In the hadith collection of Sahih-Bukhari as well as the other hadith books, we read about two instances where Muhammad wishes curses upon the Jews via God. One is when they build religious sites on the graves of their prophets, the other when animal fat was made illegal for consumption, but because Jews don’t pay attention to the decrees of Islam, they still melted down fat and sold it. Thus they were cursed.

This in my view is bad enough, and clearly shows how Muhammads government was certainly a theocracy with little to no respect to freedom of religion. However, a closer look at some of the hadiths regarding this incident shows an even darker decree.

Muhammad Muhsin Khan is the main name you will see when you look at an English translation of Sahih-Bukhari. His translation was adopted by Darussalam, and was even deemed to be a translation that cut out the mistakes of others.

This you can imagine my surprise when I found out that there appears to be to be an attempt at blatant deception when translating 5 hadiths on the issue. The deception lies in Hadith number 437, 2223, 2224, 2236 and 4633 where instead of saying “curse”, Muhammad used the word Qatal (قَاتَلَ) which if translated correctly here means “kill” or “destroy”.

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Hadith 1: Bukhari 437

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Bukhari 437 is the first example of distortion. It’s Chain of narration goes through to Sahabi Abu Hurayah. Hurayah was one of the most prominent companions Muhammad, the latter of which said that he is a “vessel of knowledge.” Abi Salih said: “Abu Hurayrah was the best memoriser among the companions.” Moreover Abu Hurayrah said about himself:” i don’t know any one among the companions who is best in memorising the hadiths of the prophet other than me”. This report is in reference to the incident where the Jews were building on the graves of the Prophets. The Muhammad Khan translation reads as follows:

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In the orange is the original Arabic statement (قَاتَلَ اللَّهُ الْيَهُودَ) “may Allah kill the Jews”. In blue is the word that means kill or destroy (قَاتَلَ) as well as the translation by Muhammad Khan. In green, it is highlighting the incorrect translation of the word قَاتَلَ to “curse”

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Hadith 2: Bukhari 2223

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Bukhari 2223 is the second example of distortion, this time going back to Ibn Abbas, Muhammads cousin and perhaps the best Quranic scholar of the Sahaba from Umar, the second Caliph of Islam and whom Muhammad said of him: “If there was to have a Prophet after me, it would have been ‘Umar bin Al-Khattab.” (Tirmhidi 3686). Here is the Muhammad Khan translation:

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This narration is talking about the incident where Muhammad banned animal fat. Here, Ibn Umar is using the wish of the destruction of the Jews by Muhammad as evidence the bartering of prohibited goods like alcohol is illegal, Umar then wishes death upon the man who sold the alcohol.

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Hadith 3: Bukhari 2224

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This narration goes back once again to Abu Hurayah, and is talking about the same incident regarding animal fat.

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Hadith 4: Bukhari 2236

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Bukhari 2236 goes back to another companion of Muhammad. This time to Jabir Bin Abdullah whom is discussing the incident of the pig fat. The major difference here being that Jabir is reporting more context on the situation of the prohibition.

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Hadith 5: Bukhari 4633

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Hadith 5 also goes back to Jabir Abdullah, who is also talking about the animal fat incident

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Points to make here. First of all, there are narrations that do say curse the Jews, however this in no way makes it better that there are at minimum 5 hadith that wish for the death of Jews, especially from 3 different Sahaba at a minimum.

Second, why did Muhammad Khan feel the need to lie to his readers by distorting the words of his prophet? Whatever the case, this to me is unacceptable.