Apostate prophet raises an outcry; why destroy the idols of Dhul Khalasa and Ta'if?

In answer to the video "Muhammad's Destruction of Idols"

Whether one likes it or not, there is a pattern of the prophets. When they are sent with manifest arguments, warnings and prophecies, if the people do not heed during their time of respite then the prophecies come to roost, the opponents to the prophets are uprooted and the prophets and their followers established in the land. This pattern is all the more true in regards to a land declared sacred by God, and subsequently defiled.

A point came where the prophetic warnings were about to come to fruition and the prophet subsequently sent with Ali the final ultimatum to the tribes gathering for the annual pilgrimage from across the Arabian peninsula and the remaining Idolators of Mecca. They were unworthy of being the guardians of a land declared sacred by God since its establishment by their forefathers Abraham and Ishmael 8:34-35,53,9:17-22,28.

This is just as God, in the times of the children of Israel, declared Canaan sacred and unfit to any trace of idolatry Deut9,Lev18:24-8,20:22-3. The Israelites consequently had to exterminate or forcefully expell from it those who indulged in it and defiled it Ezra9:12, erasing all traces of idol worship, not allowing any covenant or peaceful outcome to its inhabitants. The only exception was an occasion where a Canaanite tribe disguised as coming from a foreign nation deceitfully or rather desperately, got into a peace covenant under oath with Joshua.

He was Moses' successor who had to carry on the task of cleansing the land from idolaters. When this desperate ploy of a nation trying to save the lives of their people from Bible loving Yahweists was uncovered, Joshua could not abrogate that peace covenant, contrary to the will of the rest of the community Josh9.

Similarly to Ali, Joshua, before engaging the Canaanites in battle, sent an ultimatum to the inhabitants, offering them three choices: to leave the land, surrender and declare peace, or stand up and fight. The native tribe of the Girgoshites accepted the first condition. However, thirty-one kings chose to fight and were eventually all defeated by a 40.000 strong Jewish army at the end of a 7 years struggle Josh4:13,Josh12. 14 years later, Canaan was entirely conquered and divided among the 12 tribes of Israel. In many areas however the native population was neither entirely exterminated, nor expelled as explicitly commanded and made binding on the Jews for al times to come Deut20:16,25:19. They were enslaved instead Judges1:28. This disobedience led the Israelities to gradually lose both their ethnicity through inter-mixing with the natives, and their monotheistic religion Judges3:5-7.

As a result God lifted His divine protection, and the Israelites could not contain their enemies anymore, becoming themselves slaves in that very land they had been promised and which they successfully conquered previously, the land in which they were supposed to lead a pious, grateful and free life following their Egyptian bondage. These periods of idolatry and submission to their neighbors were interrupted by short periods where, in answer to their desperate cries, God would choose certain individuals to gather them back to the straight path, reunite them under one religion and purpose, and give them back control of the land. These righteous members of the community would be endowed with God's spirit, empowered to be "judges" because of their morality, intelligence, valor, achievements Judges2,3. The Quran refers to them in 5:44. They commanded respect because of their known uprightness and their advices and judgements were highly regarded.

The community would however quickly fall back into spiritual degeneration and would disunite, after the judge's death or sometimes during his own life. For a period of about 300 years following the conquest of the promised land, this cycle of domination by the polytheists -Amalekites, Philistines, Ammonites, Midianites and other Semitic tribes- followed by a return to power through the rise of another God-chosen "judge" would repeat itself many times. It wasnt until the time of David's reign, Israel's second king, that the heathens would be entirely subdued once more as they were centuries before when the land was first invaded.

The Arabs at the time of the prophet, not only were guilty for corrupting the way of the land, but they were also preventing the righteous from it. By that late point in the prophetic history of communicating the divine message and laws of the land, one can say that among the pagans, the most obdurate and hostile to the establishment of Islam were the people of Dhul Khalasa in Yemen. They dubbed their temple "the Kaaba of Yemen" in order to lure the newly converted Arabs back to paganism and to their temple. The prophet peacefully called them to Islam, contrary to the appeals of his companions to invoke God's destruction upon them. Yet they would not desist even until that late stage of prophetic warnings, the unfolding of all prophecies and establishment of the way of God in front of their eyes, they were still trying to instigate spiritual corruption in the hearts of people that had just come out of the darkness of paganism.

This gave the prophet the right to apply God's unalterable law of retribution upon a nation of rejecters. A little over 100 men were sent to the temple and as he was marching, the prophet's emissary was met with resistance according to Hisham Ibn Al-Kalb. A battle took place, resulting in the killing of all enemy combatants and tearing down of the temple. There is surviving poetry of the event recounting how the women of the tribe were humiliated by the defeat of their men and destruction of the temple. As a side note and as is always the case when trying to interpret a report from the prophet, the principle is to take into account the whole corpus of ahadith and history, as well as the Quran, in order to find a pattern of thought and behavior, so as to fill in the blanks where there is ambiguity. In this case it is clear that only combatants could have been killed. Not unarmed citizen, as well as the weak.

There are countless ahadith, besides the rules of war laid down in the Quran, forbidding and condemning the purposeful targeting of women, children and the elderly during battle. Muslims could however be confronted to a situation where the necessity of war in self defence and the particular circumstances of a battle make it hard or impossible to distinguish between fighters and innocent civilians. Just as initiating fighting in certain times and places is forbidden (months of hajj or within the inviolable precincts of Kaaba) but should the enemy attack first then one is left with no option but to respond, the ethical rules of engagement should not prevent the Muslims from defending themselves should they be attacked at first, even if it carries the risk of causing unintended collateral casualties 

"The Prophet passed by me at a place called al-Abwa or Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, "They are from them."

Had there been a pattern by the Muslims of disregarding innocents in warfare, the question wouldnt have been presented to the prophet but the very fact that it was, shows that by default, the Islamic rule is to avoid civilians or any entity that does not pose a threat. In jihad the overarching principle is to always be proportional in retaliation 

2:190"And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits". 

Such war ethics are absent in biblical warfare.

Had a similar report been read with the Judeo-Christian pattern of behavior towards other religions in ancient times the case would have been different. 

True prophets and men of God were divinely sanctioned to tear down pagan temples in all the land of Canaan and exterminate the unrighteous natives, men, women, elderly, children, infants and animals 1Sam15. Contrary to the aforementioned report where no intentional targeting of innocents is meant, God in the HB allegedly commands the purposeful and indiscriminate killing of all that breathes. In addition, the hadith comes in the context of preemptive warfare, as already pointed while the situation in the HB is not one of hostility against the Israelites, rather to allow their establishment. The purpose of such measures was to avoid the Israelites'  assimilation into the remaining pagan natives and adoption of their customs. And because the task was not thoroughly completed, with the Israelites intermarrying the natives, reverting to polytheism and worshipping in pagan temples, subsequent prophets and leaders were charged with destroying these rebuilt pagan temples once again and murder all their priests and false prophets. One notorious case is that of Elijah's mass slaughter of the false prophets of Baal.

This demonstrates the important point that God making a nation to inherit a land and placing on it the responsibility to preserve a certain din/way of life, is nothing but a matter of test that could equally result in their uprooting should they reach similar levels of transgressions. With dominion and authority comes great responsibility and accountability. God remains particularly watchful over the powerful nations 89:6-14 and does not fail crushing them with all their resources should He deem their existence harmful to their own selves and others. Ultimately this new people, the Muslims, were made successors in the land while being warned that if they transgress they will be swiftly requited. They will be replaced by the One encompassing them as He encompasses the whole earth, capable of erasing them completely then re-establish a similarly great human creation, even better yet in make should He want to 6:165,70:40-1,76:28.

Similar warnings were issued to the Israelites should they break the covenant after being established as a nation. They inherited a land which the previous possessors were enjoying in unrighteousness, hence their replacement Quran7:137,26:57-9,Deut8:19-20,Deut28-31,Deut9. This did not only happen with the Israelites, or Ishmaelites in the times of Muhammad, but previous nations that rejected their prophets were equally destroyed and another nation raised in their stead as trustees of God's favors

10:71-3,44:26,7:69,74,137,100"Is it not clear to those who inherit the earth after its (former) residents that if We please We would afflict them on account of their faults". 

The HB uses a very appropriate metaphore to describe that pattern, picturing a sacred land becoming sick of its inhabitants' practices to the point it cannot contain them anymore

Lev18:24-8"Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants..."  

Lev20:22-3"And you shall observe all My statutes and all My ordinances, and fulfill them, then the Land, to which I am bringing you to dwell therein, will not vomit you out. You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am sending away from before you, for they committed all these [sins], and I was disgusted with them".

The prophet Solomon Prov2:21-22 and before him David spoke of that reality

Ps37:9-11"evildoers shall be cut off, and those who hope for the Lord-they will inherit the land. A short while longer and the wicked man is not here, and you shall look at his place and he is not there. But the humble shall inherit the land, and they shall delight in much peace".

The heritage of the earth in this worldly life is neither permanent nor everlasting. It is merely bestowed as a trial for different communities. That is why, everlasting heritage of the "land" is only possible in the Hereafter, in Heaven where those that will be established, the righteous believers, will never falter in their spirituality 21:105,39:73-4.