fought between the Aus and Khazraj around five years before the arrival of the Prophet (r)
of Allah in Madinah, both these tribes had agreed to recognize ‘Abdullah b. Ubayy as their
leader. By the time Islam came to gain adherents in Madinah, preparations were already
being made to formally crown him as the king of the city. When he saw that the people
were being won over by Islam, quickly and in large numbers at that, he became so annoyed
that his resentment grew to torture his mind.
Ibn Hisham writes: “When the Prophet (r) came to Madina the leader there was ‘Abdullah
b. Ubayy Salul al-‘Aufi. None of his own people contested his authority and Aus and Khazraj
never rallied to any one man before Islam as they did to him. ‘Abdullah b. Ubayy’s people
had made a sort of jeweled diadem to crown him and make him their king when Allah sent
His Prophet (r) to them. So when his people deserted him in favor of Islam, he was filled
with enmity realizing that the Prophet (r) had deprived him of his kingship. However, when
he saw that his people were determined to go over the fold of Islam, he did too, though
unwillingly, retaining his enmity and dissimulation. (Ibn Hisham, Vol. I, pp. 277-8)
All those persons who had a suppressed desire concealed in their hearts or were ambi-
tious for prestige, power or authority, felt cut to the heart at the success of religion that
welded the Muhaajirun and the Ansaar as two bodies with one soul. A religion that inspired
them with a dedication to the Prophet (r) which was even more intense than one had for
one’s own father, son and wife. Hatred and ill will against the Prophet (r) filled their hearts
and they started hatching up plots against Muslims. This was how a coalition of the double-
faced discontented ones came into existence within the Islamic world who were in reality
worthless and just a parcel of the Muslim society. People no better than a lowly but danger-
ous snake in the grass that Muslims had to be even more careful with than to Allah’s openly
acknowledged enemies.
This is why the Qur’an repeatedly exposes their hypocrisy and warns against their con-
cealed designs. Their surreptitious intrigues continued to undermine the stability of the
Islamic society and hence the works on the life of the Prophet (r) cannot do otherwise than
divulge their hidden agenda and activities.
BEGINNING OF THE JEWISH ANIMOSITY
After initially maintaining an attitude of indifference and neutrality, the Jews gradually
began to show their hatred and rancor against Islam. In the beginning they steered a middle
course between the Muslims and the pagans and the Arab tribes of Makkah and Madinah;
or, were rather inclined towards the Muslims. The Jews of Madinah had, in the beginning,
felt closer to the Muslims having found a striking resemblance of their own religious beliefs
to such fundamental teachings of Islam - such as prophecy and Prophethood, belief in the
Hereafter, Unity of Allah, - and their own faith. This is notwithstanding the differences in
detail as well as the fact that undue veneration of certain Prophets ('alaihimus salaam) and