Why Did Prophet Muhammad Fight?

The article concludes that the Prophet’s biggest enemies were falsehood, injustice and oppression. As a mercy for all creation, he was disposed to fighting for self-defence and religion-defence when freedom and people’s basic human rights were in grave danger.

Still, he fought only occasionally, after all other alternatives had been exhausted. Fighting was the last resort and could not be undertaken for any of the vain worldly benefits.

In the process, the Prophet created a remarkable legacy of war ethics, as part of Islamic general ethics. It served as a standard-setter in the fields of conflict and warfare, within which, traditionally, benevolence and rationality are seldom observed.

Washington Irving (1783-1859), an American writer, historian and diplomat, was among the first who systematically stereotyped Islam as “the religion of the sword” and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) as “a man of the sword”.

According to him, the Prophet was sent with the sword as “the instrument of Faith”. He taught that those who engaged themselves in promulgating his faith should enter neither into “argument nor discussion; but slay all who refuse obedience to the law”. “The sword is the key of heaven and hell”, the Prophet is alleged to have said to his followers.

Washington Irving wrote this in his book titled “Mahomet and his Successors”. The book has two volumes. The first volume was published in 1849 and the second in 1850.

This book was not an isolated case. It represented a trend and the author was its spokesperson, so to speak. He declares at the beginning of the book’s preface:

“Some apology may seem necessary for presenting a life of Mahomet at the present day, when no new fact can be added to those already known concerning him.”

In other words, the notoriously violent reputation of Islam and its Prophet was a well-established reality. The author was simply re-emphasizing the obvious.

Intellectual garbage

This book and many other composed for the similar objectives are so superficial and fake that even a casual observer with little or no interest in the subject can conclude so. The book is nothing but a bunch of gross misrepresentations, distortions and crude lies. One wonders how anyone other than those who are supposed to and are duped, would read such nonsenses. The book is an intellectual garbage intended but to try to taint the truth and history. However, both the truth and history are so overwhelmingly established and self-evident, and as such are accessible to all, that any attempts to discredit them are bound to fail sooner rather than later. As the Qur’an asserts: “But the plotting of evil will hem in only the authors thereof” (Fatir, 43).

The book is reduced to a mere footnote in authentic scholarship. In hindsight it is hard not to see it as a historical litter, or left-over, seriously used and “benefitted from” only by such as possess the same value as the book itself. Accordingly, the book is a treasure only for myopic Islamophobes and bigots. It is a\ reference for upholding and promoting fabrications and pretense, and for trying to silence and subvert the truth and its ways as well as people. Every Islamophobe owes a stake to Washington Irving and his “Mahomet and his Successors”. Islamophobia is a form of Irving-ism. Their ingrained and apparently growing presence in a number of sectors of Western civilization – and elsewhere – demonstrates how questionable, and even outright fallacious, some premises, upon which the edifice of Western civilization is erected, are. Its direction together with sustainability prospects, in equal measure, are to be genuinely questioned as well.

Prophet Muhammad as a mercy for all creation

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was the last messenger and the Qur’an revealed to him the last revelation of God to mankind. He was sent as mercy for all creation. The Qur’an says: “And We have not sent you but as a mercy to the worlds” (al-Anbiya’, 107). As such, the Prophet’s task was as much to rectify, reform and endorse, as to initiate, establish
and originate, and as much to look back – and at the present – and put things right, as to look forward and chart future courses.

The Prophet’s mission was one of total purity, universal goodness and mercy. All Islamic principles and injunctions are based on those three thrusts, originating and branching therefrom. Prohibited are only those things as conflict with this spirit. The more they do so, the
more objectionable they become. The Prophet aimed to establish a global community (ummah) which, by means of living and propagating the truth, would worship its one and only Master: Almighty Allah, as the Creator of everything and as the truth’s only source. Hence, of utmost importance for the realization of Islam’s goals were always the notions of justice, equality,
brotherhood, kindness, god-consciousness and altruism.

In pursuit of freedom

Living the truth and enjoying its fruits is possible only in environments that champion freedom. Hence, having un-secured assets during the first thirteen years of his prophetic mission in Makkah, the Prophet decided to migrate to a more conducive milieu. Even though he and his first followers suffered greatly during those difficult times, they did not fight back nor plan to give tit for tat. The persecution was severe, but there were still other alternatives to explore. Fighting was the last alternative to reluctantly have recourse to, but only after other alternatives come to nothing. The Prophet abhorred fighting, just as he did abhor injustice, cruelty and oppression. When he eventually migrated to Madinah, he did not thus run away from troubles and difficulties, nor to acquire a safe haven where he could enjoy the comfort of peace for peace’s own sake, and from where he could plot acts of vengeance against his enemies in Makkah and beyond. Rather, the Prophet moved to Madinah, sacrificing basically everything he had, only to be free and live for his ideals freely, and to ensure that his followers were also free and in a position to practice their religion freely.

Without a doubt, such was the greatest act at once of sacrifice, courage and heroism. Consequently, the Prophet and Muslims found their true lives in Madinah. Yet they found themselves and their earthly paradise there. The city was an epitome of all righteousness,
decency and virtue. That is why the Prophet called it “tayyibah”, which means “good, pleasant and agreeable”. The Prophet and Muslims just wanted to be left alone. They wanted to freely live their newly established lives, while at the same time letting others, in Madinah and elsewhere, do the same.

Fighting and the highest standards of virtue and humanity

The Prophet was concerned about humankind at large and its impending eternal destiny in the Hereafter. His point of reference was Heaven and its higher order of things, events and experiences. In no way was he affected by the prospect of securing some low worldly
gains, such as power, authority, fame, enjoyment and territorial expansion. The Prophet never intended to be a king, nor to establish an empire. Hereditary empires ruled by kings who enjoyed absolute powers, and whose citizens were mere subjects with their welfare fully dependent
on the will of their total rulers, are subsequent un-Islamic inventions. They did not represent the Prophet’s way. In Islam, by the way, a ruler does not rule over people. Instead, he serves them and lives for them. They have been entrusted to him and they remain the source of
his legitimacy. The only Ruler (al-Malik) is Almighty God.

By the same token, the Prophet wished to fight nobody, in the conventional sense of the word. He did not have reasons that warranted doing so. To thus fight people would have been against his principles. It would have defeated the purpose of his prophet-hood mission. To fight for any of those worthless earthly gains would have been inconceivable.

When he had no choice but to fight, though, the Prophet did so in ways that exemplified the highest standards of virtue, humanity and compassion. As a result, even his fighting was a form of mercy for everybody involved: for oppressors and tyrants, who normally fight for self-glorification, avarice and the exploitation of the weak and defenseless, because their evil was thus contained and they were presented with a chance to review their position and make amends; for those who were ill-treated and oppressed because they were relieved of their suffering and were given a new lease of life; and for the whole universal setup because the moral and natural order of creation like so was restored.

Without doubt, in Islam, fighting is not an act of mad brutality. It has its material and moral functions, i.e., self-preservation and the preservation of others as well as of the intrinsic spiritual and moral configuration of the whole world. It is a worldly means for achieving a set of noble worldly and heavenly objectives. When one nation is assailed by the ambitions and cupidity of another, the doctrine of nonresistance is anti-social as it involves non-assertion, not only of one’s
own rights, but also of those of others who need protection against the forces of tyranny and oppression. A Muslim is saddled with the responsibilities to protect himself and all those who need and seek his protection. He cannot afford to abandon the weak and defenseless to
privation, suffering and moral peril (Sahih Muslim, Book 19; Introduction).

Striking a balance between peace, dialogue and fighting

The Prophet fought the Quraysh of Makkah, some other hostile Arab tribes, the treacherous Jews, and the Byzantines and their Arab proxies. In all, there were twenty something major and minor battles. The Prophet participated in nine of them. Nonetheless, his noncombat activities vis-à-vis the same categories of people greatly surpassed his battles. The former connoted a rule, choice and predilection, the latter an exception, necessity and aversion.

War ethics

The Prophet’s philosophy of fighting was ground-breaking. So were the ways in which fighting, whenever unavoidable, was carried out. They heralded the most comprehensive and most benevolent and humane code of conduct in war. By way of illustration, the Qur’an commands: “Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed. Allah does not like transgressors” (al-Baqarah, 190).
“And if you punish (an enemy, O believers), punish with an equivalent of that with which you were harmed. But if you are patient – it is better for those who are patient” (al-Nahl, 126). “And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah. Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know” (Al-Tawbah)

When the Prophet appointed anyone as leader of an army or detachment he would especially exhort him to fear Allah and to be good to the Muslims who were with him. He would then say: “Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children. When you meet your enemies who are polytheists,
invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them…If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the Jezyah, seek Allah’s help and fight them” (Sahih Muslim).

Islamic war ethics as a standard-setter

It was in consequence of this humane notion of fighting and this exemplary war ethics that in all confrontations between Muslims and non-Muslims during the Prophet’s era only 1018 people died on both sides: 259 Muslims and 759 non-Muslims (Sahih Muslim, Book 19;
Introduction).

Compare this, for example, to more than 10,000 men, women and children massacred by the Christian crusaders only inside the area of al-Aqsa mosque (between 40,000 and 70,000 in total) after the city of Jerusalem had been captured as they said “in the name of God”. According to eyewitness accounts, “the streets of Jerusalem were filled with blood”.

French atrocities against Algerians only within the first three decades of the conquest resulted in between 500,000 and 1,000,000 deaths. About 80,000 Libyans died as a result of the Italian
pacification of Libya. Between 15,000 and 30,000 Palestinians have died since the illegal formation of Israel in 1948.

British colonization likewise caused many millions of deaths. While according to a research, “European colonization of the Americas resulted in the killing of so many native people that it transformed the environment and caused the Earth’s climate to cool down.” Apart from mass killings, the European colonizers also brought diseases, caused large-scale depopulation, upset agriculture patterns, and generally introduced new and unknown ways for doing everything (The
Guardian).