Abu 'Afak

The following is an excerpt from Alfred Guillaume's translation of Ibn Ishaq's prophetic biography, 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 [Muhammad] killed 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.[2]

The apostle said, "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 [the prophet]!

By him who was your father, evil is the son he produced!

A hanif 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)[3]

Another description of this story comes from Kitab al Tabaqat al Kabir (The book of The Major Classes) by Ibn Sa'd, although this work is based on the former source:

"Then occurred the "sariyyah" [raid] of Salim Ibn Umayr al-Amri against Abu Afak, the Jew, in [the month of] Shawwal 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 [about 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."[4]

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

Muhammad ibn ‘Umar [Waqidi] reported 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 [Waqidi] reported 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 [late March/early April 624].[5]

Many criticize this chain as it contains al-Waqidi, who has been regarded as "weak" by many Hadith scholars.[6]

The authenticity of this incident is doubtful at best according to both Muslims and academics .[7] While Ibn Ishaq's book is considered the first biography of Muhammed, it is far from authoritative. Ibn Ishaq is regarded as an author, not a scholar, and none of Ibn Ishaq's original work exists.[8] The only fragments available are through recensions by Ibn Hisham and Al Tabari, both of which have pointed out the fact that there exists no isnad (chain of transmitters) for this story, and thus cannot be taken as reliable. The story has no mention in either Sahih al-Bukhari or Muslim.

this story has no isnad at all; neither Ibn Ishaq (or his disciple Ibn Hisham) nor Al-Waqi (or his disciple Ibn Sa’d) had provided such a thing! In this case, the story is rated by hadith scholars as “...of no basis”, indicating that it has reached the lowest degree of criticism regarding its isnad. This is in fact a proper scientific position because we cannot accept such a problematic story without evidence.

 authors used to relate hundreds of reports without checking them or relying on serious criticism. These particular stories even proved their unscientific methodology because they are reported without isnad at all. This is extremely irregular of any respectable scholar. Ibn Jarir At-Tabari (224-310 A.H.) in his encyclopedic book of history Tarikh Al-Umam wa Al-Mulid not give mention of these stories at all despite the fact that he had mentioned far less significant reports in his work.[9]

The complete lack of an isnad cannot be disregarded lightly. Early Muslim scholars went to great lengths to separate, categorize and document the hadiths that have been floating around at the time, and even the simplest of hadiths trace an entire line of transmission from the source (usually Muhammed) to the documenter, e.g. Bukhari.

"From an early date Muslim scholars recognized the danger of false testimony and hence false doctrine, and developed an elaborate science for criticizing tradition. "Traditional science", as it was called, differed in many respects from modern historical source criticism, and modern scholarship has always disagreed with evaluations of traditional scientists about the authenticity and accuracy of ancient narratives. But their careful scrutiny of the chains of transmission and their meticulous collection and preservation of variants in the transmitted narratives give to medieval Arabic historiography a professionalism and sophistication without precedent in antiquity and without parallel in the contemporary medieval West. By comparison, the historiography of Latin Christendom seems poor and meagre, and even the more advanced and complex historiography of Greek Christendom still falls short of the historical literature of Islam in volume, variety and analytical depth." [10]

Esat  Ayyıldız, "Medineli Yahudi Şair Ebû ‘Afek ve Tahrîd (Kışkırtma) Şiiri". Trakya Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 11 / 21 (2021), 141-152. https://doi.org/10.33207/trkede.649614

• Asma bint Marwan
• Jihad
• Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf
• Umm Qirfa

ar:أبو عفك اليهودي