Muhammad’s raids. (Source: http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2007/10/jihad-through-history.html)
Raids
Muslims often speak with pride about Muhammad’s battles. It is a pride based on illusions. Muhammad avoided battles. He preferred ambushes and raids, which allowed him to take his victims by surprise and massacre them while they were unprepared and unarmed.
During the last ten years of his life, after he moved to Medina and felt strong amongst his followers, Muhammad launched 74 raids.1 Some of them amounted to little more than assassinations, while others were expeditions of thousands of men. He participated in 27 of them. These are called ghazwa. The wars he ordered his men to wage but did not himself take part in are called sariyyah. Both ghazwa and sariyyah mean raid, ambush, and sudden attack.
Bukhari narrates a hadith from Abdullah bin Ka’b who said, “Whenever Allah’s Apostle wanted to make a Ghazwa, he used to hide his intention by apparently referring to different Ghazwa.”2
When Muhammad took part in a war, he would always stay behind his troops, protected by his special entourage. Nowhere in the authentic biographies of Muhammad, do we read that he ever fought personally.
In one of the battles, a war known as the Sacrilegious War, fought in Mecca, Muhammad attended upon his uncles. Now nearly twenty years old, his efforts were confined to gathering up the arrows discharged by the enemy, during the ceasefires and handing them to his uncles. As Muir explains: “Physical courage, indeed, and martial daring, are virtues which did not distinguish the prophet at any period of his career.”3
Muhammad and his men ambushed towns and villages without warning, descended upon unarmed civilians, butchered as many of them as they could, and took as spoils the vanquished community’s herds and livestock, their weaponry and their belongings, as well as their wives and children. The raiders sometimes ransomed the women and children for money, or kept/sold them as slaves. The following is an account of one of these raids:
The Prophet had suddenly attacked Banu Mustaliq without warning while they were heedless and their cattle were being watered at the places of water. Their fighting men were killed and their women and children were taken as captives; the Prophet got Juwairiya on that day. Nafi said that Ibn Omar had told him the above narration and that Ibn ‘Omar was in that army.4
In this war, says the Muslim chronicler, “600 were taken prisoners by the Muslims. Among the booty there were 2,000 camels and 5,000 goats.”5
The world is shocked when Muslim terrorists kill children and the Muslim apologists are quick to announce that killing children in Islam is prohibited. The truth is Muhammad allowed killing children during night raids.
It is reported on the authority of Sa’b b. Jaththama that the Prophet of Allâh (may peace be upon him), when asked about the women and children of the polytheists being killed during the night raid, said: They are from them. [belong to them]6
The objective of Muhammad’s raids was primarily to loot. A number of sources considered authoritative by virtually all Muslims attest that in order to win, the Prophet took advantage of the element of surprise:
Ibn ‘Aun reported:
I wrote to Nafi’ inquiring from him whether it was necessary to extend (to the disbelievers) an invitation to accept (Islam) before meeting them in fight. He wrote (in reply) to me that it was necessary in the early days of Islam. The Messenger of Allâh (may peace be upon him) made a raid upon Banu Mustaliq while they were unaware and their cattle were having a drink at the water. He killed those who fought and imprisoned others. On that very day, he captured Juwairiya bint al-Harith. Nafi’ said that this tradition was related to him by Abdullah b. Omar who (himself) was among the raiding troops.7
To justify such dastardly attacks on civilians, Muslim historians have often accused their victims of conspiring against Islam. However, there is no reason to believe that any Arab tribe would have benefited by invading the Muslims, who had become a strong group of bandits. Contrary to this claim, many tribes adopted policies of appeasement vis-à-vis Muslims by signing peace treaties with Muhammad in order to stay safe. Those treaties were later broken by the prophet when he became powerful.
The loot did not just bring wealth to his marauding gang, it also provided them with sex slaves. Juwairiya was a beautiful young woman whose husband was slain, who fell to the lot of a Muslim. Aisha, Muhammad’s favorite and youngest wife (who, according to Muslim sources was six years old when the fifty-one year old Muhammad married her, and nine when he consummated the marriage) accompanied Muhammad on this expedition and later narrated:
When the prophet—peace be upon him—distributed the captives of Banu Almustaliq, she (Juwairiya) fell to the lot of Thabit ibn Qyas. She was married to her cousin, who was killed during the battle. She gave Thabit a deed, agreeing to pay him nine okes of gold for her freedom. She was a very beautiful woman. She captivated every man who saw her. She came to the prophet – peace be upon him -, to ask for his help in the matter. As soon as I saw her at door of my room, I took a dislike to her, for I knew that he would see her as I saw her. She went in and told him who she was, the daughter of al-Harith ibn Dhirar, the chief of his people. She said: ‘You can see the state to which I have been brought. I have fallen to the lot of Thabit, and have given him a deed for ransom, and I have to come to ask your help in the matter.’ He said: ‘would you like something better than that? I will discharge your debt, and marry you.’ She said: ‘Yes.’ ‘O then it is Done!’ the messenger of Allâh replied.8
This account should end any argument about the real motive behind Muhammad’s multiple marriages. He and his men murdered Juwairiya’s husband in an unprovoked raid. She was the daughter of the chief of Bani Mustaliq and a princess in her own right. She was reduced to slavery and became the possession of one of Muhammad’s marauding thugs. However, because of her beauty, the holy Prophet offered to “set her free” under the condition that she marry him. Is that freedom? What other choice did she have? Even if Muhammad did actually set her free, where could she go?
Muslim apologists insist that most of Muhammad’s wives were widows. One could thus get the impression that he married them out of charity. What they leave out is that these “widows” were young and beautiful, and they had become widows because Muhammad had murdered their husbands. Juwairiya was 20 years old at the time and Muhammad was 58. Islamic chroniclers admit that Muhammad did not marry women unless they were young, beautiful, and childless. Except for Sauda, who was in her thirties when Muhammad married her so she could take care of his children, and according to a hadith he stopped sleeping with her after he got prettier and younger women,9 all his wives were in their teens or early twenties and this is when he was in his fifties and sixties. The historian Tabari10 narrates that Muhammad solicited Hind bint Abu Talib, his own cousin, to marry him, but when she told him that she had a child, he desisted. Another woman was Zia’h bint Aamir. Muhammad asked someone to solicit her for marriage. She accepted, but when he was told of her age, he changed his mind.11
A Muslim named Jarir ibn Abdullah narrated that once Muhammad asked him, “Have you got married?” He replied in the affirmative. Muhammad then asked, “A virgin or a matron?” He replied, “I married a matron.” Then Muhammad said, “Why have you not married a virgin, so that you may play with her and she may play with you?”12
Women for the messenger of Allâh were only sex objects. They had no more rights than chattel. Their function was to give pleasure to their husbands and birth to their children.
Rape
Muhammad allowed his men to rape the women captured in raids. However, after capturing the women, Muslims faced a dilemma. They wanted to have sex with them but also wanted to return them for ransom and therefore did not want to make them pregnant. Some of these women were already married. Their husbands had managed to escape when taken by surprise and were still alive. The raiders considered the possibility of coitus interruptus (withdrawing from intercourse prior to ejaculation). Unsure of the best course of action, they went to Muhammad for counsel. Bukhari reports:
Abu Saeed said: ‘We went out with Allâh’s Apostle for the Ghazwa of Banu Al-Mustaliq and we received captives from among the Arab captives and we desired women and celibacy became hard on us and we loved to do coitus interruptus. So when we intended to do coitus interruptus, we said, ‘How can we do coitus interruptus before asking Allâh’s Apostle who is present among us?’ We asked (him) about it and he said, ‘It is better for you not to do so, for if any soul (till the Day of Resurrection) is predestined to exist, it will exist.13
Notice that Muhammad does not forbid raping women captured in war. Instead, he indicates that when Allâh intends to create anything, nothing can prevent it. In other words, not even the absence of semen can prevent it. So Muhammad is telling his men that coitus interruptus would be futile and ill-advised because it would be an attempt to thwart the irresistible will of Allâh. Muhammad does not say a word against the forced insemination of these captive females. In fact, by criticizing coitus interruptus, in effect he supported forced insemination.
Many other canonical hadiths recount how Muhammad approved intercourse with slave women, but said coitus interruptus was unnecessary because if Allâh willed someone to be born, that soul would be born regardless of coitus interruptus. See the following:
Bukhari 3.34.432: “Narrated Abu Saeed Al-Khudri: that while he was sitting with Allâh’s Apostle he said,
‘O Allâh’s Apostle! We get female captives as our share of booty, and we are interested in their prices, what is your opinion about coitus interruptus?’ The Prophet said, ‘Do you really do that? It is better for you not to do it. No soul that which Allâh has destined to exist, but will surely come into existence.’”
Sahih Muslim is another source considered factual and accurate by virtually all Muslims. Here is Sahih Muslim 8.3381:
“Allâh’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) was asked about ‘azl, (coitus interruptus) whereupon he said: The child does not come from all the liquid (semen) and when Allâh intends to create anything nothing can prevent it (from coming into existence).”
Muslims also consider Abu Dawood highly accurate and factual. Here is Abu Dawood, 29.29.32.100:
“Yahya related to me from Malik from Humayd ibn Qays al-Makki that a man called Dhafif said that Ibn Abbas was asked about coitus interruptus. He called a slave-girl of his and said, ‘Tell them.’ She was embarrassed. He said, ‘It is alright, and I do it myself.’ Malik said, ‘A man does not practise coitus interruptus with a free woman unless she gives her permission. There is no harm in practicing coitus interruptus with a slave-girl without her permission. Someone who has someone else’s slave-girl as a wife does not practice coitus interruptus with her unless her people give him permission.’”
See also Bukhari 3.46.718, 5.59.459, 7.62.135, 7.62.136, 7.62.137, 8.77.600, 9.93.506 Sahih Muslim 8.3383, 8.3388, 8.3376, 8.3377, and several more.
In the Qur’an, Muhammad’s god made it legal to have intercourse with slave women, the so-called “right hand possessions,” even if they were married before their capture.14
Torture
Ibn Ishaq in his narration of the conquest of Jewish town Khaibar reports that Muhammad, without warning, attacked this fortress town and killed its unarmed people as they were fleeing. Among the captured was Kinana.
Kinana al-Rabi, who had the custody of the treasure of Banu Nadir, was brought to the apostle who asked him about it. He denied that he knew where it was. A Jew came (Tabari says ‘was brought’) to the apostle and said that he had seen Kinana going to a certain ruin every morning early. When the apostle said to Kinana, ‘Do you know that if we find you have it (the treasure) I shall kill you?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ The apostle gave orders that the ruin was to be excavated and some of the treasure was found. When he asked him about the rest (of the treasure?) he refused to produce it, so the apostle gave orders to al-Zubayr Al-Awwam, ‘Torture him until you extract what he has.’ So he kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead. Then the apostle delivered him to Muhammad b. Maslama and he struck off his head, in revenge for his brother Mahmud.15
On the same day that Muhammad tortured to death the youthful Kinana, he took his seventeen year old wife Safiya to a tent to have sex with. Two years earlier, he had beheaded her father along with the adult males of the Jewish tribe Bani Quraiza. Ibn Ishaq writes:
The apostle occupied the Jewish forts one after the other, taking prisoners as he went. Among these were Safiya, the wife of Kinana, the Khaibar chief, and two female cousins; the apostle chose Safiya for himself. The other prisoners were distributed among the Muslims. Bilal brought Safiya to the apostle, and they passed the bodies of several Jews on the way. Safiya’s female companions lamented and strewed dust on their heads. When the apostle of Allâh observed this scene, he said, ‘Remove these she-devils from me.’ But he ordered Safiya to remain, and threw his reda [cloak] over her. So the Muslims knew he had reserved her for his own. The apostle reprimanded Bilal, saying, ‘Hast thou lost all feelings of mercy, to make women pass by the corpses of their husbands?’
Bukhari also has recorded a few hadith about Muhammad’s conquest of Khaibar and his rape of Safiya.
Anas said, ‘When Allâh’s Apostle invaded Khaibar, we offered the Fajr prayer there (early in the morning) when it was still dark. The Prophet rode and Abu Talha rode too and I was riding behind Abu Talha. The Prophet passed through the lanes of the town quickly and my knee was touching the thigh of the Prophet. He uncovered his thigh and I saw the whiteness of the thigh of the Prophet. When he entered the town, he said, ‘Allâhu Akbar! Khaibar is ruined. Whenever we approach near a nation then evil will be the morning of those who have been warned.’ He repeated this thrice. The people came out for their jobs and some of them said, ‘Muhammad (has come).’ (Some of our companions added, ‘With his army.’) We conquered Khaibar, took the captives, and the booty was collected.
Dihya came and said, ‘O Allâh’s Prophet! Give me a slave girl from the captives.’ The Prophet said, ‘Go and take any slave girl.’ He took Safiya bint Huyai. A man came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Allâh’s Apostles! You gave Safiya bint Huyai to Dihya and she is the chief mistress of the tribes of Quraiza and An-Nadir and she befits none but you.’ So the Prophet said, ‘Bring him along with her.’ So Dihya came with her and when the Prophet saw her, he said to Dihya, ‘Take any slave girl other than her from the captives.’” Anas added, ‘The Prophet then manumitted her and married her.’
Thabit asked Anas, ‘O Abu Hamza! What did the Prophet pay her as mahr (dowry)?’ He said, ‘Her self was her mahr for he manumitted her and then married her.’ Anas added, ‘While on the way, Um Sulaim dressed her for marriage (ceremony) and at night she sent her as a bride to the Prophet.”’16
In this hadith the commentator narrates how they [the Muslims] raided the city of Khaibar, during the dawn taking the population off guard. After the conquest of the town, it came time to share the booty. Dihya, one of the warriors, received Safiya as his share. Safiya’s father who was the chief of the Bani Nadir had been beheaded by the order of Muhammad three years earlier. After the conquest of Khaibar, her young husband Kinana was tortured and murdered by his order too. Someone informed Muhammad that the seventeen year old Safiya was very beautiful. So Muhammad offered Dihya two girls, the cousins of Safiya, in exchange and got Safiya for himself.
There is also a hadith narrated by Anas, a companion of Muhammad, who recalled that a group of eight men from an Arab tribe came to Muhammad but they found the climate of Medina unsuitable. Muhammad prescribed camel urine as medicine and sent them to meet his camel attendant outside of the town. The men killed the camel attendant and drove away the camels. When Muhammad was informed, he sent some men to pursue them. Then he had their hands and feet cut off, ordered nails which were heated and passed over their eyes, and they were left in a rocky land to die slowly. Anas said that they asked for water, and nobody provided them with water till they died.17
These Arabs committed murder and theft and had to be punished, but why this much torture? Wasn’t Muhammad doing exactly the same things? Where did Muhammad get his camels? Weren’t they stolen? Didn’t he raid and kill people to loot them?
Assassination
Up to this day, most Muslims believe that the only way to deal with the critics of Islam is to assassinate them. In 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious decree) to assassinate Salman Rushdie, because Rushdie had written a book, The Satanic Verses, that some believed insulted Islam. Some condemned Khomeini and accused him of being an extremist. Amazingly, many blamed Rushdie instead, for being “insensitive” to Muslims’ sensitivity.
Fatwa was issued to assassinate Taslima Nasrin, Prof. Humayun Ajad, Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman Babu, Ananta Bijoy Das and several other free-thi kers had been assassinated.
What most people don’t know is that assassination was Muhammad’s way of dealing with his opponents. Today’s Muslim assassins are merely following their prophet’s example.
Ka’b bin Ashraf was one of Muhammad’s victims. As Muslim historians have reported, he was young and handsome, a talented poet and a chief of the Banu Nadir, one of the Jewish tribes of Medina. After Muhammad banished the Banu Qainuqa’, another Jewish tribe of Medina, Ka’b became concerned about his own people’s security vis-à-vis the Muslims, so he visited Mecca to seek protection. He composed poems and praised the Meccans for their bravery and honor. When Muhammad heard about this, he went to the mosque, and after the prayer, said:
‘Who is willing to killKa’bbin Al-Ashraf who has hurtAllâh and His Apostle?’ Thereupon Muhammad binMaslama got up saying, ‘OAllâh’s Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?’ The Prophet said, ‘Yes.’ Muhammad binMaslama said, ‘Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Ka’b).’ The Prophet said, ‘You may say it.’ Then Muhammad binMaslama went to Ka’b and said, ‘That man (i.e. Muhammad) demandsSadaqa (i.e. Zakat [alms]) from us, and he has troubled us, and I have come to borrow something from you.’ On that, Kab said, ‘By Allâh, you will get tired of him!’ Muhammad binMaslama said, ‘Now as we have followed him, we do not want to leave him unless and until we see how his end is going to be. Now we want you to lend us a camel load or two of food.’ …Muhammad binMaslama and his companion promised Ka’b that Muhammad [binMaslama] would return to him. He came to Kab at night along with Kab’sfoster brother, AbuNa’ila. Kab invited them to come into his fort, and then he went down to them. His wife asked him, ‘Where are you going at this time?’ Kab replied, ‘None but Muhammad bin Maslama and my (foster) brother Abu Na’ila have come.’ His wife said, ‘I hear a voice as if blood is dripping from him.’ Ka’b said, ‘They are none but my brother Muhammad bin Maslama and my foster brother Abu Naila. A generous man should respond to a call at night even if invited to be killed.’ …So Muhammad bin Maslama went in together with two men, and said to them, ‘When Ka’b comes, I will touch his hair and smell it, and when you see that I have got hold of his head, strip him. I will let you smell his head.’ Kab bin Al-Ashraf came down to them wrapped in his clothes, and diffusing perfume. Muhammad bin Maslama said, ‘I have never smelt a better scent than this.’ Ka’b replied, ‘I have got the best Arab women who know how to use the high class of perfume.’ Muhammad bin Maslama requested of Ka’b, ‘Will you allow me to smell your head?’ Ka’b said, ‘Yes.’ Muhammad smelt it and made his companions smell it as well. Then he requested of Ka’b again, ‘Will you let me (smell your head)?’ Ka’b said, ‘Yes.’ When Muhammad got a strong hold of him, he said (to his companions), ‘Get at him!’ So they killed him and went to the Prophet and informed him. (Abu Rafi) was killed after Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf.18
The Prophet of Allâh not only encouraged assassination, he advocated deception and treachery, as well. Another victim of Muhammad’s assassination operations was an old man called Abu Afak, who was said to be 120 years old. He composed poetry, some of which lamented that people had become followers of Muhammad. He wrote that Muhammad was a crazed man who arbitrarily told people what was prohibited and what was allowed, and who had caused them to surrender their intelligence and become hostile to one another. Ibn Sa’d reports this story as follows
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 hijrah [immigration from Mecca to Medina in AD 622], of the Apostle of Allâh. 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 Allâh, 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 Allâh screamed and the people who were his followers, rushed to him, took him to his house and interred him.19
The only “crime” this aged man had committed was in composing satirical verses critical of Muhammad.
When Asma bint Marwan, a Jewish mother of five small children heard this, she was so outraged that she composed a poem cursing the men of Medina for letting a stranger divide them and assassinate a venerable old man. Again Muhammad went to the pulpit and cried out:
‘Who will rid me of Marwan’s daughter?’ `Umayr bin `Adiy al-Khatmi who was with him heard him, and that very night he went to her house and killed her. In the morning he came to the apostle and told him what he had done and he [Muhammad] said, ‘You have helped Allâh and His apostle, O `Umayr!’ When he asked if he would have to bear any evil consequences, the apostle said, ‘Two goats won’t butt their heads about her.’ 20
After receiving praise from Muhammad for the assassination of Asma, the killer went to her children, bragged about committing the murder, and taunted those little kids and the clan of the victim.
Now there was a great commotion among Banu Khatma that day about the affair of bint [daughter of] Marwan. She had five sons, and when `Umayr went to them from the apostle he said, ‘I have killed bint Marwan, O sons of Khatma. Withstand me if you can; don’t keep me waiting.’ That was the first day Islam became powerful among B. Khatma; before that those who were Muslims concealed the fact. The first of them to accept Islam was `Umayr b. `Adiy who was called the ‘Reader’ and `Abdullah b. Aus and Khuzayma b. Thabit. The day after Bint Marwan was killed the men of B. Khatma became Muslims because they saw the power of Islam. 21
Genocide
There were three Jewish tribes living in and around Yathrib, the Banu Qainuqa’, the Bani Nadir and the Banu Quraiza. As stated above, they were the original inhabitants of this town. At first Muhammad thought that because he had denounced polytheism and had embraced the Biblical prophets, the Jews would eagerly flock to become his followers. The earlier chapters of the Qur’an are full of stories about Moses and Biblical tales. Originally Muhammad had adopted Jerusalem as the qibla for his prayers, humbugging the Jews for their allegiance. Muslim scholar W. N. Arafat writes, “It is also generally accepted that at first the Prophet Muhammad hoped that the Jews of Yathrib, as followers of a divine religion, would show understanding of the new monotheistic religion, Islam.”22 However, to his dismay, the Jews, just like the Quraish, paid little heed to his calling. After his hopes were dashed and his patience vexed, he grew hostile towards them. Jews were in no hurry to abandon their ancestral faith in order to embrace Muhammad’s new religion. Their rejection enraged him and he sought revenge. The assassination of Abu Afak and Asma only marked the beginning of his animosity towards the Jews. Already emboldened by his plundering of the passing caravans, Muhammad had his eyes on the wealth of the Jews in Yatrib and was looking for an excuse to make his move, to get rid of them and to lay his hands on their wealth. His anger against the Jews started showing in the Qur’anic verses that he composed, where he accused them of being ungrateful to Allâh, of killing their prophets and breaking their own laws. He even went as far as to say that because the Jews had broken the law of Sabbath, God transformed them into apes and swine.23 To this day many Muslims are convinced that monkeys and pigs are descendants of the Jews.
Reference:
1 Tabaqat, Vol. 2, pp. 1-2.
2 Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 59, Number 702:
3 William Muir, Life of Muhammad Volume II, Chapter 2, Page 6
4 Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 3. Book 46, Number 717
5 Ibid
6 Sahih Muslim Book 019, Number 4321, 4322 and 4323:
7 Sahih Muslim Book 019, Number 4292
8 http://66.34.76.88/alsalafiyat/juwairiyah.htm
9 Aisha has narrated that Sauda gave up her (turn) day and night to her in order to seek the pleasure of Allâh’s Apostle (by that action). [Bukhari Volume 3, Book 47, Number 766]
10 Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838–923) was one of the earliest, most prominent and famous Persian historians and exegetes of the Qur’an, most famous for his Tarikh al-Tabari and Tafsir al-Tabari.
11 Persian Tabari, Vol. IV, page 1298.
12 Bukhari Volume 3, Book 34, number 310
13 Bukhari, Volume 5, Book59, Number 459.
14 Qur’an, 4:24: “Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess: Thus hath Allâh ordained (Prohibitions) against you.”
Qur’an, 33:50): “O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allâh has assigned to thee.”
Qur’an, 4:3: “If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice.”
15 Sirat Rasul Allâh, p. 515.
16 Sahih Bukhari, 1.8.367.
17 Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 261
18 Bukhari, 5.59.369
19 The Kitab al Tabaqat al kabir, Vol. 2, p 31
20 From pp. 675-676 of The Life of Muhammad , which is A. Guilaume’s translation of Sirat Rasul Allâh.
21 Ibid
22 From the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (1976), pp. 100-107 By W. N. Arafat
23 Quran, 2:65, 5:60, 7:166
RATIONALIST DEBASHIS 