‘Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul at once flared up and said to his friends who happened to be
present with him, “Didn’t they dare it? They set themselves against us in our own country
and tried to outnumber us. By God, it is just the same as the ancient saying: Feed the dog
and it will bite you. I swear by God that when we return to Madinah those who are worthy
and noble will drive out the unworthy wretches.” Then, admonishing his men, ‘Abdullah
continued, “You have yourselves to blame for it. You allowed them to settle in your country
and shared your property with them. By God, had you held back and not been so generous,
they would have certainly gone elsewhere.”
The Prophet (r) came to know about the incident and he at once gave orders to break the
camp and then set off, although he was not accustomed to traveling at such a difficult hour.
He wanted the people to get rid of the vain disputations and provocations of the devil. The
Prophet (r) continued to move all day long and braved the night till dawn extending up to
the following day till the sun became annoying. He finally made a halt when the people had
become so exhausted that they readily fell asleep as soon as they laid themselves over the
ground.
‘Abdullah was the worthy son of the unworthy ‘Abdullah b. Ubayy. He rushed to Madinah
ahead of the troops and waited for his father’s arrival. When ‘Abdullah b. Ubayy came, his
son brought his camel to its knees, thereby obstructing the passage of his father whom he
ordered not to enter Madinah until he had acknowledged that he was indeed an unworthy
wretch while the Prophet (r) was commendable and noble. In the meanwhile, the Prophet
(r) also showed up. He said to ‘Abdullah, “Nay, let us deal kindly with him while he is with
us.” (Tabaqat Ibn S’ad, Vol. II, p. 46)
The Prophet (r) used to cast lots, whenever he intended to go on an expedition, to decide
who among his wives should accompany him. In the expedition of Banu al-Mustaliq the lot
had fallen on ‘Aisha and she had accordingly accompanied the Prophet (r). At one of the
stopovers in their journey back to Madinah, the Prophet (r) spent a part of the night before
he ordered to break the camp. ‘Aisha had gone to answer the call of nature, and when she
came back she discovered that she had dropped her necklace. She went back to hopefully
recover it, but by the time she returned the army had already left. Then the camel drivers in
charge of ‘Aisha’s transport saddled her covered litter thinking that she was in it as usual.
However, ‘Aisha was small and very light, so no one noticed that her litter was empty.
When ‘Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) came back she found no trace of the army, so
she wrapped herself in her smock and laid down in the hope that as soon as they would
discover the real situation, someone would come to fetch her.
Safwan b. al-Mu’attal al-Salam, had earlier followed behind the army for a purpose. He
happened to pass by ‘Aisha and stopped at her. He saw her. “Inna Lillah”, he called out, “The
Prophet’s wife!” Then he brought his camel near her and turned back a few paces.