Abu 'Afak

Abu 'Afak (Arabic: أبو عفك, c. 7th century) was a Jewish poet who lived in the Hijaz region (today Saudi Arabia). Abu 'Afak did not convert to Islam and was vocal about his opposition to Muhammad. He became a significant political enemy of Muhammad.

As an elderly man, Abu 'Afak Arwan wrote a politically charged poem against Muhammad and his followers that is preserved in the Sira.The affair was recorded by Ibn Ishaq in "Sirat Rasul Allah" (The Life of the Prophet of God), the oldest biography of Muhammad.

Sources

Ibn Ishaq's account

The following is an excerpt from Alfred Guillaume's translation of Ibn Ishaq's "Sirat Rasul Allah", 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 (Muhammhed) 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.

The apostle (Muhamhad) 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" [monotheist] 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).

Ibn Sa'd's account

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 hijrah [immigration from Mecca to Medina in AD 622], 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."

Hadith scholars view

The authenticity of this incident is doubtful at best. 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. 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.

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."

See also

• Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf
• Asma bint Marwan