Burning the House of Jew Suwaylim: A Weak Hadith Refuted
Some critics cite a narration from Ibn Hisham’s biography alleging that the Prophet ﷺ ordered the burning of hypocrites gathered in the house of a Jewish man named Suwaylim during the Battle of Tabuk. This post demonstrates that the narration is very weak due to multiple defects in its chain of transmission, that it is contradicted by authentic hadiths in which the Prophet ﷺ explicitly forbade torture by fire, and that the allegation is incompatible with the well-documented mercy of the Messenger of Mercy. We examine the chain of transmission, the judgments of hadith scholars, and the authentic Sunnah on the prohibition of burning.
The Alleged Narration and Its Chain
Critics cite as evidence what Ibn Hisham narrated in the biography of the Prophet. He said: A trustworthy person told me on the authority of someone who told him, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Talhah ibn Abd al-Rahman, on the authority of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah ibn Haritha, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, who said: It reached the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, that some of the hypocrites were gathering in the house of Suwaylim the Jew, and his house was near Jasum, and they were preventing people from… The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was in the Battle of Tabuk. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent Talhah ibn Ubaydullah with some of his companions and ordered him to burn the house of Suwaylim on them. Talhah did so. Then Ad-Dahhak ibn Khalifa stormed in from the back of the house and broke his leg. His companions stormed in and escaped.
First: The narration is very weak. This narration is not authentic and cannot be used as evidence because its chain of transmission is broken and unknown. Muslims do not accept in their religion anything but an authentic hadith that meets five conditions: continuity of the chain of transmission; the narrators are just; the narrators are accurate; absence of anomaly; and absence of defect.
[!scholar] Abu Amr ibn al-Salah — Hadith Sciences
“As for the authentic hadith: It is the hadith with a chain of transmission that is connected by the transmission of a just and accurate narrator from a just and accurate narrator to the end, and it is neither anomalous nor defective.”
Defects of the Narration
The First Defect: Unknown Narrators
Ibn Hisham said: “A trustworthy person told me.” So who is this trustworthy person? Do we know him to believe his news? No, this is absolute ignorance and a state that we do not accept. Even if we were to concede and say that Ibn Hisham authenticated this unknown sheikh of his, then the sheikh of this unknown person is also unknown.
[!scholar] Abu Amr ibn al-Salah — Hadith Sciences
“The unknown is the one whose integrity is unknown from both the apparent and the hidden perspectives, and his narration is not accepted by the majority.”
[!scholar] Ibn Kathir — Al-Ba’ith al-Hatheeth
“As for the vague one who was not named, or the one who was named but his identity is not known, then this is someone whose narration is not accepted by anyone we know.”
The Second Defect: Muhammad ibn Talhah ibn Abd al-Rahman
[!scholar] Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani — Taqrib al-Tahdhib
“Muhammad ibn Talha ibn Abd al-Rahman: trustworthy but makes mistakes.”
Weakening of the Narration by Investigators
A number of investigators of the books of the Prophet’s biography have pointed out the weakness of this narration due to the defects mentioned above:
[!scholar] Sheikh Alawi Abdul Qadir Al-Saqqaf — Graduation of Hadiths and Athars of the Book In the Shade of the Qur’an
“The incident of burning the house of the Jewish Suwailem on the hypocrites — weak. Narrated by Ibn Hisham in (Al-Seerah) with a chain of transmission that includes two unknown narrators.”
[!scholar] Dr. Akram Diaa Al-Omari — The Biography of the Prophet in Light of the Original Sources
“Narrated by Ibn Hisham with an interrupted chain of transmission, so it is weak.”
[!scholar] The authors of the Encyclopedia of Nadhrat Al-Naeem
“Narrated by Ibn Hisham in Al-Seerah with an interrupted chain of transmission.”
The Second Chain of Transmission
Another chain of transmission for the narration exists:
[!hadith] Ibn Abi Asim — Al-Ahad wa al-Mathani, Vol. 4, p. 4
Yaqub ibn Humayd narrated to us, Muhammad ibn Talhah ibn Abd al-Rahman narrated to us, on the authority of Muhammad ibn al-Husayn, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Mahmoud ibn Labid, that Uwaym ibn Sa’idah, may God be pleased with him, said to his companions on the day they were sent to the hypocrites in the house of Suwaylam: “Obey me and burn them with fire as the Messenger of God has commanded you.”
Grade: Very Weak — multiple defects in chain
This is a weak chain of transmission in which there are defects:
The first defect is: Ya’qub ibn Muhammad ibn Kasib.
[!scholar] Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani — Taqrib al-Tahdhib
“Yaqoub bin Hamid bin Kasib: Trustworthy, but he may have made mistakes.”
[!scholar] Al-Dhahabi — Tadhkirat al-Huffaz
“Yaqub bin Hamid bin Kasib: He is unique in some things and has some strange things.”
The second defect: Muhammad bin Talha bin Abd al-Rahman. His biography was mentioned above — trustworthy but makes mistakes.
The third defect: Muhammad bin al-Husayn. Only Ibn Hibban authenticated him, and the scholars of hadith who verified him do not rely on Ibn Hibban’s authentication.
[!scholar] Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani — Lisan al-Mizan
“This is what Ibn Hibban went to, that if the man’s identity is not known, then he is on the side of justice until his injury is revealed. This is a strange doctrine, and the majority are against it.”
[!scholar] Al-Albani — Tamam al-Minnah
“The fifth rule: Do not rely on the documentation of Ibn Hibban.”
The Authentic Sunnah Denies the Story
The Prophet ﷺ forbade his companions in his authentic Sunnah from burning with fire. This constitutes a decisive textual contradiction (mu’arada) that invalidates the weak narration.
On the authority of Ikrimah that Ali, may God be pleased with him, burned some people, and Ibn Abbas was informed of this and he said: “If it had been me, I would not have burned them because the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: Do not torture with the torture of God.”Grade: Sahih · Al-Bukhari
We were with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, on a journey. He set out to relieve himself, and we saw a red dove with two chicks. We took her two chicks, and the red dove came and began to lay down. Then the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came and said: “Who caused this woman grief over her child? Return her child to her.” And he saw an ant village that we had burned, so he said, “Who burned this?” We said, “We did.” He said, “None should punish with fire except the Lord of Fire.”Grade: Sahih · Abu Dawud
So, O Allah, send prayers and peace and blessings upon the river of mercy and the spring of compassion, may my father and mother be sacrificed for him, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him. What is this amazing mercy that Allah has placed in the heart of this noble Messenger Even the ants had a share of his mercy Is it possible, after this mercy that flows softly and smoothly from between the folds of his honorable lips, that this merciful, compassionate, kind, gentleman, and compassionate one is accused of these empty charges? A little bit of reason and fairness, gentlemen.
Biblical Precedents of Burning by Divine Command
Haven’t you looked at what is in your books, O people, of terrorism and crimes against humanity?
“Behold, I will command, saith the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city, and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without inhabitant.”
“And it shall come to pass, when you take the city, that you shall set the city on fire. According to the word of the Lord you shall do. See, I have commanded you.”
Their book says that their Lord commanded the burning of an entire city!! Then they attack the Prophet of Mercy and Compassion, may God bless him and grant him peace, and accuse him of terrorism with a hadith whose chain of transmission is weak and whose text contradicts the authentic Sunnah. And soon, God willing, I will have many studies in which we will try hard to count the huge numbers that were burned by the command of this alleged Lord.
The narration alleging that the Prophet ﷺ ordered the burning of hypocrites in Suwaylim’s house is very weak due to multiple chain defects: unknown narrators, a narrator who makes mistakes, and reliance on the authentication of Ibn Hibban which the majority of hadith scholars reject. Furthermore, the narration is directly contradicted by authentic hadiths in which the Prophet ﷺ explicitly forbade torture by fire and expressed grief even over the burning of an ant village. The allegation is incompatible with the well-documented mercy of the Messenger of Mercy and is a projection of biblical precedents onto a weak, unauthenticated report.
Sources
- Ibn Hisham, The Biography of the Prophet, Vol. 4, p. 157, Dar Al-Kitab Al-Arabi, Beirut, ed. Omar Abdul Salam Tadmuri.
- Abu Amr ibn al-Salah, Hadith Sciences, p. 11, published by Dar al-Fikr al-Mu’aser – Lebanon and Dar al-Fikr – Syria, trans. Nour al-Din Antar.
- Abu Amr ibn al-Salah, Hadith Sciences, p. 111, published by Dar al-Fikr al-Mu’aser – Lebanon and Dar al-Fikr – Syria, trans. Nour al-Din Antar.
- Ibn Kathir, Al-Ba’ith al-Hatheeth, a commentary on the abbreviation of Hadith Sciences, p. 92, authored by Ahmed Shaker, published by Dar Al-Kotob Al-Ilmiyyah - Beirut.
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Taqrib Al-Tahdhib, p. 420, published by Al-Risalah - Beirut, translated by Adel Murshid.
- Sheikh Alawi Abdul Qadir Al-Saqqaf, Graduation of Hadiths and Athars of the Book In the Shade of the Qur’an, pp. 273–274, published by Dar Al-Hijrah - Riyadh.
- Dr. Akram Diaa Al-Omari, The Biography of the Prophet in Light of the Original Sources, p. 619, published by King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.
- Authors of the Encyclopedia of Nadhrat Al-Naeem, Vol. 1, p. 389, published by Dar Al-Wasila, Jeddah, supervised by Saleh bin Abdullah bin Hamid, Abdul Rahman bin Muhammad bin Maluh.
- Ibn Abi Asim, Al-Ahad and Al-Mathani, Vol. 4, p. 4, published by Dar Al-Rayah - Riyadh, translated by Dr. Basem Faisal Ahmed Al-Jawabra.
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Taqrib al-Tahdhib, p. 537, published by Al-Risalah Foundation - Beirut, ed. Adel Murshid.
- Al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, vol. 2, p. 40, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, Beirut - Lebanon, ed. Zakaria Umayrat.
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Lisan al-Mizan, vol. 1, p. 208, published by the Office of Islamic Publications, Dar al-Bisharat al-Islamiyyah, Beirut.
- Al-Albani, Tamam al-Minnah fi Ta’liq ‘ala Fiqh al-Sunnah, p. 20, published by Dar al-Rayah - Riyadh.
- Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, p. 743, hadith 3017, published by Dar Ibn Katheer - Beirut.
- Abu Dawud, Sunan Abi Dawud, vol. 4, p. 309, published by Dar al-Risalah al-Alamiyyah, ed. Sheikh Shuaib al-Arna’ut.