Great Heat, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is not immune to Allah's' finespun reasoning when it comes to killing during a period of time considered sacred. Some of the killing done by believers during the last two week of Ramadan (2011): "29 dead in Iraq mosque suicide bombing" Aug 28 “Attack on UN headquarters [in Abuja by Boko Haram ] kills at least 23 people.”** Aug 26 "Teenage suicide bomber kills 48 at Pakistan mosque" Aug 19 "Roadside bomb kills at least 21 in Afghanistan" Aug 18 "Suicide bombers attack Afghan governor's compound, 22 dead" Aug 14 ... It has been more or less like that since Allah condoned the killing of an innocent man because it was done in His Name. ------- * Dhu’l-Qa’dah (11 - The Month of Rest), Dhu’l-Hijjah (12 - The Month of Pilgrimage), Muharram, (1 - The Sacred Month, beginning of the Islamic New Year) and Rajab (7 - The Month of Respect). ** Boko Haram means literally “non-Islamic education is a sin”. The founder of Boko Haram, cleric Mohammed Yusuf, in a 2009 BBC interview admitted that he does not believed the earth is a sphere, and that rain comes from water evaporated by the sun. Rain was a welcomed, highly sporadic occurrence in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula; therefore the Prophet may have been speaking metaphorically, which was not like him, when he referred to rain as “the spit of angels”. The founder of Boko Haram is on more solid flat theological ground however when he states the earth is level. Read Alexander the Great and a Flat Earth, which relates what Allah and His Messenger had to say about the shape of our planet to understand why.
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