The killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf: the context

This is the chapter of the killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf the Jew, who was of the Banu Tayyi’, then one of the Banu Nabhan, though his mother was of the Banu an-Nadir; thus Ibn Ishaq mentions it before the banishment of the Banu an-Nadir, and al-Bukhari and al-Bayhaqi mention it after the story of the Banu an-Nadir; and what is correct is what Ibn Ishaq mentioned, for it will come that the affair of the Banu an-Nadir was only after the encounter of Uhud, and during their siege wine was forbidden, as we shall explain in its place, Allah willing. Al-Bukhari said in his Sahih, the killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf: Ali ibn Abdallah narrated to us: Sufyan narrated to us, from Amr: I heard Jabir ibn Abdallah say: the Messenger of Allah said: who will deal with Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, for he has harmed Allah and His Messenger? Muhammad ibn Maslama rose and said: O Messenger of Allah, do you wish that I kill him? He said: yes.

He said: then permit me to say something. He said: say. Muhammad ibn Maslama came to him and said: this man has asked us for charity and weighed us heavily, and I have come to you to borrow. He said: yes, and by Allah you will weary me with obligations.

He said: we have followed this prophet and we do not like to leave him until we see what his affair will come to, and we wish you to lend us. He said: yes; give me a pledge. I said: what do you want? He said: pledge me your women.

They said: how shall we pledge you our women, you the handsomest of the Arabs? He said: pledge me then your sons. They said: how shall we pledge you our sons,

when one of them would be abused and it said: a pledge of a sa’ or two? That is a shame upon us; but we pledge you the coat of mail: Sufyan said: meaning the weapons. And he appointed him to come to him by night, and he came to him by night with Abu Naila, who was a brother of Ka’b by nursing, and he invited them up to the fortress and came down to them. His wife said: where do you go out at this hour?

Another than Amr said: she said: I hear a voice from which blood seems to drip. He said: it is only my brother Muhammad ibn Maslama and my nursing brother Abu Naila; the noble, if invited to a night lance-thrust, answers. Muhammad ibn Maslama entered with him two men: Amr said: he brought two men with him: while others than Amr said: Abu Abs ibn Jabr, al-Harith ibn Aws and Abbad ibn Bishr. Amr said: he brought two men with him, and he said: when he comes I shall ask to smell his hair and I shall smell him, and when you see me have mastery of his head, yours is to strike him; and once he said: then I shall smell you.

He came down to them wrapped in his mantle from which the scent of perfume breathed, and said: never have I seen as today such fragrance, meaning the sweetest; and others than Amr said: he said: I have the most perfumed of the women of the Arabs and the handsomest of the Arabs. Amr said: he said: do you permit me to smell your head? He said: yes. He smelled him, then smelled his companions, then said: do you permit me?

He said: yes. When he had mastery of him he said: yours! And they killed him, then came to the Prophet and informed him.

Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: of the story of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, who was a man of Tayyi’ then of the Banu Nabhan, his mother being of the Banu an-Nadir: when the news of the killing of the men of Badr reached him when Zayd ibn Haritha and Abdallah ibn Rawaha arrived, he said: by Allah, if Muhammad has struck these people, the belly of the earth is better than its back. When the enemy of Allah acquired certainty of the news he went out to Mecca and alighted with al-Muttalib ibn Abi Wada’a ibn Subayra as-Sahmi, with whom was A’ika bint Abi l-Is ibn Umayya ibn Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf, who lodged and honored him; and he began urging to war against the Messenger of Allah, declaiming verses and lamenting the idolaters slain on the day of Badr. Ibn Ishaq mentions his qasida, whose beginning is: ’The millstone of Badr has ground for the ruin of its people, and for the like of Badr you begin to weep.’ He mentions its answer from Hassan ibn Thabit and others. Then he returned to Medina and began to jest about the women of the Muslims and to revile the Prophet and his companions.

Musa ibn Uqba said: Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf was one of the Banu an-Nadir or among them, who had harmed the Messenger of Allah with reviling, and he rode to Quraysh and urged them to aid against him, and Abu Sufyan said to him while he was in Mecca: I call upon you by Allah: is our religion dearer to Allah, or the religion of Muhammad and his companions? And which of us is better guided in your view and nearer the truth? We eat the camels of milk and drink milk upon water and eat what the north wind brings.

Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf said to him: you are better guided than they in the way. So Allah sent down upon His Messenger: have you not seen those given a portion of the Book, believing in idols and false deities and saying of those who disbelieved: these are better guided in the way than those who believed? Those are they whom Allah has cursed, and whoever Allah curses, you shall find for him no helper [an-Nisa: 51-52]. Musa and Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: he came to Medina and began openly declaring hostility and urging the people to war, and did not leave Mecca until he had united their affair to fight the Messenger of Allah, and he began to jest about Umm al-Fadl bint al-Harith and others of the women of the Muslims until he hurt them.

Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah said, as Abdallah ibn al-Mughith ibn Abi Burda related to me: who is for me concerning the son of al-Ashraf? Muhammad ibn Maslama, brother of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal, said to him: I, O Messenger of Allah, will deal with him; I shall kill him. He said: do so if you can. Muhammad ibn Maslama returned and stayed three days eating and drinking nothing but what kept life in him, and that was mentioned to the Messenger of Allah, who called him and said: why have you left off food and drink?

He said: O Messenger of Allah, I said to you a word and I know not whether I can fulfill it for you. He said: the striving is upon you. He said: O Messenger of Allah, we must needs speak. He said: say then what seems good to you; you are excused of that.

Ibn Ishaq said: gathered for his killing were Muhammad ibn Maslama; Silkan ibn Salama ibn Waqsh, who is Abu Naila, one of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal, brother of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf by nursing; Abbad ibn Bishr ibn Waqsh, one of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal; al-Harith ibn Aws ibn Mu’adh, one of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal; and Abu Abs ibn Jabr, brother of the Banu Haritha. They presented before them to the enemy of Allah Ka’b, Silkan ibn Salama Abu Naila, who came to him and spoke with him an hour and they exchanged verses: Abu Naila used to recite poetry: then he said: woe to you, O son of al-Ashraf; I have come to you for a need I wish to mention to you, so conceal it from me. He said: I shall. He said: the coming of this man upon us has been a calamity of calamities: the Arabs have shot at us from one bow and cut off our roads until families were lost and persons wearied, and we have become exhausted, and our families exhausted.

Ka’b said: I am the son of al-Ashraf; by Allah I used to inform you, O son of Salama, that the affair will come to what I say. Silkan said to him: I wished that you sell us food and that we pledge you and trust you and you deal well therein.

He said: will you pledge me your sons? He said: you wished to expose us; I have companions of my view, and I wished to bring them to you that you sell them and deal well therein, and we pledge you from the circlet what it contains of pledges. Silkan wished not to reject the weapons when they came with them, and said: in the circlet there are indeed pledges. Silkan returned to his companions, told them his story and ordered them to take the weapons and set out and gather to him, and they gathered at the Messenger of Allah.

Ibn Ishaq said: Thawr ibn Zayd related to me, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah walked with them to Baqi’ al-Gharqad, then directed them and said: go in the name of Allah; O Allah, help them; then the Messenger of Allah returned to his house on a moonlit night, and they went until they reached his fortress. Abu Naila hailed him, and he had been newly married a short while, and he leapt in his mantle, and his wife took its edge and said: you are a man of war, and men of war do not descend at this hour. He said: it is Abu Naila; were he to find me asleep he would not wake me. She said: by Allah, I know in his voice evil.

He said: Ka’b saying to her: if the youth is invited to a lance-thrust he answers. He came down and spoke with them an hour and they spoke with him; then they said: have you, O son of al-Ashraf, that we stroll to Shab al-Ajouz and converse there the rest of our night? He said: if you wish. They went out strolling and walked an hour.

Then Abu Naila smelled his hand in the temple of his head, then smelled his hand and said: never have I known as tonight fragrance more perfumed. Then they walked an hour, then he did the like until he felt sure, then walked an hour, then did the like again and seized the two temples of his head, then said: strike the enemy of Allah! Their swords fell upon him to no effect. Muhammad ibn Maslama said: I remembered the dagger in my sword and took it, and the enemy of Allah cried a cry such that no fortress around us remained but fire was kindled upon it.

I placed it in the base of his body, then bore down upon him until I reached his groin, and I slew the enemy of Allah; and al-Harith ibn Aws was wounded with a wound in his leg or his head, as some of our swords reached him. We went out until we took the road of the Banu Umayya ibn Zayd,

then the Banu Qurayza, then Bu’ath, until we climbed the Harra of al-Arayd, and our companion al-Harith ibn Aws was delaying us and his blood flowing; we stopped for him an hour, then he came following our tracks, and we carried him and brought him to the Messenger of Allah at the last of the night, and he was standing in prayer. We greeted him and he came out to us, and we informed him of the killing of the enemy of Allah, and the Messenger of Allah spat upon the wound of our companion, and we returned to our families. We rose in the morning and the Jews had feared our striking of the enemy of Allah, and there was no Jew but he feared for himself. Ibn Jarir said: al-Waqidi claims they brought the head of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf to the Messenger of Allah.

Ibn Ishaq said: thereupon says Ka’b ibn Malik: ’Betrayed from among them was Ka’b, cast down, and after his death an-Nadir was abased; upon the two palms, then it rose upon him with our hands, swords brandished, males, by the command of Muhammad when he crept by night toward Ka’b; a brother of Ka’b walks: he deceived him and brought him down by deceit, and Mahmud, brother of the trust, bold.’