The March on Khaybar

Now to the seventh year. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had come back from al-Ḥudaybiyah. Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah — and, by the way, Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah is an author of sīrah, and the scholars say that his narrations are among the best when it comes to the sīrah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); however, the book he authored does not exist with us today; what exists today are narrations from him by other scholars; other scholars, like Ibn Isḥāq and al-Wāqidī, would narrate from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah — Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah says that twenty days after the arrival of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in Madīnah from al-Ḥudaybiyah, he set out for Khaybar.

Now, al-Ḥudaybiyah was a truce between the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Quraysh, and the agreement was that they would stop fighting for ten years. Now, rather than the Muslims taking rest after a very difficult five years of continuous fighting with Quraysh and the allies of Quraysh — no, they did not take rest. Only twenty days after arriving in Madīnah, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was marching out to Khaybar. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) now had a peace agreement with Quraysh, but there was the big problem of the Yahūd, who were continuously conspiring against the Muslims. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw this as the appropriate moment to stop the Yahūd, once and for all, from their conspiracies against the Muslims. There was still another community of Yahūd in Taymāʾ, but this was the only remaining stronghold of the Yahūd, and this was Khaybar. In fact, it was the strongest area of the Yahūd in the Arabian Peninsula.

On the way, ʿĀmir ibn al-Akwaʿ (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked to chant for them — the Bedouin way of singing poetry, which is ḥudāʾ. Subḥān Allāh, this had an effect on the camels: the camels would become active, and faster and stronger in their march, if they were tired, when they heard this chanting. So ʿĀmir was told to chant, and he said: O Allah, without You we would not have been rightly guided, nor would we have given alms, nor prayed. We beseech You to forgive what we have done wrong — may we be sacrificed for You. We beseech You to send down Your tranquillity upon us, and to make our feet firm when we meet our enemies; and if they cry out, trying to subvert us, we will refuse — already have they loudly sought others' help against us.

When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) heard these wonderful words from ʿĀmir ibn al-Akwaʿ, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, yarḥamuhu Allāh: may Allah have mercy on him. And the Companions knew that when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) singled out an individual for mercy, it meant that he would die as a shahīd. Subḥān Allāh, that is the understanding they had — as if shahādah and mercy were related. So when the Messenger of Allah would say, yarḥamuhu Allāh, may Allah have mercy on him, the manifestation of this duʿāʾ would come in the form of shahādah, of martyrdom. So ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: wajabat yā Rasūl Allāh — it has become certain, O Messenger of Allah — law lā mattaʿtanā bih: I wish you had allowed us to enjoy his company longer. So they were not protesting that ʿĀmir would become a shahīd; they were happy for him, that he would receive this blessing from Allah (swt). They just wanted to enjoy him longer, because they enjoyed his company, and they would have liked to spend more time with him.

The Muslims reached Khaybar, the Yahūd of Khaybar. As was said, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) took his enemies by surprise. They set out in the morning to go out of their fortresses to their farms, so they came out with their equipment, farm equipment, ready for work, and they suddenly saw the army on the horizon. They ran back into their fortresses saying, Muḥammadun wa al-khamīs, Muḥammadun wa al-khamīs — al-khamīs means the army: Muḥammad and the army! These were their words as they fled and ran from Muḥammad (peace be upon him). Now, these Yahūd of Khaybar used to boast and say: fighting us is not like fighting the rest of the Arabs. They were proud and happy and content with their fortresses and their strong training, and the famous fighting men among them, such as Marḥab and others. But when they saw the army of Muḥammad (peace be upon him), they fled and ran away. And this is because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says, nuṣirtu bi-l-ruʿbi masīrata shahr: I have been given victory through fear, the distance of a month's journey. Allah (swt) puts fear into the hearts of the enemies of Muḥammad (peace be upon him).

Now the news, when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) laid siege to the fortresses of Khaybar — not one fortress, but many fortresses scattered over hilltops and mountains, a very well-protected area — the news spread, and the Arabs knew very well the strength of the location and the strength of the Yahūd in that area. Ḥuwayṭib ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā, who was one of the envoys who met the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) at al-Ḥudaybiyah — when he went back to Makkah, he said, narrating this: when I left al-Ḥudaybiyah, I knew that Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and his followers would be victorious. This is the impression people would carry when they came and met the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and saw him and heard him, and saw the conduct of the Muslims. As with ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd: the impression he had was that the way the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was treated by his followers was like no other in the world; it was unique; and he also came back with the impression that his followers were never going to give him up, no matter what happened. Ḥuwayṭib ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā came back with the impression that these people were definitely going to win.

So he and some other men from Quraysh made a bet. Some of the people of Quraysh, like Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah, were for the Yahūd; they said the Yahūd would win, because of the reputation they had, while Ḥuwayṭib said that Muḥammad (peace be upon him) would win. And the wager was a hundred camels. That was the bet, a hundred camels. So the news had spread, and it had caught the interest of people everywhere, to the extent that they would bet on it in Makkah.