Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
Praise be to Allah, who is the Lord of the Worlds, and may Endless Blessings be showered upon His Most Beloved, and Final Messenger of Islam, Hadrat Muhammad Mustafa (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa Sallam)Thank you for your question, regarding the dignity, esteem, and Mercy of the Beloved Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), and the justice attributed to him, with regard to what should be done to those people, who turn against Allah the Almighty, and His Beloved Messenger (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa Sallam).
The questioner has quoted a string of ahaadith, and we shall discuss them turn by turn, determining the underlying factors, of what it was, that led the Beloved Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), to make such decisions, which may lead some of the readers, to suggest, that the Beloved Prophet of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam)'s actions were either justifiable, or non-justifiable.
The questioner quotes the hadith from al-Bukhari :
Volume 8, Book 82, Number 794: Narrated Anas:
Some people from the tribe of 'Ukl came to the Prophet and embraced Islam. The climate of Medina did not suit them, so the Prophet ordered them to go to the (herd of milch) camels of charity and to drink, their milk and urine (as a medicine). They did so, and after they had recovered from their ailment (became healthy) they turned renegades (reverted from Islam) and killed the shepherd of the camels and took the camels away. The Prophet sent (some people) in their pursuit and so they were (caught and) brought, and the Prophets ordered that their hands and legs should be cut off and that their eyes should be branded with heated pieces of iron, and that their cut hands and legs should not be cauterized, till they die. This hadith appears in a few places in the Best Book, after the Qur'an, the Sahih al Bukhari. Let us take note, that it is not the function of anyone, to derive meanings from the ahaadith, and come to conclusions regarding them, without first, having prior knowledge of the Qur'an al kareem, and the Sunnah.
The hadith mentioned above can thus be translated:
Chapter:
The urine of camels, four legged animals, and goats. The praying of salah, in the goat-stable. Abu Musa (Radi Allahu anhu), prayed salah in the 'Dar-ul Barid', and 'Sarqayn', yet the jungle was right beside them, and said that this place, as well as the plain were both the same.Translation of Hadith:
It is narrated from Hadrat Anas, that some people from the tribe of 'Ukl' or 'Uraynah' came, and the found the water and air of Madina unsuitable. The Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam) ordered them to drink the milk, and urine of the camels. They went. When they became fit, they killed the herdsman of the Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), and took all the camels away. The Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), heard about their news in the morning, and sent a few people to disclose information about them. When the sun was fully risen, they were captured and presented to the Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam). The Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ta'ala alayhi wa Sallam]) ordered for their hands and feet to be severed, as their eyes were also taken by piercing steaming rods, they were cast upon the pebbled earth. They would ask for water, but would be refused. Abu Qilaba (Radi Allahu anhu), had stated that these were the people who had stolen, murdered, and after testifying to the faith, had become apostates, as they rebelled against Allah the Almighty, and the Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam).Eight people from the tribes of 'Ukl' and 'Uraynah' came to the City of Madinah, and embraced the religion of Islam, at the hands of the Beloved Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), afterwhich they became ill.
The Most Beloved Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala alayhi wa Sallam), sent them to the camels of charity (sadqah), that they drink their urine and milk, as the camels were grazing at a distance of eight miles from the City of Madinah, at a place called 'Namir', near 'Dhil Hadar'.
After a few days, they became fit again, as they severed the hands and feet of the Beloved Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam)'s herdsman, and thrust thorns into his eyes and mouth. He died as a result of this.
The herdsman, was the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), named Yasaar'. The Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala alayhi wa Sallam) sent Karz bin Jabir Fehri, alongwith twenty horsemen, to find out what it was that they did.
Muhammad bin Is'haaq said, this event took place in the sixth Hijri, in the month of Jamadhil Akhira, after the incident of 'Hudaybiyyah'. Thus they were captured, and bought in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), and they had to face the result of the type of character they had portrayed, which is evident from the Hadith. They were raising their voices with words of 'water, water', as the Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam) was returning their call with words of 'fire, fire'.
Ibn-e-Sa'd (
Radi Allahu anhu), said that the total number of camels was fifteen. Amongst those, was a she-camel named 'Hina', which they slaughtered.
(
Allamah Badr ud Din 'Aini Hanfi).
The Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), cast hot iron rods in the eyes of the perpetrators, because they had done the exact same, to the herdsman of the Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam). This was done as a form of capital punishment, known as 'qisas'. However, this was not the severing of limbs (muthla) upon which prohibition was placed. (
Qastalani).
If one asks the question, that a person who faces capital punishment, and it is obligatory to punish him, when he asks for water, then he must be given water, according to the consensus of the Muslims. Then why were these people refused any water?
The answer to this question is that the reason why they had been refused water, was because they had turned to apostasy. In the books of Muslim, and Tirmidhi, it states that these people had departed from the religion of Islam, therefore it was no longer necessary to esteem them, but to erase them from the lines of existence, just as it is necessary to get rid of a rabied dog. (
Qastalani)
From the commentary above, we can see that the Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam) was the 'lawmaker' or soveriegn, not only while He wa alive, but His law, as a lawmaker still stands today.
Every religion has had its capital punishments, for the crimes that had been committed by the people. Even the bible has expressed the words 'an eye for an eye', which was exactly what the Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam) actioned. However, whether these laws have been distorted, erased, or tampered with is a seperate issue in itself, as the laws regarding capital punishment (
Qisas), still remain in the Qur'an al kareem today.
Similarly, the questioner has quoted hadiths number 795, 796, and 797 of the same book, which is the very same incident, yet the narrators of the tradition have varied. The questioner quotes the hadith: Volume 8, Book 82, Number 798: Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, "Seven (people) will be shaded by Allah by His Shade on the Day of Resurrection when there will be no shade except His Shade. (They will be), a just ruler, a young man who has been brought up in the worship of Allah, a man who remembers Allah in seclusion and his eyes are then flooded with tears, a man whose heart is attached to mosques (offers his compulsory congregational prayers in the mosque), two men who love each other for Allah's Sake, a man who is called by a charming lady of noble birth to commit illegal sexual intercourse with her, and he says, 'I am afraid of Allah,' and (finally), a man who gives in charity so secretly that his left hand does not know what his right hand has given."
This hadith appears in Bukhari Shareef, and is one of those ahaadith in which the Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam) foretells, the people about the seven kinds of people who would have earned, the shade of Allah the Almighty, on the day of ressurection.
The purpose of His (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam)'s telling, is so that the people may take heed towards what is going to happen, when they have to meet their fate. That they can either make their afterlife better for themselves, or they can make it worst, by neglecting the commands of Allah the Almighty, and the Messenger of Allah (
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam).
M Waseem Ashrafi