Basic HTML Version
167
that they be allowed to cultivate their lands and they would give half of the produce to the Muslims.
Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was kind enough to accede to their request.
The Messenger (Peace be upon him) 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.
The spoils taken at Khaibar were so great that Ibn ‘Umar said: “We never ate our fill until we had
conquered Khaibar.” ‘Aishah (May Allah be pleased with her) is narrated to have said: “Now we can
eat our fill of dates.”
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.
The conquest of Khaibar coincided with thearrival 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 (Peace be upon him) sent an envoy asking us to come
back. When we returned, we found out 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 (Peace be upon him) 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.
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 (Peace be upon him) 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 (Peace be upon him), 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’.
After the conquest of Khaibar, a Jewish woman called Zainab bint Al-Harith offered the Prophet
(Peace be upon him) a roasted sheep she had poisoned. He took a mouthful, but it was not to his
liking so he spat it out. After investigation, the woman confessed that she had stuffed the food with
poison alleging that if the eater were a king, she would then rid herself of him, but should he be a
Prophet, then he would be bound to learn about it. The Prophet (Peace be upon him), however,
connived at her treacherous attempt, but ordered that she be killed when Bishr bin Al-Bara’ died of
that poison.
The number of Muslims who were martyred was controversial, but it ranged between 16 and 18,
while the number of Jews killed came to 93.
The rest of Khaibar also fell to the Muslims. Allâh cast fear into the hearts of the people of Fadak, a
village standing to the north of Khaibar, and they hastened to ask for peace, and be allowed to leave
in safety, and give up their wealth in return for that. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) entered into
an agreement with them similar to the previous one with the people of Khaib. Fadak was exclusively
the Prophet’s because neither Muslim cavalry nor camelry were involved in fight thereby.
No sooner had the Prophet (Peace be upon him) discharged the affair of Khaibar than he started a
fresh move towards Wadi Al-Qura, another Jewish colony in Arabia. He mobilized his forces and
divided them into three regiments with four banners entrusted to Sa‘d bin ‘Ubada, Al-Hubab bin
Mundhir, ‘Abbad bin Bishr and Sahl bin Haneef. Prior to fighting, he invited the Jews to embrace
Islam but all his words and exhortations fell on deaf ears. Eleven of the Jews were killed one after
another and with each one newly killed, a fresh call was extended inviting those people to profess
the new faith. Fighting went on ceaselessly for approximately two days and resulted in full surrender
of the Jews. Their land was conquered, and a lot of booty fell in the hands of the Muslims.
The Prophet (Peace be upon him) stayed in Wadi Al-Qura for four days, distributed the booty among
the Muslim fighters and reached an agreement with the Jews similar to that of Khaibar.
The Jews of Taima’, hearing beforehand about the successive v ictories of the Muslim army and the
defeats that their brethren, the Jews, had sustained, showed no resistance when the Prophet (Peace
be upon him) reached their habitation. On the contrary, they took the initiative and offered to sign a
reconciliation treaty to the effect that they receive protection but pay tribute in return. Having
achieved his objective and subdued the Jews completely, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) made his
way back home and arrived in Madinah in late Safar or early Rabi‘ Al-Awwal 7 A.H.
Click on View to read this book online under free books www.islamicbulletin.com