Safiyah: Difference between revisions

'''Safiyah bint Huyayy''' (صفية بنت حيي‎, c. 610 - c. 670) (also spelled Saffiya, Safiyya, Safiya bint Huyai) was the bride of [[Kinana]] and the chief mistress of the Jewish tribes of [[Banu Qurayza|Quraiza]] and An-Nadir. According to the [[sira]] Muhammad captured and married her after killing her husband. She and her husband were both captured after the victorious conclusion of Muhammad's [[conquest of Khaybar]]. The narrations agree that Muhammad chose her due to her exceeding beauty, as had been his custom in other engagements where the believers took slave women as booty, such as the conquest of the [[Banu Qurayzah]]. There was apparently some concern for his safety on the part of his followers, as he had just that day murdered her husband and her father after taking them as prisoners of war, going so far as to torture her husband Kinana in order to ascertain the location of his treasure. Modern Muslims have found the story emberassing from the modern, liberal point of view, which supports the rights of people to not be slaves and to choose their own sexual and marriage partners. The story of Safiyah flies in the face of these norms, instead reflecting a world where powerful men like Muhammad take women as prizes in war use them sexually to their own advantage with little regard to the women's emotional well being. Rather than admit this rather plain reading of source texts, many Muslim [[Dawah]] and apologists rather seek to use isolated narratives to recast Safiyah as a women deeply in love with the man who had just killed her father, brother, and new husband (including torturing her husband in order to find his gold) and profoundly possessed by the conviction that he was a prophet of [[Allah (God)]].   

When the Muslims invaded and conquered Khaybar, the fighting men were killed and Safiyah was taken captive (along with the rest of the women and children) and allotted as booty to Dihya Al-Kalbi, a Muslim.<ref>{{Bukhari|2|14|68}}</ref>  Kinana, her husband, was tortured and executed by the Muslims in order to discover the hiding places of treasure,<ref>Ishaq. I (Author), Guillaume. A (Translator). (2002). [http://www.amazon.com/Life-Muhammad-I-Ishaq/dp/0196360331/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252901691&sr=8-1#reader ''The Life of Muhammad'']. (p. 515). Oxford University Press</ref><ref>Tabari vol. 8, p.123</ref><ref>Muir, Sir William. (1878). [http://books.google.com/books?id=5QMMAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false ''The Life of Mahomet, New Edition'']. (pp. 390-391) London:Smith, Elder and Co.</ref> and one source relates that he and Safiyah had been married for only one day.<ref>Muir, Sir William. (1878). [http://books.google.com/books?id=5QMMAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false ''The Life of Mahomet, New Edition'']. (pp. 392) London:Smith, Elder and Co.</ref> She was so [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Beauty and Makeup|beautiful]], that the Muslims began praising her in the presence of [[Muhammad]]<ref>{{Muslim|8|3329}}</ref>, and so the prophet commanded that Dihya be brought before him along with Safiyah.{{Quote|{{Muslim|8|3328}}|Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: Khaibar is ruined. Verily when we get down in the valley of a people, evil is the morning of the warned ones (al-Qur'an, xxxvii. 177). Allah, the Majestic and the Glorious, defeated them (the inhabitants of Khaibar), and there fell to the lot of Dihya a beautiful girl, and Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) got her in exchange of seven heads, and then entrusted her to Umm Sulaim so that she might embellish her and prepare her (for marriage) with him. }}

Upon seeing her, Muhammad said, "Take any slave girl other than her from the captives"<ref>{{Bukhari|1|8|367}}</ref> and he selected her for himself (as was his custom, he had done similarly with Rayhana after [[The Massacre of the Banu Qurayza]]).<ref>{{Bukhari|3|34|437}}</ref>  The Muslims left Khaybar to return to Medina and on the way they stopped at a place called Sidd-as-Sahba; it was at this time Safiyah became clean from her menses.<ref>{{Bukhari|5|59|522}}</ref> {{Quote|{{Bukhari|4|52|143}}|Then we reached Khaibar; and when Allah enabled him to conquer the Fort (of Khaibar), the beauty of Safiya bint Huyai bin Akhtab was described to him. Her husband had been killed while she was a bride. So Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) selected her for himself and took her along with him till we reached a place called Sa`d-AsSahba,' where her menses were over and he took her for his wife. Haris (a kind of dish) was served on a small leather sheet. Then Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) told me to call those who were around me. So, that was the marriage banquet of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and Safiya.}}

The prophet decided to marry her, and he considered her manumission to be an adequate [[Mahr (Marital Price)|mahr]] (dowry).<ref>{{Bukhari|5|59|512}}</ref> The "marriage banquet" consisted of haris (a kind of dish) served on a small leather sheet and a gathering of those who were conveniently nearby.<ref>{{Bukhari|4|52|143}}</ref>  Another narrator describes the banquet in this way: "...there was neither meat nor bread in that banquet, but the Prophet ordered Bilal to spread the leather mats on which dates, dried yogurt and butter were put."<ref>{{Bukhari|5|59|524}}</ref>  Muhammad stayed three nights there and consummated his marriage with Safiyah.<ref>{{Bukhari|5|59|524}}</ref> According to Tabari, there was apparently some fear amongst the believers that she would kill him in revenge for her husband and father:{{Quote|{{citation|title=The History of al-Tabari|trans_title=Ta’rikh al-rusul wa’l-muluk|volume=vol.XXXIX|ISBN=0-88706-344-6|year=1987|publisher=SUNY Press|author=al-Tabari (d. 923)|editor1=W. Montgomery Watt|editor2=M. V. McDonald|url=https://archive.org/details/HistoryAlTabari40Vol/History_Al-Tabari_10_Vol/page/n1805/mode/2up|page=187}}<br>{{citation|title=تاريخ الرسل والملوك|author=أبو جعفر الطبري|url=https://app.turath.io/book/9783|publisher=al-Maktabah al-Shamilah|volume=vol. 2|page=407}}|Ibn ‘Umar [al-Waqidi] – Kathir b. Zayd – al-Walid b. Rabah – Abu Hurayrah: While the Prophet was lying with Safiyah Abu Ayyub stayed the night at his door. When he saw the Prophet in the morning he said "God is the Greatest." He had a sword with him; he said to the Prophet, "O Messenger of God, this young woman had just been married, and you killed her father, her brother and her husband, so I did not trust her (not to harm) you." The Prophet laughed and said "Good".}}

From the information provided in the Hadith, it can be reasonably concluded that Safiyah did not have a choice in this marriage; rather she was war booty for Muhammad, a not uncommon practice at the time. There do exist passages in ibn Sa'd's "Tabaqat" or lives that indicate that Muhammad gave Safiyah the choice between marrying him and returning to her people:{{Quote|ibn Sa'ad Life of Muhammad 8/123|فقال: لها رسول الله: اختاري، فإن اخترت الإسلام أمسكتك لنفسي وإن اخترت اليهودية فعسى أن أعتقك فتلحقي بقومك. فقالت: يا رسول الله لقد هويت الإسلام وصدقت بك قبل أن تدعوني حيث صرت إلى رحلك وما لي في اليهودية أرب وما لي فيها والد ولا أخ، وخيرتني الكفر والإسلام فالله ورسوله أحب إلي من العتق وأن أرجع إلى قومي

This is however contradicted by numerous traditions that she was held captive up until the marriage, and when Muhammad decided that she would be a wife rather than a slave-girl, that is when he made known that her manumission was her mahr.{{Quote|{{Muslim|8|3326}}|أَنَّهُ أَعْتَقَ صَفِيَّةَ وَجَعَلَ عِتْقَهَا صَدَاقَهَا ‏.‏ وَفِي حَدِيثِ مُعَاذٍ عَنْ أَبِيهِ تَزَوَّجَ صَفِيَّةَ وَأَصْدَقَهَا عِتْقَهَا.

Based on the sources, it seems that Muhammad took Safiyah based on her beauty.  Her social status would not have mattered in this particular situation because Muhammad did not intend on maintaining amiable ties with the Jews of Khaybar, and in hand has subjected them by imposing the [[Dhimma]] and [[Jizyah]] upon them. In fact, he intended on forcing them into exile but was talked out of it by the Jews who agreed to cultivate the land and give half of its earnings to the Muslims.<ref>{{Bukhari|3|39|531}}</ref>   

"...trying to wipe out pre-Islamic anti-Semitism amongst the Arabs" is a an assertion that's not supported by the primary texts we have. In fact according the traditional sources Muhammad eventually expelled all of the Jews from Arabia, save the [[Banu Qurayza]] whom he slaughtered and enslaved to the last.  

Meraj Mohiuddin's book 2015 Revelation: The Story of Muhammad provides only a single paragraph on the story of Safiyah's capture and betrothal to Muhammad, summarizing it as such:  

 

When Allah’s Messenger (pbuh) reached Khyber while Safiya was a bride at her place. She saw in her dream that a sun came into her lap. She mentioned it before her husband. He said; ‘By Allah you do not wish for anyone except the King who has come upon us.’ Allah’s Messenger conquered Khyber and her husband was killed. From that time (of dream) she loved that the Prophet (pbuh) may marry her.|(Tabarani Kabeer, Hadith 19667)}}''Revelation'' makes no mention of the numerious traditions mentioned above which indicate that Safiyah was filled with sadness at the murder of her family relations by the Muslims (and their torture in her husband Kinana's case) and also leaves out the tradition that it was the sun and not the moon that fell into her lap. Rather than dealing with the wide range of sources available on Safiyah ''Revelation'' chooses to cherry pick a single tradition which casts her marriage to Muhammad as divinly pre-ordained and in accordance with her personal wishes, which is what modern liberal audiences would expect of a man claimed to be [[Uswa Hasana]]. Again, these modern Muslims seem embarrassed to admit the truth about the multiple different narrations that exist about Safiyah and instead of present the tradition as it exists seem to whitewash it to suit modern, liberal sensitivities around consent and slavery.