Skip to content

The Heart's Witness Against Muhammad: Murder of the One-Eyed Bedouin

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes
Jesus gave sight to the blind. Muhammad blinded those who could see

"Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. . . . To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death.'"  This is apparently a truth about both God and man of which Muhammad was ignorant or which he effectively squelched in quest for power and success.  Either way, not very auspicious for a man who claimed to be the oracle of God and the perfect man.

Highlights

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - Ibn Ishaq, one of Muhammad's earliest Muslim biographers relates for us a story in his biography of Muhammad which raises another wart on Muhammad's soul.  According to Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad sent two of his Muslim followers--Amr bin Umayya al-Damri and an-Ansari, assassins both, for Muhammad rubbed shoulders with such types--to his old home town of Mecca to kill his enemy Abu Sufyan.  Unfortunately for them, the townsfolk recognized al-Damri, and the two assassins were chased out of Mecca.

From here, we shall let Ibn Ishaq tell the story:

"They got up to pursue us and I told my companion to escape, for the very thing I feared had happened, and so as to Abu Sufyan there was no means of getting at him.  So we made off with all speed and climbed the mountain and went into a cave where we spent the night, having successfully eluded them so that they returned to Mecca. . . . .[My partner, an-Ansari having left], I went into a cave there taking my bow and arrows, and while I was there in came a one-eyed man of B[anu] al-Dil [i.e., the al-Dil tribe] driving a sheep of his. 

When he asked who I was I told him that I was one of the B[anu] Bakr [i.e., the Bakr tribe].  He said that he was also, adding of the B[anu] al-Dil clan.  Then he lay down beside me and lifting up his voice began to sing:

'I won't be a Muslim as long as I live,
Nor heed to their religion give.'

I said (to myself), 'You will soon know!' and as soon as the badu was asleep and snoring I got up and killed him in a more horrible way than any man has been killed. I put the end of my bow in his sound eye, then I bore down on it until I forced it out at the back of his neck.  Then I came out like a beast of prey and took the highroad like an eagle hastening . . . .

When I got to Medina . . . [Muhammad] asked my news and when I told him what had happened he blessed me."

(Ibn Ishaq, trans. by Guillaume (2006), pp. 673-75).

Muhammad blessed the assassin al-Damri?  Blessed him?  Muhammad blessed al-Damri for killing a one-eyed shepherd for composing a couplet against Muslims and Islam?

And this is a man we are to take as al-insan al-kamil, a perfect being?

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Any normal man would find this behavior by Muhammad which encouraged and blessed such an act shocking.  The Muslim cannot.  The Muslim must find it good.  The Muslim cannot criticize it.  Indeed, the "good" Muslim must imitate it.  The Muslim must be happy that this one-eyed badu was killed in this gruesome way for saying nothing other than:

"I won't be a Muslim as long as I live,
Nor heed to their religion give."

Now observe the quandary.  The natural law, the law of God writ in our heart which participates in the eternal law of God--if we allow it to tutor us--would have us follow the one-eyed Bedouin and sing with him: "I won't be a Muslim as long as I live, nor heed to their religion give."  In an uncorrupt heart, that refrain would never be quieted.  In this series of articles, we have already seen how Muhammad and Islam contradicted the natural law in various particulars, including polygamy, concubinage, murder of political enemies, and lying.  In further articles, we shall cover yet other violations of the natural law, such as genocide and slavery.

And what?  Is that law in our heart also to be put to death, like the one-eyed Bedouin in a cave near Mecca, to please the likes of Muhammad?  Wouldn't we be equally blinded?

Jesus gave sight to the blind.  Muhammad blinded those who could see.  The difference could not be starker.

There is an ultimate tragedy, an irony, in this entire story, for it might be understood as a type of what Islam is all about.  The tragic and ironic thing is that--in following a man who blessed the killing of a one-eyed Bedouin for nothing other than exercising his right to religious freedom--the Muslim has blinded himself.  The Muslim becomes, in a tragic irony, the blinded one eyed Bedouin. 

What al-Damri did to the one-eyed Bedouin many years ago, a Muslim who follows Allah and his alleged prophet Muhammad (and thus forcibly squelches the voice of the natural moral law within him that is based upon reason) does to his soul.  He loses his one good eye of reason and enters into darkness and spiritual death.  The follower of Christ, the truth, the way, and the life, on the other hand, keeps his eye of reason, but gains another: the eye of faith. 

And with faith and reason he discovers the world of love, a world that would never entertain violence against a one-eyed Bedouin even if he did happen to say, "I won't be a Christian as long as I live, nor heed to their religious give."

Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

It's true that the Christian has been armed with fourteen "bows" that he is authorized to use against the one-eyed Bedouin by his Lord.  These are: to feed him, to give him drink, to clothe him, to shelter him, to visit him if sick, to ransom him if captive, to bury him if dead, to instruct him, to counsel him, to admonish him, to bear wrongs from him patiently, to forgive him willingly, to comfort him, and to pray for him and his tribe.

But violence to this man who presented him with no threat a Christian would not use.  He would know what Pope Benedict XVI expressed in his Regensburg Lecture quoting the "erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus":

"Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul.  'God . . . is not pleased by blood--and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature.  Faith is born of the soul, not the body.  Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats. . . . . To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death.'"

This is apparently a truth about both God and man of which Muhammad was ignorant or which he effectively squelched in quest for power and success.  Either way, not very auspicious for a man who claimed to be the oracle of God and the perfect man.

(This article is adapted from the book written by the author entitled, The Heart's Witness Against Muhammad: Why the Natural Law Proves Muhammad False.)

-----

Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas.  He is married with three children.  He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law called Lex Christianorum.  You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.

---


'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'


Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Lent logo
Saint of the Day logo

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.