In the name of Allāh,
the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Peace and Blessings of Allāh on Mohammad.
DEDICATED TO
Allāh–the Glorious and the High,
Lord of the worlds
AND TO
Mohammad–who brought the world
to our feet and eternity to our arms,
*
MOHAMMAD & RAYHANA
With the mountains of material crowding the Internet the only thing certain about Rayhana is that not much is known about her. She is said to be a member of the Bani Nadir tribe who married into the Bani Quraizah tribe.
Like Juwairiyyah and Safiyyah, Rayhana was a captive of war who fell into the hands of Prophet Mohammad.
Ali Sina wrote: “Rayhana never married Muhammad and unlike Juwairiyah and Safiyah never feigned being a Muslim to have an easier life. She preferred to remain a sex slave rather the wife of the murderer of her father, brothers and uncles.”
Response:
(How do you know Juwairiyyah and Safiyyah “feigned being a Muslim”? And what proof do you have that because Rayhana rejected Islam and marriage she was ill-treated.
So what that Mohammad “bed” Rayhana? This is what the Biblical Fathers and followers did:
-Abraham not only bed his father’s daughter, Sarah, which is a “wicked thing,” he hobbled Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar, and pregnant her–(Gen. 20:11-12; Lev. 20:17; Gen. 16:1-4);
-Jacob joyed with Bilhah and Zilpah, handmaids of his wives Rachel and Leah, and built tribes from their children–(Gen. 30:1-13);
-Judah, the grandfather of the Christian’s son of God (and even of God as Christian’s say Jesus is God), played hide-and-seek with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, and made her fruit–(Gen. 38:11-18);
-David, in whom Jesus is “rooted,” not only dallied with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and sent the poor man to the battle-front to be killed, he had a young “virgin” keep him warm (though a matron could have given him just as enough or more heat; and Christians sing his praise to the extent of their lungs in melodious tones, and crab at Mohammad)–(Revelation 22:16; 2 Samuel 11:2-5; 1 Kings 1:1-4; David also had “his master’s wives”–(2 Sam. 12:8);
-Lot built two nations with his two daughters–(Genesis 19:30-38);
-Solomon and his son, Rehoboam, had over 350 “concubines” between the two of them (count them again and wail and gnash your teeth)–(1 Kings 11:3.2 Chronicles 11:21. Whereas Christians and critics crab at Mohammad; when it comes to speaking and writing about the thousand wives and concubines of the prophet they believe in; and their sex-ploits Christians and critics become dumb and illiterate).
What makes you think that because Rayhana rejected Islam and marriage she was not charmed to be in Mohammad’s embrace? There must be legions of women who relish being bedmates but shun marriage. In fact, Rayhana must have found it thrilling to play the outfielder. Moreover, whereas Mohammad’s life is an open book, Rayhana may very well have been playing the martyr –trying to impress her people that she was opposed to Islam and Mohammad all the while privately joying him. With all their plotting and treachery rather than live in peace and calm with Mohammad, Rayhana must have been happy to be rid of her treacherous “father, brothers and uncles.”).
(If Rayhana did reject marriage because of the death of her menfolk), Rayhana’s animosity should not have been directed at the Prophet Mohammad: she should have blamed her people for being treacherous and militating against Mohammad.
According to the Bible captives of war were subjected to the dictates of the Torah. Which relegates the women, and even little virgin girls, to be mates of their male captors (and as Christians say Jesus is God this is what Jesus allowed):
“And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself”–(Deut. 20:12-14).
“Now therefore kill every MALE among the LITTLE ONES (of the captives), and kill EVERY WOMAN who hath known man by lying with him, but ALL THE WOMEN CHILDREN, that have not known a man by lying with him (virgin girls) KEEP ALIVE FOR YOURSELVES…and of WOMEN that had not known man by lying with him (virgin girls), were 32,000. And the half, which was the portion of them that WENT TO WAR (the soldiers), was …16,000 persons (virgin girls). And of the congregation’s half portion of these 16,000 virgin girls, 320 were given to the Levite priests, as “the LORD commanded Moses”–(Numbers 31:1-53).
These “mates,” Divinely decreed to be so, are not concubines. They are “spoils” of war. In taking Rayhana as a “mate” of war Mohammad was only following the injunctions of God.
(A concubine is a woman who is taken for sex: to be a mistress. Mohammad did not “take” Rayhana and she was no mistress: she was a war “mate”. If you find this an issue take it up with God and as Christian’s say Jesus is God take it up with Jesus).
If Rayhana was true to her religion, Judaism, as one source on the Internet projects, Rayhana must have welcomed her position as a war “mate” as decreed by her Scripture and whole-heartedly submitted herself to Mohammad.
If Rayhana did truly reject Islam and marriage then, whereas Mohammad sought to elevate her to the dignified status of wifehood she chose to reduce herself to be a “JeWaMa” (short for Jewish war mate). Accordingly, she was no “concubine” and she was not “raped.”
That Rayhana rejected Islam and the Prophet’s offer of marriage was her tragic loss. Had she accepted she would have been a “queen” of the Prophet, and like her sisters, Juwairiyyah and Safiyyah, an esteemed “Mother of the Believers” honored now by some one and a half billion Muslims –and counting, as Islam spirits on, inexorably, invincibly, and impregnably to its destination as Divinely decreed to prevail over all religions– and a companion of the Prophet in Paradise.1
Regarding Ali Sina’s claim that Mohammad was a “murderer of her (Rayhana’s) father, brothers and uncles.”
For their treachery, the Nadir tribe was given time to pack up and leave Madinah. Instead, they fortified their compound and fought. Rayhana’s “father, brothers and uncles” must have gotten killed in this fighting. After the Nadir surrendered, they were banished fromMadinah–(Qur’an 59:2, M. Ali. comm; M.H. Haykal, The Life of Muhammad, pp.278-279).
The Quraizah, tribe of Rayhana’s husband. These Jews were not “murdered,” they were executed for treachery; and executed under the dictates of the Torah. Mohammad did not pass this judgment. This judgment was rendered by the person chosen by the Jews to arbitrate on their behalf. Whatever misfortune the Quraizah’s suffered were due to their own orchestration. Which fate was of their own choosing seeing that they demanded “that they should submit to the sentence of punishment pronounced by Sa’d ibn Mu’adh.” The men were “put to death” and the women and children ransomed “in accordance with the Jewish law” as noted above–(Qur’an 33:26. M. Ali. comm; Deut. 20:12-14).
Mohammad faced death not only from the idolaters on the outside, but also from the Jews in the inside. “The Jews,” as Muhammad Husayn Haykal noted, “sent some of their rabbis to feign conversion to Islam in order to enter Muslim ranks and councils. While showing all piety, these rabbis were commissioned to disseminate doubt and suspicion of Muhammad among his own people.…A number of hypocrites from al Aws and al Khazraj tribes joined Islam for the same purpose.” And “upon Muhammad’s arrival at Madinah” the Jews, “after befriending him and pledging to honor his freedom to practice and preach the new religion, they had begun to oppose and plot against him. In fact, no sooner had Muhammad settled down and the prospects of Islam had begun to improve, than the Jews, for their part, began their undeclared war against him. Their opposition and hostility were never open.”2 (This is perhaps true today also).
Muhammad Ali noted that upon his settling into Madinah the Prophet Muhammad made a “treaty of mutual obligation” with the Jews in which “the Muslims and the Jews were bound not only not to turn their hands against each other but also to defend one another against a common enemy;” and “when the enemy laid siege to Madinah, they were bound to repel the attack.” But, “Instead of this they sided with the investing army.” The Quraizah’s “were in alliance with the Prophet, but when the Quraish attacked Medinah, which, under the treaty, they were bound to repel, they secretly sided with the invading army.” 3
If Mohammad was pleased with this decision by Sa’d Ibn Mu’adh to execute the Jews, Mohammad was justified because as believers in the Torah they were judged and sentenced according to the Torah. Thus, Mohammad being pleased was not because the Bani Quraizah was executed but because the Quraizah had been judged and sentenced according to the law of God.
*
NOTES
1. That Rayhana also would be in Paradise as she followed the Torah. Islam recognizes that all Divinely inspired religions have truth; and that there are righteous followers of those prophets/messengers. However, as no religion can be shown to be equal with or superior to Islam, we have to answer to Allāh for our rejection of Islam. As Islam is superior to all religions, whoever rejects Islam/Mohammad is going to Hell–(cf. Qur’an 3:82, 84; 9:84, 113. Muslim, Vol. 1, #284).
Jews were Divinely decreed to follow Islam/Mohammad. Moses informed his people that God said: “I will raise them (the Israelites) up a Prophet from among their brethren (the Ishmaelites), like unto thee (Moses), and I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him”–(Deuteronomy 18:(15) 18-19).
This prophet like Moses is the Prophet Mohammad –which the Jewish fathers knew (Qur’an 2:146; 26:197)– and the words God put into his (Mohammad’s) mouth is the Qur’an. See Jesus-like Moses).
(That Jews salvation depends on them accepting Islam/Mohammad see Judaism).
Depending on how much Rayhana knew and practiced of her religion her place in the Hereafter is dependent on the judgment of Allah.
2. Haykal, Muhammad Husayn, The Life of Muhammad, pp. 191, 206-207. (Italics/emphasis added). There is a lot of detail to this topic.
3. Ali, Muhammad, Qur’anic comm. 126, 126a, 1983, see also 2475.