Playing God

"All rights of this book are reserved for the publisher and the author. This copy is for reading purpose only. This copy cannot be uploaded on any website except those of the publisher and the author." Playing God: Misreading a Divine Practice 55 assassination of certain non-Muslims of the Prophet’s times who had allegedly blasphemed against Allah and the Prophet (sws). 40 Thus, for example, Ab ū R ā fi‘ and Ka‘b ibn Ashraf were put to death in their houses. 41 If all these cases are analyzed, it comes to light that this conclusion is incorrect. Once again we are faced with a situation in which the people assassinated are those who, as per the divine practice discussed in this treatise, had already become punishable by death once they had intentionally denied the truth after th e Prop het’ s m igration to Mad ī nah. While most of them were giv en mo re time and respite to contemplate on the consequences of their denial, those among them who assumed the role of active adversaries and were spreading disorder and anarchy in the society were punished by death after they were repeatedly warned of their highly antagonizing behaviour. While describing the details of three prominent non- Muslims who were put to death for being active adversaries of Islam and the Prophet (sws), Gha # midi # writes: Ab ū R ā fi‘ was one of those people who were guilty of bringing out the tribes against Mad ī nah in Ghazwah-i Khandaq (Battle of the Ditch). In Ibn Ishā q’s words: 7 „ v ab „v FB3< …• œ€ • = 40. Ab ū al-‘Abb ā s Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Hal ī m ibn Taymiyah, Al-S ā rim al-masl ū l ‘al ā sh ā tim al-ras ū l , 1 st ed., (Multan: Nashr al-sunnah, n.d.), 61-180. 41. Ibn Hish ā m, Al-S ī rah al-nabawiyyah , vol. 3, 43-48; Ibid., 215-217; Ibn Sa‘d, Al-Tabaq ā t al-kubr ā , vol. 2, 28. www.jav dahmadghamidi.com www.al-mawrid.org