Friday, October 10, 2008

Muhammad the Caravan Raider & War-Profiteer

There are multiple Islamic sources that attest to Muhammad steeling plunder or encouraging plunder, and distributing it to his followers. The clear picture that is painted when drawing on Islam's own sources about the life of Muhammad is one of a "prophet" that set himself as the primary recipient of the benefits of history's first ever recorded crime syndicate. In fact, Muhammad relogates unto himself the supposed divinely inspired right to receive 20% of all the plunder taken by Muslims under the clever, oft used, equationary Quranic phrases "Allah and his Apostle", or "Allah and his messenger".

I present 4 of the many examples of Muhammad's theft, plunder, and war-profiteering, drawn from Ibn Ishaq (Islam's earliest biographer of Muhammad, and historian), al-Tabari (a slightly later historian, often argued by Muslims to be their greatest), and al-Bukhari (a Sahih Hadith collector accepted by all Sunni schools of jurisprudence as second in authority only to the Quran):

Ishaq:285 "Then the Apostle went raiding in the month of Rabi u'l-Awwal making for the Quraysh. Then he raided the Quraysh by way of Dinar."


Tabari IX:122 "Muhammad sent Uyaynah to raid The Banu Anbar. They killed some people and took others captive. Asma was one of the women taken prisoner."


Ishaq:289 "Muhammad summoned the Muslims and said, 'This is the Quraysh caravan containing their property. Go out and attack it. Perhaps Allah will give it to us as prey."


Sahih Bukhari V4B52N 301: Narrated Anas: The Prophet performed 'Umra, setting out from Al-Jarana where he distributed the war booty of Hunain.

The consistency of the message from Islam's earliest and best sources is striking and undeniable. Here we have multiple sources drawing from multiple streams of tradition communicating the same message.