The Sealed Nectar (49 page)

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delegated an envoy to the Jews of Khaibar warning them against the dangers approaching, and nerving them to resist the Muslims as they outnumbered the latter and were better equipped. On hearing the news the Jews despatched Kinanah bin Abi Al- Huqaiq and Haudha bin Qais to their former allies, the tribe of Ghatfan requesting military assistance, promising to grant them half the yield of the fruit that their farms could yield if they managed to beat the Muslims.

The Prophet marched by way of Isra Mountain and then went forward with the army till he halted in a valley called Ar- Raji‘, encamping between Khaibar and Ghatfan so as to prevent the latter from reinforcing the Jews. The guides accompanying him led him to an intersection from which branched out three roads with different designations; all leading to his destination. He abstained from following the first two roads on grounds of their ominous designation and chose the third for its propitious indications.

It is noteworthy that some interesting incidents featured the Muslims’ march towards Khaibar; of which we mention the following:

1. It has been narrated on the authority of Salamah bin Al- Akwa‘, who said: We marched upon Khaibar with the Messenger of Allâh [pbuh]. We journeyed during the night. One of the men said to my brother ‘Amir: Won’t you recite to us some of your verses, ‘Amir? So he began to chant his verses to urge the camels, reciting:

O Allâh, if You had not guided us,

We would have neither been guided rightly nor practised charity, nor offered prayers.

We wish to lay down our lives for You; so forgive You our lapses, And keep us steadfast when we encounter (our enemies).

Bestow upon us peace and tranquility,

Behold, when with a cry they called upon us to help

2.

The Messenger of Allâh [pbuh] said: "Who is this driver (of the camels)?"

They said: "It is ‘Amir." He said: "Allâh will show mercy to him." A man said:

"Martyrdom is reserved for him; O Messenger of Allâh, would that you had allowed us to benefit ourselves from his life."[Sahih Al-Bukhari 2/603; Sahih Muslim 2/115] The Prophet’s Companions had already known that he would never invoke Allâh’s mercy upon a close Companion but to single him out for martyrdom.[Sahih Muslim 2/115]

3. On their way down a valley, the Muslims began to entertain Allâh’s Greatness: shouting at the top of their voices: "Allâh is Great, Allâh is Great, there is no god but Allâh." The Prophet
[pbuh]
asked them to lower down their voices saying: "The One you are invoking is neither absent nor deaf; He is close to you, All- hearing.[Sahih Al- Bukhari 2/605]"

4. In a spot called As- Sahba’, not far from Khaibar, the Prophet
[pbuh]

observed the afternoon prayer, then he called his Companions to have whatever food provisions they had. What they brought was too scanty to satisfy them all. The Prophet took it by his hand and it immediately grew in quantity, so they all ate to their fill. Shortly afterward, he and the others, rinsed their mouths and performed the evening prayer without ablution [Sahih Al- Bukhari 2/603]; he did the same for the night prayer [Maghazi Al- Waqidi p.112].

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The following morning, at sunrise, the Muslims encountered the Jews when they had come out about their jobs with their axes, spades and strings driving their cattle along. They began to shout in surprise: "Muhammad has come along with his force!"

The Messenger of Allâh [pbuh] said: "Allâh is Great, Khaibar shall face destruction.

Behold! When we descend in the city centre, it will be a bad day for those who have been warned (but have not taken heed). [Sahih Al- Bukhari 2/603, 604]"

For encampment, the Prophet
[pbuh]
had chosen a certain plot of land he deemed suitable to serve as the headquarters of his army. However, a veteran fighter of his called Hubab bin Al- Mundhir suggested that they, under the exigencies of war requirements and for the sake of providing maximum logistic facilities, shift to another place. On approaching the vicinity of Khaibar, the Prophet ordered his troops to halt, and began to invoke his Lord saying: "O Allâh! Lord of the seven heavens and what they harbour beneath, Lord of the seven earths and what lies in their wombs, Lord of devils and whomsoever they have led astray; we beseech You to grant us the good of this village (Khaibar), the good of its inhabitants and the good that lies in it. We seek refuge with You from the evil of this village, the evil of its inhabitants, and the evil that lies in it." Then he ordered, "Now march (towards the village) in the Name of Allâh." [Ibn Hisham 2/329]

"The banner", the Prophet
[pbuh]
declared "would be entrusted to a man who loves Allâh and His Messenger and they (Allâh and His Messenger) love him." All the Muslims came forward in the following morning hoping to be granted the honour of carrying the banner. The Prophet [pbuh] called for ‘Ali bin Abi Talib whose eyes used to hurt, and handed it to him. ‘Ali, on his part, pledged he would fight the enemies until they embraced Islam. The Prophet [pbuh] answered him saying: "Take things easy and invite them to accept Islam and brief them on their duties towards Allâh. I swear by Allâh that if only one should be guided through your example, that would surely outweigh the best of our camels." [Sahih Al- Bukhari 2/505, 606]

Khaibar, it seems, was split into two parts with five forts in the first: Na‘im, As- Sa‘b bin Mu‘adh, the castle of Az- Zubair, ’Abi Castle, and An- Nizar in Ash- Shiqq; three others were in part two: Al- Qamus, Al- Wateeh and As- Salalim.

The Actual Operation begins

The Prophet [pbuh] began the campaign by reducing the minor strongholds one after the other. The first fort he was to attack was Na‘im, the first defence line with a formidable strategic position. Marhab, the leader of the fort, invited ‘Amr bin Al-Akwa‘ to meet him in combat and the latter responded; when ‘Amr struck the Jew, his sword recoiled and wounded his knee, and he died of that wound. The Prophet

[pbuh]
later said: "For him (‘Amir) there is a double reward in the Hereafter." He indicated this by putting two of his fingers together. ‘Ali bin Abi Talib then undertook to meet Marhab in combat, and managed to kill him. Yasir, Marhab’s brother, then turned up challenging the Muslims to a fight. Az- Zubair was equal to it and killed him on the spot. Real fighting then broke out and lasted for a few days. The Jews showed courage and proved to be too formidable even to the repeated rushes of the veteran soldiers of Islam. However, they later realized the futility of resistance and began to abandon their positions in An- Na‘im and infiltrate into the fortress of As- Sa‘b.

Al- Hubab bin Al- Mundhir Al- Ansari led the attack on As- Sa‘b fortress and laid siege to it for three days after which the Muslims stormed it with a lot of booty, provisions 235

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and food to fall to their lot therein. This victory came in the wake of the Prophet’s

[pbuh] invocation to Allâh to help Banu Aslam in their relentless and daring attempts to capture that fort.

During the process of the war operations, extreme hunger struck the Muslims. They lit fires, slaughtered domestic asses and began to cook them. When the Prophet

[pbuh] inquired about the fires and cooking, he ordered that they throw away the meat and wash the cooking pots, forbidding the practice of eating such meat.

The Jews, meanwhile, evacuated An- Natat and barricaded themselves in Az- Zubair fort, a formidable defensive position inaccessible to both cavalry and infantry. The Muslims besieged it for three days, but in vain. A Jew spy told the Prophet about a subterranean water source that provided them with water, and advised that it be cut off in order to undermine their resistance. The Prophet
[pbuh]
did that so the Jews got out to engage with the Muslims in fierce fighting during which some Muslims and ten Jews were killed, but the fort was eventually conquered.

Shortly after this battle, the Jews moved to ’Abi Castle and barricaded themselves inside. The same events recurred; the Muslims besieged the new site for three days and then the great Muslim hero Abu Dujanah Sammak bin Kharshah Al- Ansari — of the red ribbon — led the Muslim army and broke into the castle, conducted fierce military operations within and forced the remaining Jews to flee for their lives into another fort, An- Nizar.

An- Nizar was the most powerful fort, and the Jews came to the established conviction that it was too immune to be stormed, so they deemed it a safe place for their children and women. The Muslims, however, were not dismayed but dragged on the siege, but because standing at a commanding top, the fort was impregnable. The Jews inside were too cowardly to meet the Muslims in open fight but rather hurled a shower of arrows and stones on the attackers. Considering this situation, the Prophet

[pbuh] ordered that rams be used and these proved effective and caused cracks in the ramparts providing an easy access into the heart of the fort, where the Jews were put to rout and fled in all directions leaving behind their women and children.

With these series of military victories, the first division of Khaibar was totally reduced, and the Jews in the other minor fortresses evacuated them and fled to the second division.

The Second Part of Khaibar conquered

When the Prophet [pbuh], along with his army, moved to this part of Khaibar, Al-Katiba, he laid a heavy siege to it for fourteen days with the Jews barricading themselves inside their forts. When he was about to use the rams, the Jews realized that they would perish, therefore, they asked for a negotiable peace treaty.

There is one controversial point in this context. Was this part of Khaibar (with its three forts) conquered by force? Ibn Ishaq clearly stated that Al- Qamus fort was conquered by force. Al- Waqidi, on the other hand, maintained that the three forts were taken through peace negotiations, and force, if any, was resorted to only to hand the fort over to the Muslims; the two other forts surrendered without fighting.

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Negotiations

Ibn Abi Al- Huqaiq was despatched to the Messenger of Allâh [pbuh] to negotiate the surrender treaty. The Prophet [pbuh] agreed to spare their lives on condition they evacuate Khaibar and the adjacent land, leaving whatever gold and silver they had in their possession. However, he stipulated that he would disavow any commitment if they concealed anything. Shortly afterwards, the forts were handed over to the Muslims and all Khaibar was reduced and brought under the sway of Islam.

This treaty notwithstanding, Abi Al- Huqaiq’s two sons concealed a leather bag full of jewels, and money belonging to Huyai bin Al- Akhtab, who carried it with him when Banu Nadir had been banished. Kinanah bin Ar- Rabi‘, who had hidden the musk somewhere, was obdurate in his denial and so he was killed when the musk was discovered and his dishonesty was proven. Abi Al- Huqaiq’s two sons were killed in recompense for breaching the covenant, and Safiyah, Huyai’s daughter was taken as a captive.

Distribution of Spoils

In accordance with the agreement already concluded, the Jews would be obliged to evacuate Khaibar, but they were anxious to keep on cultivating the rich soil and fine orchard for which Khaibar was famous. They, therefore, approached the Prophet

[pbuh] with the request that they be allowed to cultivate their lands and they would give half of the produce to the Muslims. Muhammad [pbuh] was kind enough to accede to their request.

The Messenger
[pbuh]
divided the land of Khaibar into two: one half to provide the food to be stored in case of any accidental calamity that might befall the Muslims, and for entertaining the foreign delegates who started to frequent Madinah a lot; the other half would go to the Muslims who had witnessed Al- Hudaibiyah event whether present or absent. The total number of shares came to 36, of which 18 were given to the people above- mentioned. The army consisted of 1400 men of whom were 200

horsemen. The horseman was allotted 3 shares and the footman one. [Za'd Al-Ma'ad 2/137, 138]

The spoils taken at Khaibar were so great that Ibn ‘Umar said: "We never ate our fill until we had conquered Khaibar." ‘Aishah [R] is narrated to have said: "Now we can eat our fill of dates." [Sahih Al-Bukhari 2/609]

On their return to Madinah, the Emigrants were able to return to the Helpers of Madinah all the gifts they had received. All of this affluence came after the conquest of Khaibar and the great economic benefits that the Muslims began to reap. [Za'd Al-Ma'ad 2/148; Sahih Muslim 2/96]

The conquest of Khaibar coincided with the arrival of the Prophet’s cousin Ja‘far bin Abi Talib and his companions along with Abi Musa Al- Ash‘ari and some Muslims from Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

Abu Musa Al- Ash‘ari narrated that he and over fifty companions, while in Yemen, took a ship which landed them in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and they happened to meet there Ja‘far and his companions. He said, "We stayed together until the Prophet

[pbuh]
sent an envoy asking us to come back. When we returned, we found out 237

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that he had already conquered Khaibar, yet he gave us our due shares of the spoils."

The advent of those men came at the request made by the Messenger of Allâh

[pbuh] to Negus, king of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), through a Prophetic deputy, ‘Amr bin Omaiya Ad- Damari. Negus sent them back, 16 men altogether with their wives and children on two boats. The rest of emigrants had arrived in Madinah earlier.

[Muhadarat Tareekh Al- Umam Al- Islamiyah 1/128]

In the same context, Safiyah, whose husband Kinanah bin Abi Al- Huqaiq was killed for treachery, was taken as a captive and brought along with other prisoners of war.

After the permission of the Prophet [pbuh] was sought, Dihyah Al- Kalbi chose one of them and she happened to be Safiyah. The other Muslims, however, advised that Safiyah, being the daughter of the chief of Bani Quraiza and Bani Nadir, should be married to the Prophet [pbuh], who agreed to their opinion, invited her to Islam, freed and took her as wife on her embracing Islam. The wedding feast consisted of dates and fat, and was held on his way back to Madinah at a spot called Sadd As-Sahba’.