Umm Qirfa: Difference between revisions

Umm Qirfa was an old Arab woman, reportedly contemporaneous to [[Muhammad]], the prophet of [[Islam]]. She is said to have belonged to a pagan tribe named Banu Fazara at Wadi Al-Qurra. The elderly woman was also said to be a chief of her clan, which was brutally killed when Muhammad and [[Companion|his followers]] [[List of expeditions of Muhammad|raided]] her tribe and overpowered them. The incident took place almost six years after Muhammad’s Hijra (هِجْرَة Migration) to Medina in 622 AD. Traditional sources recount how Muhammad's companions tied Umm Qirfa to a pair of camels which, after being made to run in opposite directions, tore her body in half.

[[Ibn Ishaq]], the first authentic biographer of Muhammad gives us the details in his [[Sirat Rasul Allah]]:

Some have suggested that the motivation for the execution itself, the mode of execution, and possible subsequent display was Muhammad's inability to tolerate women enjoying leadership roles in society, as suggested by {{Bukhari|9|88|219|}}.<ref>"''Narrated Abu Bakra: ... When the Prophet heard the news that the people of the Persia had made the daughter of Khosrau their Queen (ruler), he said, "Never will succeed such a nation as makes a woman their ruler."''" - {{Bukhari|9|88|219}}</ref>  

The first to report this murder was Ibn Ishaq followed by Tabari, two historians which Muslims sometimes view with suspicion when Muhammad is cast by them in what is today a negative light. While, the highly edited version of Ibn Ishaq (by Ibn Hisham) does contain the mention of the killing but not the brutal way in which she was killed, Tabari details the brutality of her killing. [[Sahih]] sources (Bukhari and Muslim) are also silent in regards to the killing of Umm Qirfa. Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, a widely-read modern day biographer of Prophet Muhammad has also pointed out the Umm Qirfa incident in his work “The Sealed Nectar”. This book is highly regarded among the worlds Muslims and its Arabic version was awarded first prize by the Muslim World League, at the first Islamic Conference on Seerah, following a worldwide competition for a book on the Sirah Rasul Allah (life of Muhammad) in 1979.

{{Quote|Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, The Sealed Nectar: Page 152|An expedition led by Abu Bakr As-Siddiq or Zaid bin Haritha was despatched to Wadi Al-Qura in Ramadan 6 Hijri after Fazara sept had made an attempt at the Prophet’s life. Following the morning prayer, the detachment was given orders to raid the enemy. Some of them were killed and others captured. Amongst the captives, were Umm Qirfa and her beautiful daughter, who was sent to Makkah as a ransom for the release of some Muslim prisoners there. Umm Qirfa’s attempts at the Prophet’s life recoiled on her, and the thirty horsemen she had gathered and sustained to implement her evil scheme were all killed.}}

The account found in “The Sealed Nectar” is derived from a Sahih Muslim Hadith in regards to the incident. Though somewhat descriptive, the Sahih Muslim Hadith does not mention the fate of Umm Qirfa.  

{{Quote||Salama said that he had not disrobed the daughter of Umm Qirfa when they reached Medina, and again when Muhammad met him in the street, he told that he had not disrobed her. This is enough proof that she was not raped or molested.}}

The same Sahih hadith mentions that Abu Bakr first gave the girl to Salama as a '''prize''', and in the context of Islamic sexual slavery, it can only be assumed that this was to be a ''sexual'' prize: