The siege: Amir ibn al-Akwa’ and the ban on donkey meat

Upon leaving Medina, the Messenger of Allah took the road of Asr, where a mosque was built for him, then of as-Sahba’, and camped at ar-Raji’. The Boukhari reports through Souwayd ibn an-Nou’man that he set out with the Messenger of Allah in the year of Khaybar until they were at as-Sahba’, the point closest to Khaybar, and that he prayed the asr there. The Prophet asked for provisions and nothing was brought but sawiq; he ordered it roasted, ate, then rose for the maghreb prayer, rinsed his mouth and prayed without performing ablution anew.

The Boukhari and Mouslim report through Yazid ibn Abi Ubayd, from Salama ibn al-Akwa’: "We were marching by night toward Khaybar when a man said to Amir ibn al-Akwa’, who was a poet: O Amir, will you not let us hear your verses? He began to declaim while guiding the people: O Allah, without You we would not be guided, nor would we have given charity nor prayed. So forgive us what we have guarded against, and make firm our steps if we meet the enemy, and send down upon us tranquillity. As for us, when the war cry is raised against us, we refuse it; and by the war cry they sought shelter with us.

The Messenger of Allah said: who is this guide? They said: Amir ibn al-Akwa’. He said: may Allah have mercy on him. A man said: it is our duty, O Prophet of Allah, would that you let us benefit from him."

Then Amir, whose sword was short, seized with it the leg of a Jew to strike him, and the hilt of his sword swung back and struck his eye, of which he died. Salama reports that the Prophet said to those who claimed that Amir’s deed had been annulled: "He lied who said so. He has two rewards": and he joined his two fingers: "he is a striving fighter, rare is the Arab who walked as he did." Ibn Ishaq reports the same story through Abou l-Haytham ibn Nasr al-Aslami, with Oumar saying: "It is our duty, O Messenger of Allah, would that you let us benefit from him."

Amir was killed on the day of Khaybar, a martyr.

Ibn Ishaq reports from Ata’ ibn Abi Marwan al-Aslami, from his father, from Abou Mou’tib, that the Messenger of Allah, when he prevailed over Khaybar, said to his companions: "Halt", then he supplicated: "O Allah, Lord of the heavens and of what they shade, Lord of the earths and of what they cause to grow, Lord of the devils and of what they lead astray, Lord of the winds and of what they scatter: we ask You for the good of this city, the good of its inhabitants and the good of what it contains, and we seek refuge in You from its evil, the evil of its inhabitants and the evil of what it contains. Advance in the name of Allah." This hadith is very strange by that chain, but the Bayhaqi reported it by another, close in meaning.

Anas ibn Malik reports that the Messenger of Allah, when he made war upon a people, never attacked them before morning; if he heard a call to prayer, he held back his hand, and if he heard none, he attacked. The Boukhari and Mouslim report: "We camped at Khaybar by night. When morning came, he heard no call to prayer; he rode and we rode with him, and I rode behind Abou Talha, my foot touching the foot of the Messenger of Allah. The workers of Khaybar came out in the morning with their spades and hoes, and when they saw the Messenger of Allah and the army, they cried: Mohamed and the army with him! And they fled in rout. The Messenger of Allah said: Allah is great, Khaybar is destroyed. When we descend upon the abode of a people, woe to the morning of the forewarned." That evening fires were lit over the meat of domestic donkeys, and the Prophet ordered: "Pour them out and break them." The herald cried: "Allah and His Messenger forbid you the meat of domestic donkeys, for it is a filth."

Anas further reports that the Prophet prayed the dawn prayer near Khaybar, that their fighters were killed and their children taken captive, and that among the captives was Safiyya, who first fell to Dihya al-Kalbi and then came to the Prophet, who made her emancipation her dower. As for the hadith of Moussa al-A’war, according to which the Messenger of Allah visited the sick, followed funerals, accepted the invitation of a slave and rode a bridled donkey with a palm-fibre bridle and palm-fibre saddle on the day of Khaybar as on the day of Banu Qurayza and an-Nadir, the Tirmidhi reported it and judged it weak: we know it only by that path. Now what is established in the Sahih, from Anas, is that the Messenger of Allah ran through the lanes of Khaybar until his izar slipped from his thigh: the apparent conclusion is that he was on horseback that day. And the Boukhari reports that Anas, seeing fine garments one day, said: "As if they were at this moment the Jews of Khaybar."