The Ghazwa of the Banu an-Nadir: the sura al-Hachr

The Ghazwa of the Banu an-Nadir is that concerning which Allah sent down the sura al-Hachr. In the Sahih of the Boukhari, Ibn Abbas used to call it the sura of the Banu an-Nadir. The Boukhari reports from az-Zouhri, from Urwa, that the Banu an-Nadir came six months after Badr, before Ouhoud. Ibn Abi Hatim related it with chain in his tafsir, and Hanbal ibn Ishaq reports it likewise. The Bayhaqi says: az-Zouhri held it was before Ouhoud; others held after, and even after the well of Ma’ouna. We say: such is what Ibn Ishaq mentioned, after his account of the well of Ma’ouna, the return of Amr ibn Oumayya, and his killing of the two men of the Banu Amir whose covenant of protection from the Messenger of Allah he did not know, for which the Prophet said to him: you have killed two men whose blood-price I shall pay.

Ibn Ishaq reports: the Messenger of Allah then went out to the Banu an-Nadir to ask their help in the blood-price of the two men of the Banu Amir whom Amr ibn Oumayya had killed, on account of the pact the Prophet had granted them: there was between the Banu an-Nadir and the Banu Amir covenant and oath. When he came to them they said: yes, O Abou l-Qasim, we will help you in whatever you wish. Then they consulted one another in whispers and said: never will you find the man in the state he is in now, the Messenger of Allah seated beside the wall of their houses: who will climb this roof and drop a stone upon him, ridding us of him? Amr ibn Jihhach ibn Ka’b was designated for it and volunteered.

He climbed to drop a stone upon him, while the Messenger of Allah sat among a group of his companions, among them Abou Bakr, Oumar and Ali. News of what the people intended reached him from heaven: he rose and went back to Medina. When his companions tarried, they rose seeking him, met a man coming from Medina and asked him after him: he had seen the Prophet entering the city. They hastened to him, and he informed them of what the Jews had intended of treachery against him.

The Waqidi reports: the Messenger of Allah sent Mohamed ibn Maslama to them, ordering them out of his alliance and his city. The people of hypocrisy wrote to them to stand firm, inciting them to remain and promising them victory: their souls hardened, Houyayy ibn Akhtab blazed up, they wrote to the Messenger of Allah that they would not leave, and cast at him the breaking of the covenants. Thereupon he ordered the people out against them. The Waqidi says they besieged them fifteen nights. Ibn Ishaq reports: the Prophet ordered preparation for war against them and the march upon them. Ibn Hicham says he appointed Ibn Oum Maktoum over Medina, in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal. Ibn Ishaq reports that he marched, camped against them and besieged them six nights; the prohibition of wine came down at that time; they took refuge in their forts, and the Messenger of Allah ordered the palm trees cut down and burned. They called out to him: O Mohamed, you forbade corruption and reproached it to those who committed it:

what then is this cutting of palm trees and this burning? A group of the Banu Awf ibn al-Khazraj, among them Abdallah ibn Oubay, Wadi’a, Malik, Souwayd and Da’is, had written to the Banu an-Nadir: stand firm and hold out: we shall never deliver you up; if you are fought, we shall fight with you, and if you are exiled, we shall go out with you. They waited for that help: it did not come. Allah cast terror into their hearts, and they asked the Messenger of Allah to exile them and spare their blood, on condition they take with them what their camels could carry of their property, except the coats of mail: and he did so. Al-Awfi reports from Ibn Abbas that he gave each group of three a camel which they rode by turns, and two water-skins. Mohamed ibn Maslama also reports that the Prophet granted them a respite of three nights; it is said they had debts falling due and that the Prophet said: unload and hasten: the soundness of that version is doubtful, and Allah is most knowing.

Ibn Ishaq reports: they carried off of their property what their camels could bear: the man among them tore down the lintel of his door, set it on his camel’s back, and went off. They went out to Khaybar, some of them to Syria. Among the nobles who went to Khaybar were Salam ibn Abi l-Houqayq, Kinana ibn ar-Rabi’ ibn Abi l-Houqayq and Houyayy ibn Akhtab. When they arrived, the people of Khaybar made alliance with them: they were received with women, children and wealth, to the sound of drums and flutes, singing-girls playing behind them, with a pomp and pride such as had never been seen for a people in their time.

They abandoned to the Messenger of Allah their properties, meaning the palm groves and the plantations: these became his especial property, which he disposed as he wished, and he divided them among the first emigrants, to the exclusion of the Ansar, except Sahl ibn Houmayf and Abou Doujana, who pleaded poverty and were given some; some add al-Harith ibn as-Simma to them, as as-Souhayli relates. Of the Banu an-Nadir only two men converted: Yamin ibn Oumayr and Abou Sa’d ibn Wahb, who kept their property. Ibn Ishaq reports that the Prophet said to Yamin: have you not seen what your cousin did to us, and what he intended against me? And Yamin paid a man a reward to kill Amr ibn Jihhach, and he killed him: may Allah curse him.

Allah then sent down upon them the sura al-Hachr entire, recounting His vengeance upon them and what He delivered into the hand of His Messenger: we have treated it at length in the tafsir, and to Allah belongs praise.

As for the palm trees: the Boukhari and Mouslim both report, through Nafi’, from Ibn Omar, that the Messenger of Allah burned the palm trees of the Banu an-Nadir and cut them down: it was al-Bouwayra. And Allah sent down: whatever palm tree you cut down, or left standing upon its roots, it was by the permission of Allah, and to disgrace the wicked (al-Hachr, 5). Hassan ibn Thabit said upon it: And it seemed a light thing to the sons of the Banu Louayy, the blaze that blazes at al-Bouwayra; and Abou Soufyan ibn al-Harith answered him in verses. Ka’b ibn Malik also mentioned in his poetry the exile of the Banu an-Nadir and the killing of Ka’b ibn al-Achraf. Ibn Ishaq relates the poem of Ibn Louqaym al-’Absi, or of Qays ibn Bahhr al-Achja’i, concerning them, and the answer attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, which no one truly knows.

As for the spoils without battle: Allah decreed that the properties of the Banu an-Nadir belonged to the Messenger of Allah and granted them to him. He disposed of them as Allah showed him: it is established in the two Sahihs, from Oumar ibn al-Khattab, that the properties of the Banu an-Nadir were part of what Allah made possible to His messenger, on which the Muslims had pressed neither horse nor rider: they were the especial property of the Messenger of Allah, who would set aside the provision of his family for a year, then apply what remained to horses and weapons for the path of Allah. The Most High then established the division of the spoils among the emigrants, the Ansar, those who followed them in goodness, the kindred, the orphans, the poor and the wayfarer, so that it should not circulate as a fortune among the rich of you. Ahmad reports from Anas that before that conquest, a man would give the Prophet from his property two palm trees, or as Allah willed:

when Qurayza and an-Nadir were conquered he began to take them back. The people of the house of Anas ordered him to go to the Prophet and ask for what they had given, or part of it; the Prophet had given Oum Aymana two of the palms, or as Allah willed. She went to ask, and he gave them to her. Oum Aymana flung the garment over her neck and said: no, by Him besides whom there is no deity, never will you give them to him when you have given them to me! And the Prophet kept saying: there, it is given to you; and she kept saying: no, by Allah! Until he gave her, as I reckon, ten times their worth. Allah finally denounced the hypocrites who had secretly inclined to the Banu an-Nadir and promised them victory, failing utterly, and struck them with the parable of the devil who says to man: disbelieve; then, when he disbelieves, says: I am innocent of you, I fear Allah, Lord of the worlds (al-Hachr, 16-17).