ACTION AGAINST BANI QURAYDA
The reason for this battle was the treason of Bani Qurayda for their breaking their treaty
withthe the Prophet (r) in order to help the Quraysh in their attack on madinah.
It took place on the end Dhul-Qidah 5 A. H., few kilometers to the southeast Madinah. The
Muslim force was 3000 soldiers, and 36 horses.
The Prophet (r) and his people surrounded and occupied the district inhabited by the
Jewish clan of Bani Qurayda, whereupon the beleaguered Jews defied the siege for twenty-
five days, finally succumbing up to the pressure and then offered to surrender. Bani Quray-
da submitted to the Prophet’s decision.
The decision was made in the hands of an arbitrator which was the chief of Al-Aus (one of
the Al-Ansaar clans), S’ad Ibn. Mu’adh, who gave his decision: “I decided that the men
should be killed, the property divided, and the women and children taken as captives.” Al in
all, round 400 soldiers of Banu Qurayda were killed.
BENEVOLENCE AND LARGE-HEARTEDNESS
The Prophet (r) sent some of his men on an excursion into Najd who captured Thumama
b. Uthal, the chieftain of Banu Hanifa. When the party returned to Madinah, they tied him
to a stump in the Prophet’s Mosque.
God’s Messenger (r) approached him and asked, “What do you expect, Thumama?”
He replied, “If you kill me, Muhammed you will kill one whose blood will be avenged; if
you show me a favor, you will show it to one who is grateful; and if you want property, you
will be given as much as you wish.”
The Prophet (r) left him and when he passed by him the next time, he asked him the
same question. Thumama repeated his earlier reply and the Prophet (r) left him again.
When the Prophet (r) passed by him for the third time, he ordered Thumama to be set free.
Thumama went away to a grove of palm-dates and returned to the Prophet (r) after tak-
ing a bath. He accepted Islam and said to the Prophet (r), “I swear to God, Muhammed that
there was no face on earth more detested by me than yours, but now your face is the dear-
est of all to me. And, I swear to God that there was no religion more hateful to me than
yours in the entire world, but now the dearest of all to me. What happened to me is that
your cavalry seized me when I was going to perform ‘Umra.”
The Prophet (r) congratulated him and bade him for it. When Thumama reached Makkah,
someone asked him if he had turned a disbeliever. He replied, “No, by God, I swore that not
a grain of corn will reach you from Al-Yamamah until God’s Messenger accords permission
to it.”
Al-Yamamah was the chief market of food grains in Arabia from where the Makkahns used
to import their requirements. When Thumama went back to Al-Yamamah, he prevented the