Abu 'Afak (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: أبو عفك, died c. 624) was a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

who allegedly lived in the

Hijaz Hejaz is a historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes the majority of the western region of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Al-Bahah. It is thus known as the "Western Province ...

region (today

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

). After

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

moved to the city of Al-Madina and started to preach

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, Abu 'Afak did not convert to

and was vocal about his opposition to

. He became a significant political enemy of Muhammad and was subsequently assassinated by a follower of Muhammad. As an elderly man, Abu 'Afak Arwan wrote a politically charged poem against Muhammad and his followers that is preserved in the Sira. Muhammad then allegedly called for Abu 'Afak's death, and Salim ibn Umayr killed him. The affair was recorded by

Ibn Ishaq Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (; – , known simply as Ibn Ishaq, was an 8th-century Muslim historian and hagiographer who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic proph ...

in "''Sirat Rasul Allah''" ( The Life of the Prophet of God), the oldest biography of Muhammad.

Sources

Ibn Ishaq's account

The following is an excerpt from

Alfred Guillaume Alfred Guillaume (8 November 1888 – 30 November 1965) was a British Christian Arabist, scholar of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and Islam. Career Guillaume was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, the son of Alfred Guillaume. He took up Arabi ...

's translation of Ibn Ishaq's

prophetic biography In religion, mythology, and fiction, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divin ...

, chapter "Salim b. Umayr's expedition to kill Abu Afak".

Abu 'Afak was one of the B. Amr b. Auf of the B. Ubayda clan. He showed his disaffection when the apostle uhammadkilled al-Harith b. Suwayd b. Samit and said: ::Long have I lived but never have I seen ::An assembly or collection of people ::More faithful to their undertaking ::And their allies when called upon ::Than the sons of Qayla when they assembled, ::Men who overthrew mountains and never submitted, ::A rider who came to them split them in two (saying) ::"Permitted", "Forbidden", of all sorts of things. ::Had you believed in glory or kingship ::You would have followed Tubba. The apostle uhammadsaid, "Who will deal with this rascal for me?" Whereupon Salim b. Umayr, brother of B. Amr b. Auf, one of the "weepers", went forth and killed him. Umama b. Muzayriya said concerning that: ::You gave the lie to God's religion and the man Ahmad
he prophet He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
::By him who was your father, evil is the son he produced! ::A
hanif In Islam, the terms (; , ) and (; ) are primarily used to refer to pre-Islamic Arabians who were Abrahamic monotheists. Muslims regard these people favorably for shunning Arabian polytheism and instead solely worshipping the God of Abraha ...
gave you a thrust in the night saying ::Take that, Abu Afak, in spite of your age! ::Though I knew whether it was man or jinn ::Who slew you in the dead of night (I would say naught).

But there is no chain of transmission mentioned for the story through

, and therefore either

narrated the story without chain, or the chain is missing (since Ibn Ishaq's prophetic biography have not been transmitted completely, but some of which survive through the writings of

Ibn Hisham Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham ibn Ayyub al-Himyari (; died 7 May 833), known simply as Ibn Hisham, was a 9th-century Abbasid historian and scholar. He grew up in Basra, in modern-day Iraq and later moved to Egypt. Life Ibn Hisham has ...

and Ibn Jarir al-Tabari.). This is with the knowledge that

was born at least 67 years after the death of

Waqidi's account

The following is an excerpt from Rizwi Faizer's translation of Waqidi's military history, chapter “The Expedition to Kill Abu ‘Afak”.

Sa’id b. Muhammad related to us from ‘Umara b. Ghaziyya, and Abu Mus’ab related to us from Isma’il b. Mus’ab b. Isma’il b. Zayd b. Thabit from his elders, who said: “There was a sheikh of the Banu ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf called ‘Abu Afak. He was an old man who had reached one hundred and twenty years when the Prophet arrived in Medina. He provoked the enmity of the Prophet and did not enter Islam. When the Messenger of God went out to Badr and returned, and God granted him victory, Abu ‘Afak envited him and opposed him, saying:
‘Long have I lived but never have I seen An assembly or collection of people, more minds that came to a commitment swiftly when called. A rider dispossessed them of their affairs, splitting them into forbidden and permitted. If it was kingship that you believed in, you would have followed Tubba’.’
Salim b. ‘Umayr said – and he was one of the weepers of the Banu Najjar – ‘I vowed that I would kill Abu Afak or die in the attempt. I waited for a heedless moment.’ Then, one summer’s night, as Abu Afak slept in the courtyard with the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Awf, Salim b. ‘Umayr approached, and pressed the sword upon his liver until it entered his bed. The enemy of God screamed. Those among the people who heard his words returned to him. They entered his place and buried him. They said, ‘Who killed him? By God, if we learn who killed him, we will surely kill him for it.’ Al-Nahdiyya, a Muslim woman, said these verses about that.
‘You lied about the religion of God and the man Ahmad. By the life of he who produced you, miserable is what he produced. A Hanif gave you, at the end of the night, a thrust. Abu ‘Afak, take it inspite of your age. Indeed if I knew who killed you in the dead of night Whether man or Jinn, I would not say.’”
Ma’an b. ‘Umar related to me saying: “Ibn Ruqaysh informed me that Abu ‘Afak was killed in Shawwal, the twentieth month AH.”

However, Al Waqidi was said by many Islamic Hadith scholars to be an unreliable source of information. Al-Waqidi has been condemned as an untrustworthy narrator and has been frequently and severely criticized by scholars, thus his narrations have been abandoned by the majority of hadith scholars: *

Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ahmad ibn Hanbal (; (164-241 AH; 780 – 855 CE) was an Arab Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, traditionist, ascetic and eponym of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence—one of the four major orthodox legal schools of Sunni Islam. T ...

(d. 241 A.H.) said "He is a liar, makes alternations in the traditions". Abu Jaafar Al-Uqaili,''Al-Duafa'a Al-Kabir'', vol. 4 page 107, https://shamela.ws/book/13041/3564 *

Al-Nasa’i Al-Nasāʾī (214 – 303 AH; 829 – 915 CE), full name Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb ibn ʿAlī ibn Sinān ibn Baḥr ibn Dīnar al-Khurasānī al-Nasāʾī (), was a noted collector of hadith (sayings of Muhammad), ...

(d. 303 A.H.) said "The liars known for fabricating the hadith of the Messenger of Allah are four. They are: Ibrahin Ibn Abi Yahya in Medina, Muqatil in Khurasan, Muhammad ibn Sa'id Al-masloub in Syria and Al-Waqidi in Baghdad."

Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (; 18 February 1372 – 2 February 1449), or simply ibn Ḥajar, was a classic Islamic scholar "whose life work constitutes the final summation of the science of hadith." He authored some 150 works on hadith, history, ...

, ''Tahdhib al-Tahdhib'', volume 10 page 284, yderabad, 1326 A.H.cf. Yusuf ‘Abbas Hashmi, Zaynab bint Jahash, ‘Islamic Culture’ vol.XLI, No.1, Hyderabad (India), 1967 https://shamela.ws/book/3310/4574 *

Al-Dhahabi Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Atharism, Athari ...

(d. 748 A.H.) said "Consensus has taken place on the weakness of Al-Waqidi". Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al-Dhahabi,''Mizan al-I`tidal fi Naqd al-Rijal'', vol. 3 page 166, https://shamela.ws/book/1692/2017 *

Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani Muhammad Nasir al-Din (19142 October 1999), commonly known as al-Albani, was an Albanian Islamic scholar. A leading figure of Salafism, he is commemorated for his works on revaluation of hadith studies. Born in Shkodër, Albania, to a family ad ...

(d. 1999 C.E.) said "Al-Waqidi is accused of lying; He does not count."Al-Albani, ''Silsalat al-Hadith ad-Da'ifa'', number 6013, https://shamela.ws/book/12762/8810

Ibn Sa'd's accounts

Another description of this story comes from The Major Classes by

ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd () and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 CE (168 AH) and die ...

"Then occurred the "sariyyah"
aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Th ...
of Salim Ibn Umayr al-Amri against Abu Afak, the Jew, in
he month of He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
Shawwal Shawwal () is the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. It comes after Ramadan and before Dhu al-Qa'da. ''Shawwāl'' stems from the Arabic verb ''shāla'' (), which means to 'lift or carry', generally to take or move things from one place to an ...
in the beginning of the twentieth month from the hijra, of the Apostle of Allah. Abu Afak, was from Banu Amr Ibn Awf, and was an old man who had attained the age of one hundred and twenty years. He was a Jew, and used to instigate the people against the Apostle of Allah, and composed (satirical) verses bout Muhammad Salim Ibn Umayr who was one of the great weepers and who had participated in Badr, said, "I take a vow that I shall either kill Abu Afak or die before him. He waited for an opportunity until a hot night came, and Abu Afak slept in an open place. Salim Ibn Umayr knew it, so he placed the sword on his liver and pressed it till it reached his bed. The enemy of Allah screamed and the people who were his followers, rushed to him, took him to his house and interred him."
The book of The Major Classes Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd () and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 CE (168 AH) and die ...
, Volume 2, (2), p.32

Ibn Sa'd gives a second account, which cites his sources.

Muhammad ibn ‘Umar aqidireported from Sa’id ibn Muhammad az-Zuraqi from ‘Umara ibn Ghaziya that Abu Mus’ab Isma’il ibn Mus’ab ibn Isma’il ibn Zayd ibn Thabit related from his shaykhs that Abu ‘Afak was an old man of the Banu ‘Amr ibn Awf. He reached the age of one hundred and twenty and he heard about the Prophet but he did not enter Islam. Salim ibn ‘Umayr vowed to kill him and sought him until he killed him. That was at the command of the Prophet. Muhammad ibn ‘Umar aqidireported from Ma’n ibn ‘Umar from Ibn Ruqaysh of the Banu Asad ibn Khuzayma that Abu ‘Afak was killed in Shawwal at the beginning of the twentieth month of the Hijra ate March/early April 624ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi. ''The Book of the Major Classes'', Volume 3. Translated by Bewley, A. (2013). ''The Companions of Badr'', p. 376. London: Ta-Ha Publishers.

Ibn Sa'd transmits the story through Al-Waqidi mentioned in the chain of transmission, who, as already mentioned above, has been criticized by Hadith as an unreliable source.

Sources

Ibn Ishaq's account

Waqidi's account

Ibn Sa'd's accounts

References

See also