Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland

THE PRINCE OF MEDINA t 89
Uhud onward by a word commonly translated as “hypocrites”
(munafiqun), which is also the title of sura 63. What they actually
were is more complex; perhaps “disaffected nominal Muslims in
Medina” comes closest to describing them. But here they begin to
take on the aspect of a schismatic community, a group of believers
who wished to worship on their own (without the Prophet’s supervision?)
and in a place of their own. Whatever their motives, they
were judged by God himself to be in “opposition and unbelief”
and the mosque was destroyed at Muhammad’s own command.
The Last Years (631–632)
In the ninth year of the new Muslim era, Muhammad made his
final break with the polytheism into which he had been born and
against which he had been preaching for more than two decades. It
is announced in the opening verses of sura 9, called “The Immunity,”
a grave notice to the polytheists of the Hejaz that God’s
patience was at an end. The biographical sources attempt to fill in
the details. This “proclamation” announced in the Quran was not
delivered by the Prophet himself but by Abu Bakr or Ali—there
was, as often, later disagreement on these points—on the occasion
of the hajj of 631. It was the last pilgrimage in which the pagans
would be allowed to participate, which may explain Muhammad’s
own absence. All treaty obligations contracted with them would
be unilaterally dissolved. It was the formal end of the original Medina
umma, the one initiated by the agreement signed by Muhammad
and the Medinese, Muslims, pagans, and Jews shortly after
his arrival in the oasis, and the beginning of a new umma, this one
composed of Muslims alone, a theocracy that would be at the
same time a church and a state.
The pagans were granted a four-month grace period during
which all the treaty obligations would be scrupulously observed.
But once that time was over, the consequences would be terrible:
“When the sanctuary months are over, fight and slay the polytheists
wherever you find them, and seize them and confine them and
lie in wait for them in every kind of ambush. But if they repent and