The Killing of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf: Bukhari 4037 and the "Say What You Wish" Permission

A Knock After Midnight

Medina, the month of Rabi al-Awwal, third year of the Hijra. A moonlit night. Five men leave the city and walk toward a fortress on its outskirts. One of them, Abu Na'ila, is the foster-brother of the man they are going to visit — the two were nursed by the same woman. The man inside is a tribal chief, a celebrated Arab poet, and one of the richest men in the region. He is newly married. When the call comes from below, his wife catches the edge of his cloak and says she hears in that voice something like the dripping of blood. He answers that the caller is his brother, and that a noble man answers a night call even if it means taking a spear-thrust. He goes down. Within the hour he is dead. Nothing in this scene comes from a hostile chronicler. It is recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari — the book Sunni Islam holds to be the most authentic on earth after the Qur'an.

This article does not mock any religion. It will do what we always do: open the books, present the texts exactly as they are, and ask three questions. What does Bukhari 4037 actually say? What reason does the text itself give for the killing? And with what arguments have Muslim scholars defended it for fourteen centuries? Both columns of the dispute will speak in their own words. The verdict, as always, is yours.