Murder of the Prophets عليهم السلام

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Allah Most High says about the Jews and their killing of His Prophets:

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّـهُ قَالُوا نُؤْمِنُ بِمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَيْنَا وَيَكْفُرُونَ بِمَا وَرَاءَهُ وَهُوَ الْحَقُّ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا مَعَهُمْ ۗ قُلْ فَلِمَ تَقْتُلُونَ أَنبِيَاءَ اللَّـهِ مِن قَبْلُ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

And when it is said to them: “Believe in what Allah sent down” they say, “We believe in what was sent down to us” and they disbelieve in what came after it, though it is the Truth, confirming that which is with them. Say: “Then why did you kill the Prophets of Allah before, if you are believers?”

(Surah 2:91)

The argument of the stone-hearted Jews who reject the Revelation and Prophesy of sayyidina Muhammad (peace be upon him & his family) is that they only believe in that which was revealed to them. They are of course referring to the Revelation that came to them through the ancient Israelite Prophets, which they read from the Hebrew Scriptures and claim to believe in. But in answering this argument, Allah instructs His holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him & his family), and by extension the rest of the Believers, to rhetorically ask the Jews who make this false argument that if their claim is that they restrict themselves to believing in what was revealed to their own – meaning the Prophets of Israel – then why did they kill many of those very Prophets?

The question that naturally arises is why does Allah Most High, in this Verse and in several others throughout the Holy Quran, put the collective responsibility for the murder of His ancient Prophets upon the Jews of latter generations? It is because the Children of Israel were given the Covenant at Mount Sinai, and according to this Covenant, they are to be collectively rewarded and punished for their national behavior and attitude. Hence it is written in the Torah that the Lord God says: “I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me”. It is also written: “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 23:2). Therefore, though it was the ancestors of the latter generations of Jews who unjustly murdered the Prophets of God, they are collectively (but not personally or individually) tainted by that evil transgression, and as a nation the sin of murdering Prophets is attributed to them. And consider also the amazing words of Jesus of Nazareth (peace be upon him): “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:29-33), and in another version: “Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation” (Luke 11:47-51). Now it becomes evident that those self-righteous among the Jews who boasted about their faith and deeds in the times of the Messiah Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them both), had the same evil in their hearts which motivated their forefathers to murder prior Israelite Prophets who were sent to them. The identical condition of their hearts to the hearts of those who actually murdered the Prophets with their hands makes them guilty and they stand condemned in the Court of the Most High. And remember, these are the people who attempted to have the Messiah Jesus put to death through crucifixion (through the agency of the Romans), and attempted to assassinate the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) several times, including by poisoning him after the conquest of Khaybar, but he was protected by Allah Most High and survived their evil murder attempts. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

إِنَّ أَشَدَّ النَّاسِ عَذَابًا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ رَجُلٌ قَتَلَ نَبِيًّا أَوْ قَتَلَهُ نَبِيٌّ

“The worst of people to be punished on the Day of Resurrection is a man who killed a Prophet or a Prophet killed him” (Fath al-Bari)

So the murder of a Prophet is the most heinous offense in the sight of Allah Holy and Exalted is He. This is yet another indication that the Prophets are the most beloved and superior of Allah’s creation. The murder of a Prophet kindles the fury of God Almighty, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said:

مَنْ أَعَانَ عَلَى قَتْلِ مُؤْمِنٍ بِشَطْرِ كَلِمَةٍ لَقِيَ اللَّهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ مَكْتُوبٌ بَيْنَ عَيْنَيْهِ آيِسٌ مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ

“Whoever helps to kill a Believer, even with half a word, he will meet Allah with the words written between his eyes: ‘He has no hope of the Mercy of Allah’” (Sunan Ibn Majah #2620)

So if the murder of an ordinary Believer is so serious that even one who did not actually murder him with his own hand but merely incited it with words, how much more serious is the murder of a Prophet? Will not the murderer of a Prophet come on Judgment Day with the words “No Hope of Mercy” branded on his brow? Now let us consider the condition of our own Ummah, which, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) foretold, shall follow the ways of the Jews and Christians before them. So just a wicked section of the Jews are collectively guilty of the murder of the Prophets, likewise, a section of this Ummah is guilty of the murder of Allah’s righteous servants and His Saints:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّـهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ وَيَقْتُلُونَ الَّذِينَ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْقِسْطِ مِنَ النَّاسِ فَبَشِّرْهُم بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

Those who disbelieve in the Signs of Allah and kill the Prophets without right and kill those who order justice from among the people - give them tidings of a painful punishment

(Surah 3:21)

So a section of this Ummah is guilty of murder of “those who order justice from among the people”. Consider the tragic murder and martyrdom of three of the Prophet’s Rightly-Guided Successors, namely, Umar al-Faruq, Uthman bin Affan and Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with them). And it is mentioned that Hasan al-Mujtaba (peace be upon him), the Prophet’s eldest grandson, and one of the Rightly-Guided Successors, was martyred, killed by poisoning. Although sayyidina Umar, the Prophet’s second Successor and the first of them to be martyred, was not killed by a Muslim but by the infidel Abu Lu’lu’ah Firuz or Piruz Nahavandi (curse him). Sayyidina Uthman, the third Successor, was tragically and shockingly martyred at the hands of a band of Muslim rebels, which broke open the door that hitherto had prevented the entry of trials and tribulations within the Ummah. Subsequently, Amir al-Mu’minin Ali bin Abi Talib (peace be upon him) became the fourth Successor, but he embraced martyrdom at the hands of a Kharijite assassin, Abd ar-Rahman bin Muljam al-Muradi (curse him). The Kharijites were the first breakaway sect in the history of the Ummah, so the murder of sayyidina Ali is the second instance in which a Successor of the Prophet was killed by evil elements within the Ummah. Then of course there is the tragedy of Karbala, in which the Prophet’s grandson sayyidina Husain (peace be upon him) was martyred, along with members of his immediate and extended family, such as his son Ali al-Akbar and his infant son Ali al-Asghar, his brother, and the moon of the Hashemites Abul-Fadl al-Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them). These pure and innocent individuals, from the Family of the Prophet (peace be upon them) were martyred at the hands of elements from within this Ummah; Yazid bin Mu’awiyah, Ubaid Allah bin Ziyad, Shimr bin Dhil-Jawshan, Umar bin Sa’d, Harmalah bin Kahil al-Asadi, and others (curse them all). And the Shi’ah of Iraq, who are the spiritual progeny of their predecessors in Kufah, who betrayed the Imam Husain, and constituted the force of Ibn Ziyad which intercepted the Imam at Karbala, massacring him and seventy or so others from the Prophet’s Family and their devotees, are collectively tainted with the sin of that massacre. In a sense, they recognize this collective guilt of theirs, which explains why they annually perform rituals of self-flagellation and self-mortification in the sacred month of Muharram. So the Rafidi Shi’ah community are like the Pharisaic Jews, as we hold the former collectively responsible for the murder of the Prophet’s sacred progeny and family members, and the latter collectively responsible for the murder of God’s Prophets. And in a broader sense, the Ummah is guilty of the murder of the Prophet’s rightly-guided Caliphs and the Imams of his Family. The great Imam Zayd bin Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) was martyred in Kufah in a failed uprising against the Umayyads. Like what happened to Imam Husain, the majority of the Shi’ah of Kufah deserted Imam Zayd, and so are also responsible for his martyrdom.