caravans from bringing wheat to Makkah. So the people of Makkah wrote to the Prophet
(r) requesting him to get the ban lifted. The kind-hearted Prophet (r) asked Thumama to
repeal the ban and allow the rationing and supply of food grains back to them. (Zad al-
Ma’ad, Vol. I, p. 377, Saheeh Muslim, Kitab-ul-Jihad was Siyar)
EXPEDITION OF BANU AL-MUSTALIQ AND THE AFFAIR OF IFK
After sometime, the Prophet (r) led an expedition up to the hills and went to Dhu Qarad
against Banu Lihyan in pursuit of some raiders, but there was no fighting. In Sha’ban, 6 A.H.,
he was informed that Banu Al-Mustaliq were plotting for an attack on him. He went out with
a group to face the enemy. A large party of the hypocrites, still skeptical and reticent, ac-
companied the Prophet (r) with their leader ‘Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul. The hypocrites had
never before gone out with the Prophet (r) in such large numbers in any earlier expedition.
(Ibn S’ad, Kitab ut-Tabaqat al-Kabirat, Vol. II, Part I, p. 45).
The failure of the Quraysh in the battle of the Trench despite having mustered all the war-
riors of their confederate clans for the destruction of Islam, had made the hypocrites bitter
and sour, indeed burning with hostility in their souls. The Muslims were gaining victory after
victory, the star of their fortune was on the rise, and this had sent the Quraysh, the Jews
and their allies in distress. They knew that they could not humble the Muslims in an open
combat and hence the only way to defeat them was by sowing dissension within their ranks
and pitting them against one another. They also knew that the only way they could under-
mine the confidence of the Muslims in Islam and its Prophet (r) as well as trigger a rift
between them were debasement of the noble Prophet (r) and arousing pre-Islamic senti-
ments of tribal pride. With this view in mind, the hypocrites started a clandestine campaign
of casting doubts upon the honor of the Prophet (r). An entirely new type of society had,
however, evolved and had been in existence in Madinah at such time, whose members
loved and respected every other man bound by the common ideal. These pretenders had,
therefore, arrived at the conclusion that nothing could sap the foundations of this ideologi-
cal fraternity more effectively than a slanderous campaign aimed at creating misgivings
against the leader and his family.
Undoubtedly, this was a well-maneuvered conspiracy of the hypocrites, which was vigo-
rously pursued during the expedition of Banu al-Mustaliq, when, for the first time, as stated
earlier, a large number of them accompanied the Prophet (r). The Prophet (r) met the
enemy at a watering place of Banu al-Mustaliq, in the direction of Qudaysh towards the
shore, known as al-Muraysri, where the battle brought Banu al-Mustaliq to defeat and
exodus from the area. While the Prophet (r) was still at this place, a hired servant of Banu
Ghifar, belonging to the Muhaajirun got into a row with another man coming from the tribe
of Juhinah, which was an ally of al-Khazraj. The Juhini called out, “O ye Ansaar!” and the
hired servant shouted, “O ye Muhaajirun.”