The Trial of the Prophet Muhammad

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

There is no doubt this title is harsh, bitter as colocynth — even more so — but I am terrified of the day on which the Americans decide to put our Prophet and Messenger, the great Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, on trial. Perhaps this day does not seem near, but it is not very far off either, and it is not improbable, so long as we Arabs and Muslims remain in this condition. The Americans are already putting our Prophet on trial in their articles and their intellectual and political analyses, in history books, films, television series, commentaries, jokes, and outpourings of malice, hatred, and rancor. They hold him responsible for every act committed by any Muslim in a manner they dislike, especially those acts they describe as terrorism.

In America and Europe, as is stated in school and non-school history books alike, they say that Islam is the “Muhammadan religion,” founded by a singular genius who appeared in the Hijaz named Muhammad ibn Abdullah. This genius, as they tell it, managed to enchant people with his rhetoric, his courage, his composure, and his perseverance, to lead them astray from the religion of Christ and the straight path, and to lead them toward error, ignorance, and darkness. The impact of his teachings has persisted across time down to our present day, which is witnessing an Islamic war on light, freedom, progress, prosperity, and knowledge.

They say that the people of terrorism are the followers of this genius who hated light and insisted on darkness, hated freedom and insisted on tyranny, hated civilization and insisted on desert backwardness, hated progress and insisted on underdevelopment. Were it not for the teachings he spread and instilled in the hearts of his followers, the world would not have suffered bombings and instability, Muslims would not have fallen victim to misery and degradation, and innocents would not have fallen victim to a bloodthirsty savagery that dismembers bodies. The followers of this genius, as they say, hate people, and their hearts are filled with rancor, malice, and blackness; they see nothing in this world more beautiful than instilling terror in the hearts of the secure.

The Americans are advancing upon us. They have violated the sanctity of our lands and unleashed upon us tanks, aircraft, and every type of missile. They have slit our throats in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Arabian Peninsula, and Iraq; they have flayed our skin and severed our limbs, and arrested our young and our old, our men and our women. They desecrate our sacred sites in the Hijaz and across the Arabian Peninsula, and in Jerusalem and Iraq, and they violate our honor and drag the bodies of our women through the mud, especially in the land of the two rivers. They alter our curricula, and they cut out for us a religion that suits them. They dictate to Arab governments which verses of God must be concealed and which are to become subject matter for teaching, which hadiths are to be struck out and which are permitted to survive. They pursue strugglers and mujahideen into the cells of Arab intelligence services, and they even herd Syrian officials like rabbits into interrogation rooms.

We used to think there were sanctities the Americans would never approach, but our assumptions were disappointed. The Americans will enter Mecca and the land of the Sacred Mosque, and will desecrate the resting place of the Messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the city of love and peace. They will pronounce judgment on al-Aqsa, and will work to alter the verses of the Noble Qur’an. How could they, when God Himself has pledged to preserve His verses? The Americans will interfere in the building of mosques, and in how they are used and what activities take place within them. Indeed, they are already doing so now. And they will find, among the Arab rulers, the very pimps who usher intruders into the chambers of our women, the best help and the finest collaborators.

The American advance continues, and tomorrow they will demand that we revise our history, so that we arrive, according to their will, at the erasure of our history, the trampling of all our glories, and the exhuming of the graves of our heroes and our great men. Let no one be surprised that this will happen, because it is happening now, ever since the Palestinian leadership decided to renounce terrorism and brand mujahideen and strugglers as terrorists. They will tell us that Islam spread by the sword, that the Islamic conquest was nothing but a hateful colonial invasion that destroyed nations, put an end to their civilizational march, tore apart the bonds of their cultures, and demolished priceless human treasures. They will say that the Muslims spread injustice and darkness, and were the enemies of light and freedom.

The Americans will ask who led this march of error and misguidance, and they will answer — having been coached in the systems of contempt, tyranny, baseness, and defeat — that it was Muhammad ibn Abdullah. The Arab rulers will nod their heads in agreement, and corrupt, hypocritical men of religion will stand ready, following the nod with a fatwa.

“Put him on trial,” the Americans will say. A court will be formed in Madrid, the very place to which the mules of the Arabs were led in 1991, and the president of the court will sit at the Camp David table; the cross and the menorah will be raised above the heads, and the crescent will be trampled underfoot. It is the trial of all ages. And the verdict will be issued: dig up the grave of that genius and burn the first mosque Islam ever built; demolish the Sacred Mosque and bulldoze the Muslims’ Ka’ba. As for the Black Stone, grind it up and scatter it in the streets of New York. Erase Mecca and Medina — indeed, erase the land of the Hijaz itself, so that in its place, across its whole expanse, there might spread a pit of injustice, darkness, ignorance, and corruption, to stand as the pride of American civilization before all mankind.

As for the Arab rulers, they will proclaim victory, and a vast crowd of the pseudo-Muslims will rejoice at a holiday on which work and business come to a halt.

America finds in our backs a mount to ride, and we are obedient to it. If we wish for the course of history to change, there is nothing before us but revolution against the condition we are in and against those who rule over us. We are enemies of ourselves, enemies of our history, and enemies of our Prophet. Revolution against the Arab rulers takes priority, and there is no escape before us except to offer up sacrifices. Many of our intellectuals, thinkers, men of religion, and academics have fallen and wallowed in the mud alongside the other wallowers, but that remaining few who hold fast to the burning coal are capable. Let us gather, and let our forces unite, in revolution against the unjust tyrants who traffic the nation for profit.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “محاكمة محمد بن عبد الله” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.