’The most honorable will expel the most abased’

Ibn Ishaq said: while the people were at that water and the incoming wave of the people arrived, there was with Umar ibn al-Khattab a hired man of his of the Banu Ghifar called Jahjah ibn Mas’ud, leading his horse, and Jahjah and Sinan ibn Wabar al-Juhani, ally of the Banu Awf ibn al-Khazraj, jostled over the water and fought, and the Juhani cried: O assembly of the Ansar! And Jahjah cried: O assembly of the Muhajirun! Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul became angry, with him a group of his people, among them Zayd ibn Arqam, a young lad; and he said: have they done it? They have outdone us and multiplied themselves in our land, and by Allah I reckon these cloaks of Quraysh to be nothing but what the first said: feed your dog and it will eat you. By Allah, if we returned to Medina the mightiest of it would surely drive out the most abased.

Then he addressed those of his people present and said: this is what you have done with yourselves: you made them lawful in your land and divided your wealth with them; by Allah, had you held back from them, they would not have been in your hands, but would have moved to a home other than yours. Zayd ibn Arqam heard that and went with it to the Messenger of Allah, that being as the Messenger of Allah finished with his enemy, and told him the news, with him Umar ibn al-Khattab, who said: command Abbad ibn Bishr to kill him. The Messenger of Allah said: ’And how would it be, O Umar, if the people were to say that Muhammad kills his companions? No; rather order the departure.’ That was at an hour when the Messenger of Allah did not usually travel, and the people traveled,

and Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul walked to the Messenger of Allah when it reached him that Zayd ibn Arqam had conveyed to him what he heard from him, and he swore by Allah: I said not what he said, nor spoke it. He was in his people greatly honored, and those of the Ansar of his companions present with the Messenger of Allah said: O Messenger of Allah, perhaps the lad erred in his account and did not retain what the man said, inclining toward Ibn Ubayy and defending him. When the Messenger of Allah set out and marched, Usayd ibn Hudayr met him, greeted him with the greeting of prophethood, and said: O Messenger of Allah, by Allah you traveled at an unseemly hour at which you never used to travel. The Messenger of Allah said: ’and has it not reached you what your companion said?’ He said: what companion, O Messenger of Allah? He said:

’Abdallah ibn Ubayy.’ He said: and what did he say? He said: ’he claims that if he returned to Medina the mightiest of it would drive out the most abased.’ He said: you, by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, will drive him out if you will; he, by Allah, is the abased and you the mighty. Then he said: O Messenger of Allah, be gentle with him, for by Allah Allah brought us you, and his people are stringing the collar to crown him, and he sees you have seized from him the kingdom. Then the Messenger of Allah marched with the people that their day until evening, and their night until morning, and the first of their day until the sun hurt them, then he alighted with the people; they had scarcely felt the touch of the ground before they fell asleep, and he did that to busy the people from the discourse of yesterday, the words of Abdallah ibn Ubayy.

Then the Messenger of Allah went with the people and took the Hijaz road until he alighted at a water in the Hijaz above an-Naqi’ called Baqa’; and when the Messenger of Allah set out a violent wind blew upon the people and hurt them and they feared it, and the Messenger of Allah said: ’do not fear it; it has blown for the death of a great one among the great of the disbelievers.’ When they arrived in Medina they found Rifa’a ibn Zayd ibn at-Tabut, one of the Banu Qaynuqa’, who was great among the great of the Jews and a refuge for the hypocrites, dead that day, as Musa ibn Uqba and al-Waqidi mention. Muslim reported, through al-A’mach, from Abu Sufyan, from Jabir, an account like this except that he did not name the one who died of the hypocrites, and said: a violent wind blew while the Prophet was in one of his journeys, and he said:

’this is for the death of a hypocrite’; and when we arrived in Medina there was dead a great one among the great of the hypocrites. Ibn Ishaq said: and descended the sura in which Allah mentions the hypocrites, concerning Ibn Ubayy and whoever was upon his like, and the Messenger of Allah took the ear of Zayd ibn Arqam and said: this is he who fulfilled to Allah his ear. We have discussed its tafsir in full in our book of Tafsir, with what suffices against repeating it here, and we have strung the routes of this hadith from Zayd ibn Arqam, and to Allah belong praise and favor; whoever wishes to stand upon it or loves to write it here, let him seek it from there, and success is by Allah. Ibn Ishaq said: Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada related to me that Abdallah the son of Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul came to the Messenger of Allah and said: O Messenger of Allah,

it has reached me that you intend to kill Abdallah ibn Ubayy for what reached you of him; if you will do so, command me, and I shall carry you his head, for by Allah the Khazraj know no man was more dutiful to his father than I, and I fear you will command other than me and he kill him, and I would not suffer to look upon the killer of Abdallah ibn Ubayy walking among the people, and kill him, and slay a believer for a disbeliever and enter the Fire. The Messenger of Allah said: rather we shall be gentle with him and good companions as long as he remains with us; and thereafter, whenever an event occurred, his own people were the ones who rebuked him and took him and rough-handled him. The Messenger of Allah said to Umar ibn al-Khattab when that reached him of their state: ’What do you see, O Umar? By Allah, had I killed him the day you said to me: kill him,

the eyes of the Banu Awf would have thundered; and were I to command them his killing today they would kill him.’ Umar said: by Allah I knew the command of the Messenger of Allah was greater in blessing than my command. Ikrima and Ibn Zayd mentioned that his son Abdallah stopped his father Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul at the narrow entrance of Medina and said: halt; by Allah you shall not enter it until the Messenger of Allah permits that; and when the Messenger of Allah came he asked his leave for that and permitted him, and let him go until he entered Medina. Ibn Ishaq said: there were slain that day of the Banu al-Mustaliq people, and Ali ibn Abi Talib killed two of them, Malik and his son; Ibn Hisham said: the war cry of the Muslims was: O you aided, slay, slay. Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah had taken many captives of them and divided them among the Muslims.