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1,001 Sayings and Deeds of the Prophet

Jihad

Wars Never-Ending

War is endemic in Islam, whether it is the never-ending war against unbelievers or believers killing believers in brutal civil wars over leadership and dogma.

Muhammad started it, the war to rid the world of all who refused to submit to the Will of God as he understood it. As an enticement to kill until none was left who did not accept Islam as his or her religion, Allah’s spokesman—after consulting with the god he spoke for—revealed that the property of an unbeliever, including his wives and daughters, belongs to the Muslim who kills him. His strategy was successful and in a few short years, the entire Arab population of the Peninsula had converted to Islam, been killed, or been taken into slavery.

This overwhelming victory over the unbelievers was quickly followed, after Muhammad’s death, by three civil wars under the four so-called Rightly Guided Caliphs (Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali); the last three were assassinated by unhappy believers, heralding a tradition of settling leadership issues with violence benefitting a religion where violence and the threat of violence is pervasive.

Both types of wars, the general war against unbelievers and the bloody pitiless conflicts between believers, continue in one form or another to this day, with the second type—civil strife, as described in the following hadith—expected to continue indefinitely, even after Islam is successful in ridding the world of all those who refuse to submit to the Will of Allah.

Narrated Said bin Al-Musaiyab:

When the first civil strife (in Islam) took place because of the murder of Uthman, it left none of the Badr warriors alive (the first real battle for control of the Peninsula).

When the second civil strife, that is the battle of Al-Harra, took place, it left none of the Hudaibiya treaty companions alive.

Then the third civil strife took place and it did not subside till it had exhausted all the strength of the people.

Bukhari 59.358

A saying of Muhammad’s was used to ease the conscience of those who, in their zeal to rid the world of Allah's enemies, slaughtered the innocent in ever-increasing numbers, even those who had submitted to the Will of Allah hoping to save themselves.

Narrated Aisha:

Allah's Apostle said, "An army will invade the Ka'ba and when the invaders reach Al-Baida, all the ground will sink and swallow the whole army."

I said, "O Allah's Apostle! How will they sink into the ground while amongst them will be their markets (the people who worked in business and not invaders) and the people not belonging to them?"

The Prophet replied, "all of those people will sink but they will be resurrected and judged according to their intentions."

Bukhari 34.329