Islamic Beheading Practices
March 24, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
In our Previous Blog we discussed the rewards of Martyrdom promised in the Islamic faith as recorded in the Quran.
I have read the Quran, and
I confess that
I may be wrong, but I do not believe the instruction for Islamic beheading is recorded in it. It is a tradition teaching, based on what long dead Islamic leaders say they heard Muhammad say or what they saw him do. Much of the Islamic teaching is based on the tradition established down through the ages since Muhammad’s death. I am glad my old friend asked me the questions, because this is a timely subject that relates to the possible beheading scenario, that has recently been going on in Afghanistan, about a man who converted from Islam to the Christian faith.
As I stated in the previous paragraph, I do not believe the instructions for beheading are found in the Quran. But if I am wrong it is because I have misinterpreted Quran Suna 47, verse 4.
Three different translations of Quran Suna 47, verse 4 follow the next paragraph.
I believe the smiting of the necks in these three translations refer to the smiting of their enemies necks in combat, not beheading them after they have been captured. If it does refer to beheading them after they are captured, then this is the only place in the Quran of which I am aware such a practice is mentioned.
Quran Sura 47, verse 4
047.004
YUSUFALI: Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens.
Thus (are ye commanded): but if it had been Allah’s Will, He could certainly have exacted retribution from them (Himself); but (He lets you fight) in order to test you, some with others. But those who are slain in the Way of Allah,- He will never let their deeds be lost.
PICKTHAL: Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom till the war lay down its burdens. That (is the ordinance). And if Allah willed He could have punished them (without you) but (thus it is ordained) that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He rendereth not their actions vain.
SHAKIR: So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates. That (shall be so); and if Allah had pleased He would certainly have exacted what is due from them, but that He may try some of you by means of others; and (as for) those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will by no means allow their deeds to perish.
This is the Blog I said I would put up as the second part of a two part series, the first part being put up this morning as an answer to an old friend’s query on Islamic practices. The following Archive Prophecy Update Number 178B was issued two years ago.
SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 178B
June 30, 2004
The Sacred Religious Rite of Islamic Beheading
The bulk of what follows comes from an article by Andrew G.
Bostom, which appeared last month on the site FrontPagemagazine.com.
“According to Muhammad’s sacralized biography by Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe. He appointed an “arbiter” who soon rendered this concise verdict: the men were to be put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, the spoils to
be divided among the Muslims.
Muhammad ratified this judgment stating that it was a decree of God pronounced from above the Seven Heavens. Thus some 600 to 900 men from the Qurayza were led, on Muhammad’s order, to the Market of Medina. Trenches were dug and the men were beheaded, and their decapitated corpses buried in the trenches while Prophet Muhammad watched in attendance. The Women and children were sold into slavery, a number of them being distributed as gifts among Muhammad’s companions, and Muhammad selected one of the Qurayza women (Rayhana) for himself. Then all of the Qurayza’s property and other possessions (including weapons) were also divided up as additional “booty” among the Muslims, to support further jihad
campaigns against the infidels around them.
The classical Muslim jurist al-Mawardi (a Shafi’ ite jurist, d.
1058) from Baghdad was a seminal, prolific scholar who lived during the so-called Islamic “Golden Age” of the Abbasid-Baghdadian Caliphate, and he wrote the following, based on widely accepted interpretations of the Qur’an and Sunna (i.e., the recorded words and deeds of Muhammad), regarding infidel prisoners of jihad campaigns: “As for the captives, the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. Allah, may he be exalted, says, ‘When you do encounter those [infidels] who deny [the Truth=Islam] then strike [their] necks’ (Qur’an sura 47, verse 4)”….Abu’l-Hasan al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah.” [The Laws of Islamic Governance, trans. by Dr. Asadullah Yate, (London), Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 1996, p. 192. Emphasis added.] Indeed such odious “rules” were iterated by all four classical schools of Islamic jurisprudence, found across the vast Muslim empire.
For centuries, from the Iberian peninsula to the Indian subcontinent, jihad campaigns waged by Muslim armies against ungodly infidel Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Hindus, were punctuated by massacres, including mass throat slittings and beheadings. During the period of “enlightened” Muslim rule, the Christians of Iberian Toledo, who had first submitted to their Arab Muslim invaders in 711 or 712, revolted in 713. In the harsh Muslim reprisal that ensued, Toledo was pillaged, and all the Christian notables had their throats cut. On the Indian subcontinent, Babur (1483-1530), the founder of the Mughal Empire, who is revered as a paragon of true Muslim tolerance by modern revisionist historians, recorded the following event in his autobiographical “Baburnama,” about numerous infidel prisoners of a jihad. “All of those who were brought in alive [having surrendered] were ordered beheaded, after which a huge tower of skulls was erected in the camp.” [The Baburnama -Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor, both translated and edited by Wheeler M. Thacktson, Oxford University Press,1996, p. 188. Emphasis added.]
Recent jihad-inspired decapitations of infidels by Muslims have occurred across the globe- Christians in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Nigeria; Hindu priests and “unveiled” Hindu women in Kashmir; Wall Street Journal reporter, and Jew, Daniel Pearl. We should not be surprised that these contemporary paroxysms of the recorded jihad violence are accompanied by ritualized beheadings. Such gruesome acts are in fact sanctioned by core Islamic sacred texts, and classical Muslim jurisprudence. Empty claims that jihad decapitations are somehow “alien to true Islam,” however well-intentioned, undermine serious efforts to reform and desacralize Islamic doctrine.
This process will only begin with frank discussion, both between non-Muslims and Muslims, and within the Muslim community.” (END QUOTE)
The loss of a man’s head in ancient religious rites by those who worshipped false gods symbolized the loss of his power before their god. The loss of his head, from which he worshipped another god, was thought to be a justified punishment inflicted on the one who would not
worship their god. At times the head of a particularly great warrior of the unbelievers had his head placed in the worship place of their god.
The Philistines, who once occupied the Gaza Strip where the Palestinians now abide, performed such an act of religious fever on King Saul of Israel.
I Chronicles 10:8-10 – And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa. [9] And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people. [10] And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.
But when the Philistines decided to show their power over the God of Israel, a quite different scenario was noted when they placed his Ark of the Covenant in the temple of their God.
I Samuel 5:1-7 – And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod. [2] When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set
it by Dagon. [3] And when they of Ashdod arose early on
the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. [4] And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him. [5] Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. [6] But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. [7] And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
When the antichrist sets on the temple mound as the “abomination that maketh desolate”, claiming to be God, then his fate, as well as that of his false prophet, will be far worse then that experienced by the ones who formerly occupied the Gaza Strip.
Revelation 19:17-21 – That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. [19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
In Saudi Arabia, the country of Islam’s birth, beheadings are fairly common and are performed in a public square.
The one being beheaded is made to kneel on a large square of blue plastic sheeting, and to face Mecca, the most Holy Site in Islam. A doctor is on hand to stem the flow of blood from the cranium and to suture the head back on for burial. The one beheaded is kneeling toward Mecca, displayed and helpless before Allah’s holiest site, and before his followers. So don’t try and tell me this isn’t a religious rite of Islam, and don’t tell me it won’t be carried out on their enemies during the coming holy jihad against Israel.
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