Why was Fartana, the female singer, killed?

- Why was Fartana, the girl who sang in the Victory/Conquest of Makkah, killed?
- We know that our beloved Prophet (PBUH) never took revenge for his own issues, and always forgave a person when he did something bad to him, and never took revenge unless he harmed the rights of Allah or anyone else. My question is this:
- Why was the singer Fartana killed? I do not think she was killed just because she insulted the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh); it cannot be true...

Dear Brother / Sister,

The female singer known as Fartana asked for forgiveness on the day of the Conquest and was forgiven.

We could not find detailed information about Fartana, also known as Qurayna, about her family, childhood and youth in the books of Siyar, Maghazi and Tabaqat.

Fartana was a singer and she used to entertain the polytheists by singing poems that satirized the Prophet (pbuh). In particular, at the request of his master, Ibn Khatal, she used to satirize the Prophet using offensive language. (1)

Fartana fled on the day of the conquest of Makkah because she heard that she had been ordered to be killed or because she knew that her end would not be good. (2)

However, where she fled or where she was hiding is not mentioned in the sources. She did not appear in public until she was forgiven. Afterwards, forgiveness was asked for her from the Messenger of Allah. The Messenger of Allah forgave her. (3)

The main reason why Fartana was ordered to be killed was that she insulted the Prophet (pbuh) by dancing. In other words, Fartana was ordered to be killed because she insulted the Prophet, one of the most sacred values of the Islamic Ummah, and offended him because the Messenger of Allah’s being hurt was equivalent to the entire ummah’s being hurt.

Insulting the Messenger of Allah was a grave crime as it was an act against all Muslims. While insulting a normal person is considered a crime, nothing can be more normal than punishing a verbal attack on a head of state, more importantly a Prophet, the Messenger of Allah.

However, the Prophet, who was sent as a mercy to the worlds, accepted Fartana’s request and forgave her. (4)

Footnotes:

1) Ibnul-Athir, al-Kamil, II, p, 126; Mustafa al-A’zami, Asr-ı Saadet’te Yazı ve Vahiy Kâtipleri”, Bütün Yönleriyle Asr-ı Saadette İslâm, I, p, 431.
2) Balazuri, Ansabul-Ashraf, I, pp, 453-457; Ibnul-Athir, al-Kamil, II, p, 126.
3) Waqidi, al-Maghazi, II, p, 283.
4) Cf. Mawlana Shibli Numani, Siratun-Nabi, 326-327, Büyük İslâm Tarihi, Asr-ı Saadet, transl. Ö. Rıza Doğrul, I, p, 348-351; see Veysel Aktürk, Hz. Peygamber Döneminde Öldürülmeleri Emredilenler ve Öldürülme Nedenleri. Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Master Thesis, 2009, pp. 259-263.

Questions on Islam