The Year of Uhud

Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf had an Arab father and a Jewish mother. His father was an Arab of the Banu Nabhan who had killed a man among his own people and had to flee. The Banu Nadir of Yathrib took him in. Ka'b's mother was from the Banu Nadir, and by Jewish reckoning this made him a Jew. So he had an Arab's family line and the learning of the Banu Nadir. He grew up to be one of the tribe's leaders. He was rich enough to own a fortress of his own, and he was famous for his good looks and his poetry. His hostility to Islam began early. When the qibla was changed, it was Ka'b who asked what had turned the Muslims away from the direction they used to pray towards. The Qur'an answers his question. When zakat was made obligatory, he went to his friends among the Ansar. He told them not to give their money away, because no one knew what would become of this man. A verse came down about this, speaking of those who are stingy and who urge others to be stingy too. Messengers came into Madinah shouting the news of Badr. Ka'b said that if Muhammad ﷺ had really killed those men, the noblest of the Arabs, then it was better to be under the earth than on it. As it turned out, he had passed a verdict on himself. Then Ka'b went to Makkah with some of the Banu Nadir. There he made a pact with Abu Sufyan against the Prophet ﷺ. No book records the terms of the pact. The sources keep only one exchange. Abu Sufyan asked which side was better guided, the Quraysh or Muhammad ﷺ. Ka'b answered that the Quraysh were. Surah al-Nisa quotes this answer back at him. Ka'b came home believing the alliance was a secret, but Allah had told the Prophet ﷺ about it. Ka'b had long written poems against the Muslims. The last straw was a set of mocking love poems about Muslim women, in which he named them. The sources disagree about when the next part happened. Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham and al-Waqidi place it between Badr and Uhud. Muqatil, al-Baghawi and al-Salihi place it after Uhud. They add that Ka'b was the mind behind the Banu Nadir's plot to poison the Prophet ﷺ, and that he died the night before the plot was to be carried out. The Prophet ﷺ stood up and asked who would deal with Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, who had transgressed against Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. Muhammad ibn Maslamah stood up. He was from the Aws. Before Islam the Aws had been allies of the Banu Nadir and had no old feud with them. So if a man of the Aws did the killing, it would not reopen the old pre-Islamic quarrel between the Banu Nadir and the Khazraj. For three days afterwards, Ibn Maslamah neither ate nor drank. The Prophet ﷺ was told, and came to ask him what was wrong. Ibn Maslamah explained that he had promised something he was not sure he could do. The Prophet ﷺ told him simply to try. Ibn Maslamah then asked permission to say things he did not mean. The Prophet ﷺ told him to say whatever he liked. Ibn Maslamah went to Ka'b during his business hours and took him aside. He complained that this man had brought nothing but trouble on them. He said he had turned the Arabs against them, and was now asking them for their money. Ka'b was delighted, and told him that things would get even worse. Ibn Maslamah said that since they had followed this man, they could not abandon him until things changed. Then he asked Ka'b for a loan, to pay what was being demanded of him. Ka'b made his living by lending money, and he wanted something as security. He suggested the women of Ibn Maslamah's household, or his sons. Ibn Maslamah replied that no one would trust a woman near the handsomest man in Yathrib. As for his sons, they would be mocked all their lives for having been pledged as security by their father. He offered his weapons instead, and Ka'b gladly accepted. Silkan ibn Salama, known as Abu Na'ila, was Ka'b's foster-brother. He and one or two others took loans on the same terms. Now they could come to Ka'b's fortress carrying weapons, and he would be expecting them. Abu Na'ila set a night for the visit. By al-Waqidi's reckoning it was the 14th of Rabi' al-Awwal in the third year. The sky was cloudless and the moon was full. The Prophet ﷺ walked with them as far as Baqi' al-Gharqad. He sent them on their way with a prayer for their success. Ka'b's fortress was on the edge of the city. When they arrived, they called to him to come down. He had recently married a new wife, and she tried to hold him back. She asked why these men were coming at such an hour, when he was a man at war. Ka'b answered that Abu Na'ila was his foster-brother and Ibn Maslamah was an old friend, and he went down. They walked and talked in the moonlight. Then Abu Na'ila commented on the perfume Ka'b was wearing. Ka'b told him it came from the most fragrant woman in Arabia. Abu Na'ila asked if he could smell his hair. Ka'b bent his head. Ibn Maslamah seized it, and the others struck. Because of the armour Ka'b was wearing, it was slow work. In the dark, al-Harith ibn Aws was badly cut by his own companions' swords, and he limped back bleeding. When they reached the Prophet ﷺ, he put his saliva on the wound and it closed. The other tribes complained, but the Prophet ﷺ did nothing about it, because he had ordered the killing himself. Ibn Ishaq says that after that night no enemy of the Muslims felt safe. Sh. Yasir Qadhi stresses that this was a political act by the ruler and judge of Madinah. It was taken against a man who had broken the Constitution of Madinah by making a pact with the Quraysh, and who had crossed every line in his poetry. Even Ka'b's own wife understood the danger he was living under. In his view, the act should not be judged by the customs of a later age.

Placed here because: Ep. 44: "According to al-Waqidi, this took place on the 14th of Rabi' al-Awwal in the 3rd year of the Hijrah."

A few months before the Battle of Uhud, most likely in Rabi' al-Awwal of 3 AH, the Quraysh were preparing their annual trade caravan to Syria. The defeat at Badr had shown them that they could no longer use their usual route. Safwan ibn Umayyah, who was put in charge of the caravan, pointed out that most of the tribes along the coastal road had already given their allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ. An elder of the Quraysh, al-Aswad ibn al-Muttalib, suggested taking a route to the northeast, through Iraq, and then turning back toward Syria. The plan was meant to be secret. But one of the Quraysh leaders who knew of it boasted about it while drinking with Salit ibn al-Nu'man, who was secretly a Muslim in Makkah. Salit passed the news to the Prophet ﷺ, who sent Zayd ibn Harithah to intercept the caravan. Zayd captured the entire caravan without a single casualty.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 44: "a few months before the Battle of Uhud, most likely in Rabi' al-Awwal of the 3rd year." Same month as Ka'b's death; which came first is not settled.

After their defeat at Badr, the Quraysh spent a full year preparing for revenge. Four motives drove them together. The first was religious hatred of the new faith. The second was personal grief for the leaders they had lost, since the fathers of both Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal and Safwan ibn Umayyah had died at Badr. The third was economic, because the Muslims now controlled their trade route to Syria and that trade had collapsed. The fourth was political, the threat of a growing Muslim state. Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, together with Safwan and Ikrimah, went from door to door. They collected the profits of the Badr caravan from every Qurashi household that had invested in it. They used this money to recruit allied tribes such as Kinana and Tihama. On the 7th of Shawwal, 3 AH, an army of 3,000 set out from Makkah. It had 200 horses and 700 suits of armour. Around two dozen women of the Quraysh came with it, among them Hind bint Utbah, to urge the men on with their songs. The journey to Madinah normally took two weeks, but the army covered it in seven days. Abu Sufyan held overall command. Khalid ibn al-Walid led the right flank, and Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal led the left. There is a report, not found in Ibn Ishaq, about al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, who had stayed behind in Makkah. He sent a trusted servant racing to Madinah with the exact numbers of the army. The servant covered the distance in three days. He found the Prophet ﷺ at Quba, and Ubay ibn Ka'b RA read the letter to him privately. The news was urgent, but the Prophet ﷺ did not act on a single report. He first sent scouts to confirm where the Quraysh were. Only then did he call a general meeting of the Muslims. The meeting took place at the Friday gathering, which was even larger than usual because a funeral had already brought many people out. The Prophet ﷺ explained the threat and asked for advice. He gave his own view first. He wanted to stay inside Madinah and use its natural defences. There were fields of volcanic rock to the east and west, Mount Uhud to the north, and date palm groves to the south. The Quraysh would then be forced into costly fighting in the streets. Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, the most experienced warrior in the city, agreed with this plan. He did so not out of any respect for the Prophet ﷺ, but because it was clearly the stronger position. A group of younger Companions argued the other way. Many of them had missed Badr and were eager to prove themselves, so they pressed to meet the Quraysh in open battle. The Prophet ﷺ judged that most people wanted this, so he agreed and went inside to put on his armour. The younger men then had second thoughts. They told him they would not oppose him if he wished to stay in the city. This is in Ibn Ishaq, and some retellings name Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib RA as the one who said it. The Prophet ﷺ replied that once a prophet has put on his armour, it is not fitting for him to take it off before he has fought. He marched out on Friday, the 14th of Shawwal, with roughly 700 Muslims. He divided them into three groups. Mus'ab ibn Umayr RA led the Muhajirun, Usayd ibn Hudayr RA led the Aws, and al-Hubab ibn al-Mundhir RA led the Khazraj. Between them they had only a handful of horses and 100 suits of armour. The Prophet ﷺ led them along a secret route through the date palm groves instead of the main road, so that their position would not be revealed too early. The route passed through the garden of Mirba' ibn Qayzi, a blind hypocrite. He threw dust at the Muslims, and the Prophet ﷺ told the Companions to leave him alone. During the march, Abdullah ibn Ubayy turned back with about 300 men. He said publicly that his advice had been ignored. Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Haram RA confronted him for abandoning the Prophet ﷺ. Abdullah ibn Ubayy insisted that he did not believe there would be any fighting. The Qur'an later exposed this as a lie (Qur'an 3:167). Some of the Aws, from Banu Harithah, and some of the Khazraj, from Banu Salama, also wavered. In the end they stayed, and Qur'an 3:122 credits their steadfastness to Allah's protection. The roughly 700 who remained reached Uhud in the early afternoon of the 14th. The Prophet ﷺ chose the site with care. The mountain protected the army on two sides. The third side was covered by fifty archers under Abdullah ibn Jubayr RA, posted on a hill called Jabal Aynayn. That hill was later renamed Jabal al-Ruma in their honour. The archers had strict orders never to leave their position, no matter how the battle seemed to be going. This left the much larger Quraysh army only one narrow approach to attack through. The Prophet ﷺ arranged the army for battle and sent home the boys he judged too young. Two boys, Rafi ibn Khadij RA and Samura ibn Jundub RA, were allowed to stay. Ibn Hisham says they were fifteen. Rafi' was allowed because he was a good archer, and Samurah because he could beat Rafi' at wrestling. On the morning of the 15th, the Prophet ﷺ offered his own sword to whoever would take it and give it its due. Abu Dujana RA accepted it. He put on his turban of death and walked along the ranks, giving the Muslims courage. Abu Sufyan first sent a message trying to split the Ansar away from the Muhajirun. Then he sent Abu Amir al-Rahib, a former leader of the Aws who had rejected Islam, to appeal directly to his own people. The Ansar refused both approaches. They gave Abu Amir a new name, Abu Amir al-Fasiq. The battle opened with single combat. Talha ibn Abi Talha came out first. He was of Banu Abd al-Dar, the clan that carried the standard of the Quraysh. Ali ibn Abi Talib RA struck him down. Ibn Ishaq counts him among the men Ali RA killed. Another report says that Talha begged Ali RA by the ties of kinship, so Ali RA left him, and he later died of his wounds. The Muslims then charged and broke the ranks of the Quraysh. They killed the standard bearers of Banu Abd al-Dar one after another, until the standard fell. The story of Usayrim belongs to this same morning. He was from Banu Abd al-Ashhal, and for three years he had been the only pagan left in his clan. He accepted Islam after the Fajr prayer and was martyred before Zuhr, without ever having prayed a single rak'ah. In this first phase the Quraysh broke and fled. The Companions became overconfident. They put down their weapons and began collecting the spoils of war. The rules for dividing spoils had not yet been fully settled, and many assumed the battle was over. The fifty archers on Jabal al-Ruma watched the spoils being gathered below. As the minutes passed, no word came from the Prophet ﷺ. The archers began to argue about whether to go down and join in. Abdullah ibn Jubayr RA, their leader, refused to move without a direct command from the Prophet ﷺ. Even so, over perhaps the better part of an hour, forty of the fifty left the position and went down, leaving only ten. Khalid ibn al-Walid had not simply fled. He had been watching carefully, and now he saw his chance. He moved in along a low ditch on the army's right that could not be seen from ground level. He overran the ten archers who were left. Then he led his cavalry, estimated at 100 to 150 riders, around Jabal al-Ruma and attacked the Muslims from behind. This cut the Muslim army in two. On one side was the Prophet ﷺ's own camp. On the other were the scattered Muslims still collecting spoils, most of them unarmed. It is said that the Prophet ﷺ was the first to see Khalid's attack coming. The enemy was hunting for him personally, and shouting would reveal where he was. Even so, he stood up and shouted a warning to the Muslims. The surprise attack threw the Muslims into chaos. Many fled, unable to tell friend from foe. The sources say that shaytan stirred up the confusion, and some Muslims struck down other Muslims in the fighting. One of them was al-Yaman RA, the father of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman RA. His own side killed him before Hudhayfah's shouts to stop could be heard. Hudhayfah said, "May Allah forgive you." The Prophet ﷺ paid him the blood money for his father, and Hudhayfah gave it away as charity to the Muslims. As the Muslim army split apart, the Prophet ﷺ was left with a guard of only nine men. Two of them were Muhajirun, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA and Talha ibn Ubaydillah RA. The other seven were Ansar. Ibn Ishaq names Ziyad, or Umarah, ibn al-Sakan among them. A report from al-Bara' RA in al-Bukhari gives the number as twelve. Meanwhile the rest of the army, believing the battle already won, was scattered across the field. One by one, the Ansar in that small group went out to stop the approaching enemy, and each was killed. In the end only Sa'd, Talha and the Prophet ﷺ himself remained. They pulled back into a narrow gap in the mountainside, barely wide enough for one or two people. From the opening, Sa'd and Talha fired arrow after arrow. It is said that the Prophet ﷺ picked spent arrows up off the ground and handed them back to Sa'd to shoot again. Abu Talha al-Ansari RA begged the Prophet ﷺ not to raise his head, for fear of a stray arrow. He offered his own neck and chest in place of the Prophet ﷺ's (al-Bukhari). It was here that the Prophet ﷺ said to Sa'd, "Fidaka abi wa ummi (may my mother and father be given in ransom for you)! Shoot, O Sa'd, shoot!" Ali RA said he never heard the Prophet ﷺ say these words to anyone else. However, al-Zubayr RA reports that the Prophet ﷺ said the same to him at Qurayzah. An attacker reached Talha and cut off several of his fingers, and Talha cried out in pain. The Prophet ﷺ told him that if he had said "Bismillah" instead, the angels would have lifted him up in front of everyone. Qatada ibn al-Nu'man al-Awsi RA took up the Prophet ﷺ's bow and shot with it until it broke. His eye was struck so badly that it hung down on his cheek. The Prophet ﷺ put it back in place with his hand, and it became the better and sharper of his two eyes (Ibn Ishaq). During this same period the Prophet ﷺ was wounded several times. Utbah ibn Abi Waqqas threw a stone that broke his lower right incisor and injured his lip. Abdullah ibn Shihab al-Zuhri wounded his forehead. Ibn Qami'ah struck his cheekbone and drove two rings of his helmet into his cheek. This account is from Ibn Hisham, on the authority of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri RA. Other reports describe the wounds differently. In them, an arrow shot by Utbah passed through his cheek and knocked out a tooth, and a sword blow from Ibn Qami'ah or Abdullah ibn Shihab drove his helmet into his cheekbone. With blood streaming down his face, the Prophet ﷺ was heard to say, "How can a people succeed who have wounded their own Prophet ﷺ while he called them to their Lord?" Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA later said that he saw two men dressed in brilliant white fighting fiercely at the Prophet ﷺ's side that day. He had never seen them before and never saw them again. Around the same time, Ubay ibn Khalaf charged straight at the Prophet ﷺ. Ubay was a Makkan who had long vowed to kill the Prophet ﷺ, and he had been fattening a horse for that purpose. Back then, the Prophet ﷺ had replied that he would be the one to kill Ubay instead. Now he reminded Ubay of that reply. He took a spear from a companion and struck Ubay in the neck. The wound looked minor, but Ubay himself insisted it would kill him. He died on the road home, before he reached Makkah. Ibn Qami'ah cut down Mus'ab ibn Umayr RA and thought he had killed the Prophet ﷺ. He shouted that Muhammad ﷺ was dead. The false news spread quickly and broke the spirit of part of the Muslim line. Some of them simply sat down in the middle of the battle. Anas ibn al-Nadr RA rallied a group of them back into the fight. He asked them what they would do with life after the Prophet ﷺ, and told them to die as he had died. Anas fought on until he was killed. His body was so disfigured that no one could recognise him, until his sister identified him by the tips of his fingers. Ka'b ibn Malik RA was the first to recognise the Prophet ﷺ, by his eyes. He was about to announce that the Prophet ﷺ was alive. The Prophet ﷺ signalled to him to stay silent, so as not to give away his position. A later report adds that the two of them exchanged armour. Abu Bakr RA, Umar ibn al-Khattab RA, Ali ibn Abi Talib RA, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam RA and Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah RA fought their way back to him. They found the two rings of his helmet still stuck in his cheek. Abu Ubaydah did not want to risk hurting him further with his hands. It is reported that he pulled each ring out with his own teeth instead, and lost a tooth each time. As the fighting died down, Abu Sufyan called out from a distance. He asked whether Muhammad ﷺ was still alive. Then he asked about Abu Bakr RA and Umar RA. The Prophet ﷺ told the Muslims not to answer him. Then Abu Sufyan declared victory and gave the credit to the idol Hubal. This time the Prophet ﷺ had the Muslims reply, "Allah is mightier and more worthy of honour." He stayed silent about his own survival, but he would not let shirk against Allah go unanswered. Abu Sufyan swore that the two sides would meet again the next year at Badr, and the Quraysh withdrew. Afterwards the Prophet ﷺ walked over the battlefield. He found the body of his uncle, Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, mutilated by Hind bint Utbah RA. Her father and brother had been killed at Badr, and in revenge she had cut open Hamzah's stomach and taken his liver. The Prophet ﷺ wept. He vowed to mutilate thirty bodies of the Quraysh in return. Then Allah revealed Qur'an 16:126, which limits retaliation to no more than what was suffered. After that, the Prophet ﷺ forbade mutilation completely. On the way back, Hamnah bint Jahsh RA met the army. She was told, one after another, of the deaths of her brother Abdullah, her uncle Hamzah RA and her husband Mus'ab ibn Umayr RA. Wailing for the dead broke out across Madinah. When the Prophet ﷺ heard it, he allowed it once for Hamzah RA's sake. After that he forbade it as a general rule. The martyrs were reported to number around seventy, most of them Ansar. They were buried two, three or four to a grave, in the clothes they had died in, without being washed. The Prophet ﷺ instructed that whoever had memorised the most Qur'an should be placed in the grave first. According to Jabir RA's report in al-Bukhari, no funeral prayer was said over them. A report from Ibn Abbas RA in Ibn Ishaq says that the Prophet ﷺ did pray over Hamzah RA and the others. Only one prisoner was taken in the whole battle, Abu Azzah al-Jumahi. He had earlier been pardoned on condition that he never fight the Muslims again. Because he broke that condition, he was executed. Before all this, the Prophet ﷺ had sent Ali ibn Abi Talib RA to follow the Quraysh. Ali RA found them riding their camels and leading their horses, a sign that they were heading back to Makkah. The next morning, Sunday the 16th, the Prophet ﷺ called out the men who had fought the day before, wounded as they were. He led them to Hamra al-Asad, about eight miles from Madinah. They stayed there on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. At some point before or during this period, the Prophet ﷺ told the Companions about a dream. Accounts differ on exactly when he told it. He said, "I saw in a dream that I had struck with my sword, but my sword broke, and this is what afflicted the Muslims at Uhud. Then I hit it again, and it came back as good as it ever was, and this was the victory that Allah gave to the Muslims and the coming together of the believers." He went on, "I saw cows, and Allah is good, and this was the believers on the Day of Uhud." In a version in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, he also saw himself wearing protective armour, which he took to mean Madinah itself.

Placed here because: Ep. 46: "On the 7th of Shawwal in the 3rd year of the Hijrah ... the Quraysh set out"; "he ﷺ marched out ... on Friday, the 14th of Shawwal." Ep. 47: the battle "occurred on the 15th of Shawwal, which was a Saturday morning."

The day after the Battle of Uhud, the Prophet ﷺ worried that the retreating Quraysh army might turn back to finish off the Muslims. He called for volunteers to follow them. He allowed only those who had fought at Uhud to go, which left out the 300 who had turned back with Abdullah ibn Ubayy before the battle. About 70 Companions volunteered, led by Ali ibn Abi Talib. They marched out and camped at Hamra al-Asad. The Prophet ﷺ joined them the next day. They stayed there for three days to make sure the Quraysh did not return, and then went back to Madinah.

Placed here because: Ep. 50: "This was on the Sunday, the 16th of Shawwal, one day after Uhud."

Ubay ibn Khalaf was a man of the Quraysh who had mocked the Prophet ﷺ for years in Makkah and vowed to kill him. At Uhud he charged at the Prophet ﷺ on his horse. The Prophet ﷺ took a spear from one of his companions, dodged Ubay's blow and pierced his armour at the neck. Ubay's companions carried him off and told him the wound would heal. He insisted that it was a fatal wound. He died before reaching Makkah, in the valley of Sarif.

Placed here because: ~ Wounded at Uhud and dead on the road to Makkah; the sources say only "shortly after".

Abu Salama Abdullah ibn Abd al-Asad RA was a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ through his mother. He was married to Umm Salama RA, and the two had a strong and loving marriage. Abu Salama RA was badly wounded at the Battle of Uhud, and he died of his wounds a few months later. As he lay dying, Umm Salama RA suggested that they promise each other not to remarry, so that they would be reunited in Jannah. He asked whether she would obey him, and she said she would. He then told her to marry again after his death. He also made du'a that Allah would give her a husband better than himself, who would care for her and never harm her. Some time before this, Abu Salama RA had come home delighted with a hadith he had heard from the Prophet ﷺ. It said that anyone struck by a calamity who is patient and recites the du'a "Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un..." will be rewarded and given something better in its place. When Abu Salama RA died, Umm Salama RA recited this du'a herself.

Placed here because: ~ He died of his Uhud wound "a few months after"; no month is given.

Khalid ibn Sufyan al-Hudhali, the chieftain of the large Bedouin tribe of Hudhayl, began gathering an army to launch a surprise attack on Madinah. When the Prophet ﷺ heard of this, he decided to strike first. He sent just one man, Abdullah ibn Unays al-Juhani, to kill the chieftain. The Prophet ﷺ told Abdullah that he would find Khalid in the Valley of Arana. Abdullah asked what Khalid looked like. The Prophet ﷺ replied, "When you see him, you shall feel more terrified than you have ever been at anybody's appearance." The Prophet ﷺ had never seen Khalid, so this knowledge came from Allah. Abdullah found Khalid in the valley, and his appearance terrified him just as he had been told. It was the time of the midday (Zuhr) prayer, and Abdullah did not want to miss it. So he prayed while walking, making the movements with his head. This was a form of what was later called the Prayer of Fear (Salat al-Khawf). Abdullah approached Khalid, who had only a few men with him. He asked whether Khalid was gathering an army and offered to join it. This was a ruse, and when the moment was right, he killed him.

Placed here because: Ep. 51: "the beginnings of the incident [al-Raji] actually go back a little bit; we need to discuss the Expedition of Abdullah ibn Unays first." Dated Muharram 4 AH.

In Muharram of 4 AH, a Muslim sent by the Prophet ﷺ killed Khalid ibn Sufyan, a chieftain of the tribe of Hudhayl who had been gathering men to attack Madinah. Hudhayl wanted revenge. They paid two other tribes, Udal and al-Qara, to set a trap. Men of these tribes would pretend to accept Islam, go to Madinah, and ask the Prophet ﷺ to send them teachers of the Qur'an and the religion. The plan worked. Around ten Companions volunteered, led by Asim ibn Thabit. When they reached the Well of al-Raji, 100 warriors ambushed them. The Companions climbed to the top of a hill and fought back with their bows and arrows. They held out until Asim and most of the others were killed. The attackers then promised the last three men safety if they came down. These were Khubayb ibn Adi, Zayd ibn al-Dathinah and Abdullah ibn Tariq. As soon as they surrendered, they were tied up. Abdullah ibn Tariq said that this was the first sign of treachery, and he refused to go along as a prisoner. They killed him on the spot. Khubayb and Zayd were taken to Makkah and sold to men who wanted revenge for the battle of Badr. Khubayb was bought by Banu al-Harith, because he had killed one of their men at Badr. Zayd was bought by Safwan ibn Umayyah, because Zayd had been among those who killed Safwan's father, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, at Badr. Both men were executed soon afterwards.

Placed here because: Ep. 51: "This incident will lead to the Massacre of al-Raji."

Around 4 AH, a chieftain of Najd (the highlands of north-central Arabia) named Abu Bara Amir ibn Malik stayed in Madinah for a while. He did not accept Islam, but he was impressed by it. He asked the Prophet ﷺ to send Companions to call the people of Najd to Islam, and he promised them his protection. The Prophet ﷺ chose 70 of the best reciters of the Qur'an and preachers. Most of them were Ahl al-Suffa, the poor Companions who lived at the Prophet ﷺ's mosque and devoted themselves to worship and learning. When the 70 reached the Well of Bir Ma'una, they sent Haram ibn Milhan with a letter to Amir ibn al-Tufayl, the arrogant chieftain of a local tribe. Amir signalled to one of his men, who speared Haram from behind. Killing a messenger who also had protection was a grave betrayal. Amir then called on the tribes to help him kill the rest. Many refused because of Abu Bara's protection. But three clans, Asiya, Ra'l and Dhakwan, agreed. About 400 to 500 men surrounded the Companions, who had not come prepared for battle, and killed them. Three men were not killed in that attack. Ka'b ibn Zayd was wounded and lay unconscious under the bodies of the martyrs, so the attackers did not see that he was alive. Amr ibn Umayyah and al-Mundhir ibn Muhammad had been away from the camp on an errand. When they returned, they saw vultures circling. Amr wanted to go back and tell the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Mundhir would not leave the place where his companions had died. Both went in and were captured. Al-Mundhir was killed, and Amr was set free. On his way home, Amr met two men from Amir ibn al-Tufayl's tribe and killed them while they slept. He did not know that the Prophet ﷺ had given them protection. Amr then brought the news of the massacre to Madinah. According to a report in al-Waqidi, the Prophet ﷺ heard of this and of the massacre at al-Raji on the same night. He was deeply grieved. For a whole month he made a special supplication (qunut) in every one of the five daily prayers. He prayed for the martyrs and against the four tribes responsible: Asiya, Ra'l, Dhakwan and Banu Lahyan.

Placed here because: Ep. 51: "this second incident occurred at the exact same time as the Incident of al-Raji, so much so ... the Prophet ﷺ got the news of both of them on the same night." Ep. 53 dates Bir Ma'una to Safar 4 AH.

At the end of the Battle of Uhud, Abu Sufyan had called out that the two sides would meet again one year later at Badr. In Sha'ban of the 4th year of the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ marched out with around 1,500 sahaba, with Ali ibn Abi Talib RA as flag bearer. They camped at Badr for over a week, waiting for the Quraysh. The Quraysh had in fact gathered an army of about 2,000 and marched out, but their hearts were not in it. After much argument they turned back without a fight, saying it had been a year of drought and hardship.

Placed here because: Sha'ban 4 AH in the sources, the year Abu Sufyan had named from the foot of Uhud (Ep. 49).

The sources disagree about when Dhat al-Riqa took place. Ibn Ishaq places it in Sha'ban of the fourth year, straight after the meeting at Badr that the Quraysh failed to turn up for. Al-Bukhari places it after Khaybar. The strongest evidence for the earlier date is the story of Jabir, told below. In it, Jabir has just married after his father's death at Uhud, and the Prophet ﷺ does not know about the marriage yet. News had come that Ghatafan meant to attack first. Ghatafan were a large Bedouin tribe to the north, known for raiding. The Prophet ﷺ marched out with seven hundred men. For a week or two the two sides camped within sight of each other. But Ghatafan never advanced, and no blow was struck. The expedition is remembered for four things that happened around it. The first is the prayer of fear. It was here that Allah revealed, in Surah al-Nisa, how to perform Salat al-Khawf. The imam prays the whole prayer, while the army prays in two shifts. One line stands guard with its weapons while the other line prostrates, and then they change places. This way the enemy never finds all of them with their backs turned. The second happened on the way home. It was high summer. In the late morning the sun became unbearable, so the army spread out to find whatever shade the valley offered, and they slept. The Prophet ﷺ slept under a tree, with his sword hanging from a branch. A Bedouin of Ghatafan named Ghawrath ibn al-Harith had been secretly following the army. He walked through the sleeping camp, took the sword down and drew it. Then he woke the Prophet ﷺ with the blade in his face. Ghawrath asked him whether he was afraid of him. The Prophet ﷺ said no. Ghawrath asked whether he was really not afraid, when Ghawrath was the one holding the sword. Again the Prophet ﷺ said no. In another telling, Ghawrath asked who would protect him now, and the Prophet ﷺ answered, "Allah." At that word the man began to shake, and the sword fell from his hand. The Prophet ﷺ picked it up, turned it on him, and asked who would protect him now. Ghawrath asked the Prophet ﷺ to be the better of the two men who had held the sword. The Prophet ﷺ asked him to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad ﷺ is His Messenger ﷺ. Ghawrath refused. But he swore that he would never again fight the Prophet ﷺ, or help anyone who did. Only then did the Prophet ﷺ call out for the Companions. In Jabir's words, they woke to his voice and found him holding his sword at the Bedouin's neck. He let the man go. Ghawrath went back to his people and told them he had come from the best of men. The third happened that night. Ammar ibn Yasir and Abbad ibn Bishr were posted to keep watch for Ghatafan. Abbad took the first watch and stood up to pray. An archer from Ghatafan shot an arrow into him. Abbad pulled it out and carried on praying. A second arrow hit him, and he pulled that out too. Only when he felt he was about to faint did he wake Ammar. Ammar saw the blood and asked why he had not stopped praying. Abbad said he had been reciting a surah, said to have been Surah Yusuf, and had not wanted to leave it. He said that if it were not for the duty the Prophet ﷺ had given him, he would rather have died than stop. The fourth story is Jabir's. On the road back, his camel was the oldest and weakest in the army, and it left him trailing at the back. He rode alone with his worries. His father, Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Haram, had been killed at Uhud. His debts were unpaid. He had seven sisters to feed and no brother to help. Then a voice asked who was there at the back. It was the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ asked Jabir why he was so downcast, and heard the whole story. Then he asked whether Jabir had married. Jabir said he had. The Prophet ﷺ asked whether he had married a young girl or a widow. Jabir said a widow. The Prophet ﷺ asked why he had not married a young girl he could play and laugh with. Jabir answered that he had wanted someone to look after his sisters, not one more person for him to look after. The Prophet ﷺ told him he had done the right thing. Then the Prophet ﷺ had Jabir get down, and he mounted the old camel himself. He struck it, saying "Bismillah." Jabir watched it become the fastest camel he had ever seen. It raced ahead until Jabir, riding it, caught up with the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ at once asked to buy it. Jabir refused. Then he offered it as a gift. The Prophet ﷺ again told him to sell it. The bargaining went from one dirham up to forty. Jabir made one condition, that he could ride the camel home first. The Prophet ﷺ told Jabir not to burst in on his wife at night. Instead, he should let the crier announce the army's return, so that she could get ready for him. The next morning in the mosque, the Prophet ﷺ asked Jabir whether he had prayed two rak'at. He told Bilal to weigh out the forty dirhams and add some more. As Jabir turned to leave, the Prophet ﷺ called him back and told him he had forgotten his camel. Jabir said he had sold it. The Prophet ﷺ said, "O Jabir, did you think I will cheat you out of your camel? Take the money and take your camel!" Ibn Hajar said that a hundred lessons could be drawn from this story. Jurists cite it in rulings on bargaining and on conditions in a sale. But what it shows first is the care that noticed one grieving young man at the back of an army of seven hundred.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 52: "Ibn Ishaq places this ghazwa right now, i.e., in the 4th year during Sha'ban. However, people such as Bukhari said it occurred after the Battle of Khaybar [7 AH]." Placed on Ibn Ishaq's dating, after the appointment at Badr.

In Safar of 4 AH, the Muslims suffered two massacres, at al-Raji and at Bir Ma'una. Amr ibn Umayyah RA, the only survivor of Bir Ma'una, killed two men on his way home, thinking they belonged to the guilty tribe. In fact they were innocent, so the Prophet ﷺ agreed to pay their blood money. This came to 200 camels, a huge sum. Under the Constitution of Madinah, a burden that fell on the whole city was to be shared by all its tribes. The Banu Nadir were a wealthy Jewish tribe living south of Madinah. Relations with them were already tense. The Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq reports that some of them had plotted to murder the People of the Suffa, a group of companions devoted to learning, but the plot was exposed in time. Musa ibn Uqba, an early historian, records that they had helped the Quraysh at the Battle of Uhud with supplies and knowledge of the land. One of their chieftains, Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, had also been killed for his open hostility to the Muslims. Even so, the Prophet ﷺ went to the Banu Nadir with Abu Bakr RA, Umar RA and others to ask for their share of the blood money. The leaders welcomed them and asked them to wait outside their fortress while they went inside. According to one report, they said they wanted to prepare a feast for their guests. Inside, one leader suggested dropping a rock from the top of the wall onto the Prophet ﷺ. Another warned that this would cause a serious backlash, but in the end the plan was approved. Before they could carry it out, the Prophet ﷺ suddenly stood up and walked back to Madinah without saying a word. His companions did not understand why he had left. They waited a long time for him to return, and finally went back to Madinah themselves. There the Prophet ﷺ explained that Jibril AS had come to him and told him to get up and leave at once.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 44 places the Banu Nadir's attempt on the Prophet ﷺ's life "after Uhud"; it is the immediate cause of the expulsion that follows.

The Banu Nadir were one of the Jewish tribes of Madinah. When the Prophet ﷺ visited them, some of their leaders plotted to kill him by dropping a rock on him while he waited outside their fortress. After he learned of the plot, he sent Muhammad ibn Maslamah RA to them with an ultimatum. They had ten days to leave Madinah, and anyone still found there after that would be put to death. Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul was a powerful chieftain among the Arabs of Madinah, the Aws and Khazraj, and an old ally of the Banu Nadir. He secretly sent them a message promising his full support. He said 2,000 of his allies from Ghatafan would come to defend them. He vowed to fight alongside them, or to go into exile with them if they were expelled. The Banu Nadir argued among themselves about what to do. Their chieftain Huyayy ibn Akhtab trusted Ibn Ubayy's promises and wanted to stand firm. Many of his people disagreed, but Huyayy won the argument. They sent word to the Prophet ﷺ that they would stay. That same day, the Prophet ﷺ marched about 700 Muslims to their fortresses and laid siege to them. During the siege, the Prophet ﷺ went with most of his men to the Banu Qurayza, another Jewish tribe of Madinah. He asked them to renew their oaths under the Constitution of Madinah. They agreed to keep the treaty and not to help the Banu Nadir. Meanwhile, Abdullah ibn Ubayy never sent any help. The siege lasted seven to ten days, without any real fighting. To break the Banu Nadir's resolve, the Prophet ﷺ had some of their prized date palms cut down and burned. This distressed them greatly. It also troubled some of the Companions, until the Qur'an confirmed that it had been done by Allah's will. With no help coming, the Banu Nadir surrendered unconditionally. The Prophet ﷺ spared their lives and let them go into exile with as much as their camels could carry. The only thing they could not take was weapons. Out of spite, many of them hacked down their own houses rather than leave them for the Muslims. Two or three of them accepted Islam and were allowed to stay with their property. The land, orchards and goods left behind were fay', property gained without fighting. The Prophet ﷺ gave it mainly to the emigrants from Makkah (the Muhajirun) who had no land. Until then the Ansar of Madinah had been supporting them, so this made the two groups more equal. According to Ibn Ishaq, three landless men of the Ansar who had fought in several battles also received a share.

Placed here because: Ep. 53: "the strongest opinion is it took place in Shawwal of the 4th year of the Hijrah."