The Life of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq

Chapter 6. Exile and Massacre of the Jews, and the Battle of the Trench, 627CE

Muslims are killed at Bir Ma’una

Four months after the Battle of Uhud, Abu Bara, a frail old man and one of the chiefs of the Beni Amir, visited the apostle in Medina. Muhammad invited Abu Bara to Islam, but Abu Bara declined to convert though he was close to doing so.

‘O Muhammad,’ said he, ‘if you were to send some companions to the people in Najd to summon them to Islam, I believe that they would respond favourably.’

‘I fear that the people of Najd will kill them,’ said Muhammad.

However, Abu Bara said, ‘Have no fear. I will offer them my protection.’

So Muhammad sent al-Mundhir b. Amr with forty of his best companions. They proceeded to the well at Bir Ma’una, and sent Haram b. Milhan with a letter from Muhammad to Ibn al-Tufayl, Abu Bara’s nephew, and chief of the Beni Amir.

However, when Haram came into the chief’s presence, Ibn al-Tufayl attacked him and killed him without even looking at the letter. Then he ordered the Beni Amir to attack the Muslims, but they refused, saying that they did not want to break Abu Bara’s promise of protection. Then Ibn al-Tufayl appealed to the clans of the Beni Sulaym, the Beni Usayya, the Beni Ri’l and the Beni Dhakwan, and they responded to his request. They set out against the Muslims and surrounded them as they were encamped with their camels.

On seeing them, the Muslims drew their swords and fought to the last man. All the Muslims were killed, except for one who was left for dead, but later found alive among the bodies of the slain.

Amr b. Umayya is freed by Ibn al-Tufayl

Now two of the Muslims, Amr b. Umayya al-Damri, and an Ansar of the Aus, al-Harith b. al-Simma, were with the camels out at pasture, and did not know that their companions had been killed until they saw vultures circling over the camp. Realising that something serious had happened, they went to investigate and saw the Muslims lying in their own blood with the horsemen who had killed them standing nearby.

Amr said that they should return to Muhammad with the news, but al-Harith said that he could not bear to abandon the place where al-Mundhir had been killed. He then challenged the enemy and fought them to the death. Amr was taken prisoner, but when he told them he belonged to the Beni Mudar, Ibn al-Tufayl freed him after cutting off his forelock [as a token of obligation].

Amr then set out for Medina and had got as far as al-Qarqara when two men of the Beni Amir appeared and halted with him in the shade. Now there was a treaty between Muhammad and the two Amiris which Amr was unaware of, and when, after questioning, he learned that they belonged to the Beni Amir, he waited and then slew them in their sleep, believing that he was taking revenge on them for the murder of the apostle’s companions.

However, when he returned and told the apostle what he had done, Muhammad exclaimed, ‘You have killed two men whose blood-money I must now pay!’

Muhammad accuses the Beni al-Nadir of treachery

Muhammad then went to the Jewish tribe, the Beni al-Nadir, to ask for their aid in paying the blood money for the two men of the Beni Amir who had been murdered by Amr b. Umayya after Muhammad had given them a pledge of protection. The Beni al-Nadir promised to contribute in the way he wanted. But as Muhammad sat waiting with a number of his companions, among whom were Abu Bakr, Omar and Ali, news came down to him from heaven that the Beni al-Nadir were planning to kill him by throwing a rock down on him, so he got up [as if he had a need] and rode off by himself back to Medina.

After waiting a long time for him to return, his companions went in search of him, until they met a man coming from Medina who told them that he had seen the apostle entering the city. So they left, and when they caught up with Muhammad in Medina, he told them of the treachery which [Allah had told him that] the Jews plotted against him. Muhammad ordered the Muslims to take up arms and march against the Jews, to whom he sent this message by Muhammad b. Maslama, ‘Thus saith the prophet of God, you shall go forth out of my land within the space of ten days, on pain of death!’

The apostle besieges the forts of the Beni al-Nadir

The Jews took refuge in their forts, and the apostle ordered their palm-trees, laden with dates, to be felled and burnt. They called out to him, ‘O, Muhammad, you have previously forbidden such wanton destruction and condemned those guilty of it. So why are you now destroying our date-palms?’

Several of the Khazraj, including Abdullah b. Ubayy, had sent messages to the Beni al-Nadir to say, ‘Hold fast and defend yourselves. We will not betray you.’

The Jews waited for the help that they had been promised, but their allies did nothing, and Allah cast terror in their hearts.

Muhammad sends the Beni al-Nadir into exile

So the Beni al-Nadir asked Muhammad to exile them and to spare their lives on condition that they could keep all the belongings that they could carry on camels, except for their armour and weapons, and to this he agreed. So they loaded their camels with all they could carry. Men were destroying their houses down to the lintel of the door. They went with such pomp and splendour as had never been seen in any tribe in their days.

Some of them went to Khaybar and others went to Syria. Among the chiefs who went to Khaybar were Sallam b. Abul-Huqayq, known as Abu Rafi, and Kinana b. al-Rabi b. Abul Huqayq, his nephew, and Huwayy b. Akhtab, where on arrival they were accepted as rulers. All their lands and property became Muhammad’s personal possession which he could dispose of as he wished, and he divided it all between his companions, the emigrants [to ensure that they were no longer dependent on the charity of the Ansar].

Allah’s revelations after the exile

Then the Sura of Exile came down to record how Allah wreaked his vengeance on the Beni al-Nadir, saying, ‘They thought that their forts would protect them from Allah, but He came upon them in a direction that they had not reckoned on and cast terror in their hearts, so that they destroyed their houses with their own hands.’ (Sura 59.2)

It was also made clear that it was Allah Himself who had decreed exile for them, and that the cutting down of the palm trees was not destruction but ‘retribution from Allah so that He might humble the ungodly.’ (Sura 59.5)

Muhammad’s raid on Dhatul-Riqa and the ‘prayer of fear’

A month after his attack on the Beni al-Nadir, the apostle set out on a raid with a party of four hundred men and encountered a large force of Ghatafan at Dhatul-Riqa. The two armies approached each other, but there was no fighting, because each side was afraid to attack the other.

Fearing that the enemy, who held the heights above his army, might carry out an attack whenever the Muslims prostrated themselves in prayer, the apostle was inspired by Allah to lead the salat al-khauf [the prayer of fear]: ‘When you conduct the prayers, let only one party of them stand with you to pray, fully armed. Then when they have made their prostrations, let them fall to the rear and let the other party come forward to pray. The unbelievers long for you to neglect your weapons and your baggage in order to attack you in one fell swoop.’ (Sura 4.102)

So Muhammad divided the Muslims into two sections, with each section taking turns to pray while the other stood guard. He then departed for Medina with his men.

Muhammad’s preference for virgins

On the return journey from Dhatul-Riqa, the apostle overtook Jabir b. Abdullah, [a poor man,] who was riding a feeble old camel. The apostle asked Jabir if he was married, and Jabir said that he was.

‘A virgin, or previously married?’ asked the apostle.

‘No, my wife has been married before, replied Jabir.

‘So not a young maiden you could sport together with!’ exclaimed the apostle.

‘My father was killed at the Battle of Uhud, leaving seven daughters, my sisters,’ Jabir explained. ‘So I married an older motherly woman who can look after them properly.’

‘You did the right thing, by Allah’s will.’ the apostle replied and afterwards, when Jabir visited the apostle’s house, the apostle summoned Bilal and instructed him to give Jabir an ounce of gold. Bilal did so and added a little more. Thus was the worthy Jabir rewarded [for his virtue] and his household taken out of poverty.

The confederates prepare to wage war on Muhammad

The following year, 627CE, the leaders of the Beni al-Nadir and other Jewish tribes went to the Quraysh at Mecca and invited them to join them in waging war on Muhammad in order to make an end of him once and for all. The Quraysh responded gladly, and so did the Ghatafan and other allies [polytheist, Jewish and Christian tribes alike], and they assembled and made preparation for war.

Muhammad orders the digging of a trench round Medina

Muhammad soon learned of the confederates’ intentions [through a letter from his uncle Al-Abbas brought from Mecca by Beni Khuzaa riders in just four days] and ordered a trench to be dug around Medina, [a foreign stratagem suggested by his freed slave and close companion, Salman the Persian].

The apostle worked hard at the trench himself, encouraging his followers with the hope of reward in Paradise. The Muslims toiled with him, but the disaffected held back and hid their real purpose by working slowly and stealing away to be with their families without the apostle’s knowledge or permission.

Then Allah said of the disaffected: ‘Allah knows which of them steal away to hide themselves. Let those who disobey his (the apostle’s) orders beware, lest some affliction or some woeful scourge be visited upon them!’ (Sura 24.63)

The Siege of Medina

As the situation worsened, fear was in the air. The enemy attacked the Muslims from all sides until the believers were in despair and feared the worst. Dissent spread among the hypocrites, with people like Mu’attib b. Qusayrh saying, ‘Muhammad promised us that we would enjoy the treasures of Khusrow [Shah of Persia] and Caesar [Heraclius, leader of the Byzantine Eastern Roman Empire], but today we don’t even feel safe going to the privy!’

After nearly a month of siege, when conditions began to bear hard upon the people, the apostle sent word to the Ghatafan and offered them a third of the date harvest of Medina if they would depart with their followers and leave him and his men alone. Peace was agreed between them and just required the signing of a document.

The apostle sent for the two Sa’ds [leaders of the Aus and Khazraj] and told them of the agreement and asked for their opinion, but Sa’d b. Muadh rejected it, saying, ‘They will get nothing from us but the sword until Allah decides between us!’

Sa’d then took the document and scored out what was written on it, saying, ‘Now let them do their worst!’

The Battle of the Trench and the death of Amr b. Abdu Wudd

The confederate forces laid siege to Medina for some twenty days or more, without any fighting except for some exchange of arrows. Then some of the Quraysh cavalry, led by Amr b. Abdu Wudd, rode forth, shouting, ‘Prepare yourselves for battle and we will show you who the real warriors are!’

They galloped forward until they reached the trench and exclaimed, ‘No Arab has ever stooped to this sort of tactic before!’

Then they made for a narrow part of the trench, and whipped their horses so that they dashed through it and over into the marshy ground beyond. Ali with some Muslims came out to hold the gap, and Amr challenged them to single combat. Ali, his nephew, accepted the challenge.

‘Nephew, I have no wish to kill you,’ replied Amr.

‘But I wish to kill you!’ answered Ali.

This so enraged Amr that he dismounted and advanced on Ali, and they fought, circling round each other. Ali gave Amr a blow to the neck and he fell to the ground. The dust rose and the apostle heard the cry ‘Allahu Akbar!’ and knew that Ali had killed him.

The other horsemen fled back across the trench. One was wounded by an arrow from which he later died, and another rolled down into the trench, and the Muslims stoned him. He screamed, ‘Arabs, this is worse than death!’ so Ali went down and dispatched him, and the apostle gave the Muslims permission to strip his body of his armour as booty.

Muhammad orders Nuaym to deceive the enemy

As Allah later described in the Quran, Muhammad and his companions suffered greatly during the prolonged siege: ‘Your eyes were blurred, your hearts leapt up to your throats and you thought ill of Allah’s design. There the faithful were put to the proof, there they were grievously shaken. And the hypocrites and the faint-hearted were saying that Allah and His apostle had made them promises only to deceive them.’ (Sura 33.10)

Then Nuaym b. Masud of the Ghatafan came to Muhammad saying that he had secretly become a Muslim and was willing to obey any orders Muhammad might wish to give him. Muhammad said, ‘You are but one man, so do your best to sow distrust amongst the enemy to draw them off us, for the art of war is deceit.’

So Nuaym went off to talk to the last remaining Jewish tribe of Medina, the Beni Qurayza, with whom he had been a boon companion in heathen days. Reminding them of the special ties of friendship between them, he said, ‘The Quraysh and the Ghatafan are not like you. This land is your land. You cannot leave and go somewhere else. Now they are fighting Muhammad, and you are helping them against him. If things go badly, they will go back to their own lands leaving you to face him alone. So do not fight alongside them until you have taken hostages from their chiefs as security that they will fight Muhammad with you until you make an end of him.’

The Jews said that this was excellent advice.

Nuaym deceives the Quraysh and the Ghatafan

Then Nuaym went to the Quraysh and said to Abu Sufyan and his company, ‘You know my affection for you and that I have left Muhammad. I bring you a warning, but it must remain a secret.’

When they agreed, he continued, ‘The Jews have regretted opposing Muhammad and have sent to tell him so, offering to capture some chiefs of the Quraysh and the Ghatafan so that he can behead them. Then they will join him in exterminating the rest of you. Muhammad has accepted their offer, so if the Jews demand hostages from you, don’t send them a single man!’

He then went to the Ghatafan, saying, ‘You are my kin, the dearest of men to me,’ and told them the same lies that he had told the Quraysh.

So when Abu Sufyan and the Ghatafan sent a messenger to the Beni Qurayza to say that their horses and camels were dying, and that they must prepare that very day for battle in order to make an end of Muhammad, the Beni Qurayza responded by demanding they send hostages, and the Quraysh and the Ghatafan responded by refusing to do so.

Thus Allah sowed distrust between them. [Nuaym’s lies are an example of the principle of ‘taqiyya’ whereby any treachery, denial or lies told by Muslims to non-Muslims in the cause of Islam are true acts of Allah.]

Allah also sent a storm against them in the night which put out their fires, overturned their cooking-pots and blew down their tents. Abu Sufyan rose and addressed the Quraysh, saying, ‘O Quraysh, this camp is not going to last! The horses and camels are dying. The Beni Qurayza have broken their promise to us and we have heard bad reports about them. You can see the violence of the storm which has left us without cooking-pots, fires and tents to rely on. Let’s be off! I for one am leaving now!’

When the Ghatafan heard that the Quraysh had left, they also struck camp and returned to their own country.

Afterwards the Sura of the Confederates came down: ‘Believers, remember Allah’s favour to you when armies came against you. We sent a storm and invisible armies [of angels] against them. Allah turned back the unbelievers in their rage, and they went away empty handed. Allah helped the faithful in the stress of war. Allah is strong and mighty!’ (Sura 33.9 and 33.25)

Muhammad besieges the Beni Qurayza

The next morning, Muhammad left the trench and returned to Medina with the Muslims and they laid down their weapons. Then at noon the Angel Gabriel came to Muhammad and said, ‘Muhammad, Allah commands you to go to the Beni Qurayza. I am on my way now to attack their stronghold.’

Muhammad obeyed immediately, and approaching the forts with his army, shouted, ‘You brothers of monkeys! Allah has now disgraced you and His Wrath is brought upon you!’

The Muslims then besieged the Beni Qurayza for twenty-five nights until they were in dire straits and Allah cast terror in their hearts. And when they realized that Muhammad was determined to make an end of them, they consulted together, and submitted to his judgement. The Aus leapt up, hoping to save the Beni Qurayza in the same way that Abdullah b. Ubayy had saved the Beni Qaynuka, and said, ‘O Apostle, they are our allies, and you know how you recently spared our brethren’s allies’.

Muhammad said, ‘Will you be content, O Aus, if one of your own tribe pronounces judgement on them?’

And when they gave their consent to this, Muhammad said that Sa’d b. Muadh would be the judge. Now Muhammad knew that Sa’d had been mortally wounded by an arrow in the battle, that he blamed the Beni Qurayza, and that he was among those being nursed by a Muslim woman inside the mosque where Muhammad could visit him easily.

When brought before Muhammad and the Muslims, the dying Sa’d said, ‘I pronounce judgement that the men must be put to death, their property divided, and the women and children sold into slavery!’

And Muhammad said to Sa’d, ‘Truly, you have pronounced the will of Allah from above the seventh heaven!’

Muhammad supervises the massacre of the Beni Qurayza

Then the Beni Qurayzah surrendered and Muhammad imprisoned them in Medina. He went out to the market place and had trenches dug in it before sending for the Jewish men. [The Muslims then looked into the underwear of the Jewish males, and those who had grown pubic hair were sentenced to death along with the men, whilst the younger boys were kept prisoner and sold into slavery along with the women and girls.]

Muhammad then ordered the men’s heads to be struck off as they were brought out to him in batches. [The beheadings were carried out in front of him as he sat watching with the distinguished among his companions.]

Among the men killed were Huyayy b. Akhtab of the Beni al-Nadir, and Ka’b b. Asad, the chief of the Beni Qurayza. As they were being taken out in batches to the apostle, the Jews asked Ka’b what he believed would happen to them, and he answered, ‘Will you never understand? Don’t you see that the summons never stop and that those who are led away never come back? By God, what else can it be but death?’

When it was Huyayy’s turn, he was brought out with his hands bound to his neck with a rope and wearing a red robe. He had made small holes all over his robe with his fingertips, so that no one would want to wear it after him as booty.

When he saw Muhammad, he said, ‘By God, I do not blame myself for opposing you, but I failed, and whoever fails God will be forsaken.’

Then he turned to the men and said, ‘This is the will of God! Fate and destiny have decreed tragedy for the Children of Israel!’

Then he sat down at the edge of the trench and his head was struck off.

The division of spoils and Muhammad’s choice of Rayhana

Muhammad had ordered that every adult male of the Beni Qurayza should be killed. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900 and the killing continued until the apostle had made an end of them. [Aisha later said that ‘the killing of the Jewish men went on all that day, and all through the night by torchlight.’]

Muhammad divided the property, lands, wives and children of the Beni Qurayza among the Muslims and took out his Fifth. Then he sent Sa’d b. Zayd al-Ansari to Najd with some of the captive women to sell in exchange for horses and weapons.

For himself, Muhammad chose the beautiful Rayhana d. Amr b. Khunafa, [whose husband al-Hakim and male relatives had just perished in the massacre.]

Rayhana remained with him until she died, in his power. Muhammad proposed to marry her and put the hijab [veil] on her, but she declined, saying that she preferred to remain one of his concubines [sex slaves known throughout the Quran as ‘those whom your right hands possess’] rather than become one of his wives.

Hassan b. Thabit said afterwards of the Beni Qurayza: ‘They persisted in unbelief to the very end, and we left them in pools of blood, with vultures circling round them. Thus are the obstinate and impious rewarded! Now let the Quraysh be warned of a similar punishment from Allah!’