The Return from al-Muraysi'

The Banu al-Mustaliq were a tribe living by a pool of water called al-Muraysi', between Makkah and Madinah. They were allies of the Quraysh and had fought against the Muslims at Uhud. News came that their chieftain, al-Harith ibn Abi Dirar, was planning a surprise attack on the Muslims. The Prophet ﷺ first sent Buraydah ibn al-Husayb RA to check whether the rumor was true. Buraydah pretended to be a Bedouin who wanted to join the raid for a share of the spoils. Al-Harith confirmed the plan and welcomed him. That night Buraydah slipped away and reported back. The Prophet ﷺ quickly gathered more than 700 Companions, 30 of them on horseback and fully armed. They attacked right after the dawn prayer, taking the tribe completely by surprise. The women were out collecting water and the children were playing outside. The tribe surrendered almost at once. Because a large battle seemed so unlikely, many of the hypocrites (munafiqun) joined this expedition, including their leader Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. They had stayed away from both Badr and Uhud.

Placed here because: Sha'ban 5 AH (lecture 54; most books say 6 AH).

Juwayriyya bint al-Harith was the daughter of the chief of the Banu al-Mustaliq. She was taken captive in the fighting at al-Muraysi' and given to Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammas RA, one of the Ansar. She did not want to remain a captive, so she agreed with Thabit to buy her own freedom. She came to the Prophet ﷺ's door to ask for help with the money. She told him she was the daughter of her tribe's chief, and that she had arranged to free herself from Thabit. The Prophet ﷺ said, "What if I give you something better?" She asked what it was. He said, "I will free you myself and marry you." She agreed, and her freedom became her dowry.

Placed here because: Among the captives of the expedition (lecture 54).

Al-Harith ibn Abi Dirar was the chieftain of the Banu al-Mustaliq. After the Muslims defeated his tribe, many of its people were taken captive, including his daughter Juwayriyya. Al-Harith himself had fled. Juwayriyya then married the Prophet ﷺ. When the Ansar heard of the marriage, they said they could not keep the Prophet ﷺ's in-laws as captives, and they freed every one of them. Al-Harith knew none of this when he came to Madinah to pay a ransom for his people. He asked for his daughter back. The Prophet ﷺ told him that it was up to Juwayriyya whether she went back with him. She chose of her own free will to stay with the Prophet ﷺ rather than return with her father. Seeing this moved al-Harith so deeply that he embraced Islam.

Placed here because: After the marriage, the tribe followed (lecture 54).

On the march home from al-Muraysi', two young men went to fetch water for the caravan. One was from the Ansar, the Muslims native to Madinah. The other was from the Muhajirun, the Muslims who had emigrated from Makkah. On the way they quarrelled, though no one recorded what about, and it turned into a fistfight. The Muhajir called out, "O Muhajirun, come and help me!" The Ansari called out, "O Ansar, come and help me!" Both groups rushed over, each taking the side of its own young man. Tempers flared, the two sides lined up facing each other, and weapons were about to be drawn. The Prophet ﷺ heard the commotion and rushed out of his tent. He asked what was going on, and they told him the story. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Are you going back to the calls of Jahiliyyah? Leave it, for it is muntinah!" Jahiliyyah means the age of ignorance before Islam, and muntinah means rotten or filthy. With that, the quarrel ended.

Placed here because: On the return march, at the well (lecture 55).

During the expedition of al-Muraysi', a quarrel between the Ansar (the Muslims of Madinah) and the Muhajirun (the emigrants from Makkah) had just been settled. Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, the head of the hypocrites, was angry that it had ended peacefully. In his tent, among his own people, he complained bitterly about the Muhajirun. He said that sheltering and feeding them was like "fattening a dog so it comes back to eat you." He also swore that once they were back in Madinah, "the honorable will expel the inferior." He meant that the people of Madinah would drive the Muhajirun out. A young boy, Zayd ibn Arqam RA, overheard this. He told his uncle, who took him to the Prophet ﷺ. When the Prophet ﷺ confronted Abdullah ibn Ubayy, he swore oath after oath that he had said no such thing. The Prophet ﷺ chose to accept his denial. After Abdullah ibn Ubayy left, Umar ibn al-Khattab RA asked permission to kill him. The Prophet ﷺ refused, because he did not want people to say that he killed his own companions. He then ordered the army to march straight back to Madinah. They marched non-stop for about 20 hours, which kept the gossip from spreading.

Placed here because: Said the same evening; the surah came down the next morning (lecture 55).

As the Muslim army was returning to Madinah, Abdullah ibn Ubayy had been exposed for saying that once they were back in the city, the honorable would expel the inferior. Allah revealed Surah al-Munafiqun about this. As was the custom, a crier went ahead of the army to announce its return, and the news spread through the city. Abdullah ibn Ubayy's own son, Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubayy RA, heard the news and went out to meet the Prophet ﷺ before the army arrived. He said he had heard that the Prophet ﷺ was considering executing his father. If someone else were ordered to do it, he feared he would kill that man in anger and so earn Hellfire for killing a Muslim. He therefore offered to carry out the execution himself if the Prophet ﷺ commanded it. The Prophet ﷺ refused. He told the son to be a good companion to his father, and promised to be gentle with Abdullah ibn Ubayy for as long as he lived among them. The son was relieved but still angry with his father. He stood at the gate of Madinah and would not let his father enter until the Prophet ﷺ gave permission.

Placed here because: As the army approached Madinah after the twenty-hour march (lecture 55).

The slander, known as al-ifk, was the last and most painful of three things that happened on the way home from the expedition of al-Muraysi'. That expedition was against the Banu al-Mustaliq, in Sha'ban of 5 AH. Most books of Seerah follow Ibn Ishaq and date it to 6 AH instead. More hypocrites marched with the Muslims on this expedition than on any other. The target was close, there was no harvest to keep men at home, and victory was certain. So Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul and his followers came along. On the way back, a Muhajir and a man of the Ansar scuffled at a well. The quarrel grew into a stand-off between the two halves of the army. It ended when the Prophet ﷺ condemned the old tribal war cries as rotten. Ibn Ubayy had hoped for a fight. In his tent he said that once they reached Madinah, the honourable would drive out the lowly. A boy, Zayd ibn Arqam RA, reported what Ibn Ubayy had said. Ibn Ubayy swore that he had said no such thing. That morning, Surah al-Munafiqun was revealed, quoting his own words back at him. The Prophet ﷺ then marched the army for twenty hours without stopping, so that the gossip had no time to spread. Ibn Ubayy had been exposed by the Qur'an itself, and he looked for revenge. He found it in the Prophet ﷺ's own household. Aisha RA told the whole story herself, in long narrations in Sahih al-Bukhari that run to several pages. Before a journey, the Prophet ﷺ would draw lots among his wives, and this time her name had come up. The verses about hijab had already been revealed, so she travelled inside a covered seat, called a howdah, on her camel. On the last night before Madinah, the order came to make camp. She walked out beyond the army to relieve herself. On the way back she felt at her neck and found that her necklace of Yemeni onyx had broken. She went back to look for it. While she was searching, the order came to move on. The men who carried her howdah lifted it onto the camel without noticing that she was not inside. Fifty years later she explained why, gently excusing them as she always did. She had been a slight young girl who ate little. The army moved off. She found the necklace under the spot where her camel had knelt, and returned to an empty camp. She was sure they would notice she was missing and come back. So she wrapped herself up and fell asleep. She woke to hear a man saying, "La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah." It was Safwan ibn al-Muattal RA, who had fallen behind the army and slept through its departure. He had seen her before the verses of hijab came, and he recognised her. She covered her face. He said nothing more. He made his camel kneel and turned his back while she climbed on. Then he led the camel on foot until they caught up with the army, which had stopped to rest in the heat of the day. The hypocrites always rode at the back of the column, and Abdullah ibn Ubayy was among them there. That was when the talk began. Out of respect for her, the books of Seerah never record what was said. They simply call it "the slander". Aisha herself heard none of it. She fell ill with a fever when they reached Madinah, and spent a month in bed. She only noticed that the Prophet ﷺ was not as tender with her as usual, and she did not know why. When she recovered, she went out one night with Umm Mistah bint Abi Ruhm RA, her father's cousin. They went to the open ground that people used before houses had their own toilets. Umm Mistah tripped on her cloak and cursed her own son, Mistah RA. Aisha scolded her for cursing a man who had fought at Badr. Umm Mistah asked whether she really had not heard. Then she told her. Aisha went home more ill than before. She asked the Prophet ﷺ's permission to go to her parents. There she asked her mother, Umm Ruman RA, what people were saying. Her mother tried to soften it. She said that a beautiful woman whose husband loves her, and who has co-wives, will always be talked about. Aisha understood that the rumours were real. She wept all night, until she thought her liver would burst. The story had been started by Ibn Ubayy and some of his followers from the Khazraj. Only three believers had repeated it. They were Mistah, the poet Hassan ibn Thabit RA, and Hamnah bint Jahsh. Hamnah was the sister of Zaynab bint Jahsh RA, Aisha's one real rival among the wives. The Prophet ﷺ asked Zaynab herself about Aisha. Zaynab said that she would protect her ears and her eyes, and that she knew nothing but good of Aisha. As Aisha later put it, Zaynab's religion protected her, while her sister was ruined for her sake. Meanwhile, no revelation had come to the Prophet ﷺ for a whole month. He asked the advice of the two young men closest to his household. Usama ibn Zayd RA had been born and raised in his house. He said plainly that the rumour was impossible. Ali ibn Abi Talib RA said that Allah had not limited him to one woman. He also advised him to question Aisha's maidservant, Barirah RA, who would know the truth. Barirah was terrified. The only fault she could find in her mistress was that she sometimes fell asleep while kneading dough and let the family goat eat it. The Prophet ﷺ then stood on the minbar. He asked who would defend him against a man who had hurt him through his own family. He said that he knew nothing but good of his wives, and nothing but good of the man they had named. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA, of the Aws, answered first, though some narrations name another young leader of the Aws. He said that if the man was from his own tribe, he would behead him. If the man was from the Khazraj, he only needed the order. Sa'd ibn Ubadah RA, of the Khazraj, was a righteous man. But as Aisha said, the old tribal feeling flared up in him for a moment. He called Sa'd ibn Mu'adh a liar and said he would never dare to do it. Usayd ibn Hudayr RA then called Sa'd ibn Ubadah a hypocrite who was defending hypocrites. The two tribes were on their feet before the Prophet ﷺ calmed them down. While Aisha was still weeping, the Prophet ﷺ came to her at her parents' house. A woman of the Ansar was sitting and weeping with her. He sat down and praised Allah. Then he told Aisha that if she was innocent, Allah would clear her name. If she had slipped, she should ask Allah's forgiveness, because He forgives whoever repents. At once her tears dried up. She asked her mother to answer for her, but her mother did not know what to say. She asked her father, Abu Bakr RA, but he did not know what to say either. So she answered for herself. She used the words of the father of Yusuf, though in her distress she could not remember his name. She said, "Patience is beautiful, and Allah is the One whose help is sought against what you describe" (Qur'an 12:18). Then she turned to face the wall. She had hoped that Allah might show her innocence in a dream. She never imagined that He would reveal Qur'an about her. But before the Prophet ﷺ had even left the room, the signs of revelation came over him. He felt the heaviness, and sweat ran down him on a cold day. When it lifted, he was laughing. He said, "O Aisha, Allah has declared you innocent." The opening passage of Surah al-Nur had been revealed, from 24:11 onwards. It called the affair a lie. It promised the worst of punishments to the man who led it. It set a punishment of eighty lashes for anyone who accuses a chaste woman without four witnesses. It also asked the believers why they had not simply said what Abu Ayyub al-Ansari RA had said. His wife had asked him whether he had heard the rumour. He had answered, "Glory be to You, this is a monstrous slander." Aisha's mother told her to get up and thank the Prophet ﷺ. Aisha said that she would get up and thank only Allah. The three believers who had repeated the story were flogged. The hypocrites who had invented it were left to be judged in the Hereafter. Abu Bakr had been supporting Mistah, a poor relative of his. He swore never to give him another coin. Then a verse was revealed asking whether he did not want Allah to forgive him. So he swore instead to support Mistah for the rest of his life. Before the matter was settled, Safwan had struck Hassan with the flat of his sword for repeating the rumour. The Prophet ﷺ ruled in Hassan's favour, because no man may take the law into his own hands. Then he asked Hassan to forgive Safwan. Hassan forgave him for the Prophet ﷺ's sake, and he was given a garden. Safwan swore that he had never lifted the veil of any woman. He married later, and he died a martyr in the time of Umar RA. When Aisha told the story, she made excuses for everyone in it. She would never allow anyone to speak ill of Hassan in her presence.

Placed here because: "The third and last incident that happened on the way back" (lecture 55); begun the night of Surah al-Munafiqun.