Event
Accounts of the killing of several people who mocked the Prophet and fought against him, which scholars treat very differently.
What it means
The biographies tell of the killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, Abu Afak and Asma bint Marwan, who are said to have attacked the Prophet in verse, and others. Only the killing of Ka’b is in Sahih al-Bukhari, where it is part of a war: Ka’b had gone to Mecca after Badr to urge Quraysh to avenge their dead, and the Muslims of Medina were at war with Mecca.
Often misunderstood as
That Muhammad had people killed for criticising him.
What the sources say
The reports on Abu Afak and Asma, in Ibn Ishaq and al-Waqidi, have weak chains, and several scholars have rejected them. The Prophet’s record elsewhere is of forgiveness for mockery: he pardoned Ka’b ibn Zuhayr, who had satirised him, and gave him his own cloak when he came in repentance; and at the conquest of Mecca he forgave nearly all his former enemies. He left Abdullah ibn Ubayy unpunished for years.