Al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿIlāṭ Collects His Money

Next, al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿIlāṭ al-Sulamī. Al-Ḥajjāj became Muslim; he belonged to the tribe of Banū Sulaym, and, as it says in the books of sīrah, he owned the mining rights in the land of Sulaym. Mining here most likely refers to salt mines; there was probably nothing more developed than that; it was not known in the Arabian Peninsula that they mined for anything else. So this refers to the rights of salt mining in his area. So he was a businessman; he was a wealthy man. And he had a wife in Makkah.

When he became Muslim, he wanted to collect the money owed to him in Makkah. As a businessman, he had contracts with a lot of people, and they owed him money, so he wanted to get his money back before the news spread that he had become Muslim; he was worried that they would confiscate his money. So he came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, the people of Quraysh owe me money, and I want to go and collect it; will you allow me to speak against you if I need to? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: say whatever you want.

So al-Ḥajjāj went to Makkah; this was at the time of Ghazwat Khaybar. He reached the outskirts of Makkah, and he found some men of Quraysh already outside Makkah, waiting for travellers, to ask them what had happened between the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Khaybar. They were so eager to know the news of this conflict. It was not a foregone conclusion for them: they expected that the Muslims would lose, because of the fame of Khaybar — its fortresses, its fighters, its provisions. This was a wealthy area; they had a lot of farms; they had many fortresses, well built and strong. Plus the strongest fighters among the Yahūd, such as Marḥab and Yāsir, the knights of the Jews, were from Khaybar. So these men would go out in the daytime and wait for the travellers, for the caravans, to ask them what was happening — quite different from how things are today, when all news is within reach of the whole globe within seconds. With them in the Arabian Peninsula, news would take days to travel.

So they saw al-Ḥajjāj, and they knew him, because he had a wife from Quraysh. So they said: this is the man we are looking for; he must have information about what has happened. They rushed towards al-Ḥajjāj and said: tell us about Khaybar; what happened? He said: I have some very good news for you. Al-Ḥajjāj said: they came to me and were clinging to my camel — one can imagine the scene: him riding his camel, and these men crowding so closely around him to hear what he had to say that they were clinging to his camel, all looking up at him and saying: go ahead, Ḥajjāj, tell us. He said: Muḥammad has been defeated as he has never been defeated before; his companions have been killed, and he has been taken prisoner, and the Jews said, we are not going to kill him, but we are going to hand him over to his people in Quraysh, so that they can kill him inside Makkah.

How happy the enemies of Allah were! They rushed back to Makkah to carry the news. And al-Ḥajjāj told them: the only reason I came here is that I want to collect my money from you, so that I can go back to Khaybar and buy the booty the Yahūd have won from the Muslims before all the other businessmen reach Khaybar and compete with me — because after the war there are going to be a lot of spoils of war, and there is going to be a market where all of that stuff will be sold, so I want to be the first, to buy what I can before the prices go up. They said: al-Ḥajjāj, do not worry; we will collect your money for you. And they rushed back to Makkah, doing his work for him, collecting his money.

Al-Ḥajjāj went to his wife and told her the same thing he had told these disbelievers, because she was still a kāfirah herself. And the news spread all over Makkah. The disbelievers were overjoyed, and the Muslims were in a state of depression. The news reached al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, who was Muslim, and he was so devastated by the news that he could barely stand. He sent one of his slaves to go to al-Ḥajjāj and tell him: what is this news? What is this evil news you have brought? The promise of Allah is better for you. So this slave came to al-Ḥajjāj and conveyed the message from al-ʿAbbās. Al-Ḥajjāj told him: go back and tell your master that I have some good news for him, but he must wait for me alone in one of his houses, and I will come and meet him. So the servant went back to al-ʿAbbās and conveyed the message to him. Al-ʿAbbās was so happy that he jumped up, kissed him on his forehead and said: you are free. He freed his slave; he was so happy at this news.

So one can imagine the state of ghurbah, the state of loneliness and strangeness, that these few Muslims living in Makkah were going through. They were living within the community that was leading the war against the Muslims; they were living among Quraysh, and they felt strange; they felt the pressure of the society of kufr around them. So following the news was not a detached thing for them; it had so much effect on them. Here it says in this narration that he was barely able to stand, because he had heard the bad news about the battle of the Muslims; and now, when he heard the good news, he jumped up, kissed his slave and told him, you are free.

Al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib waited for al-Ḥajjāj to come. Al-Ḥajjāj came and told him: the news is not as you heard it. The reality of the situation is that Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and the Muslims have defeated the Jews, and they have conquered their land, and they are dividing the spoils of war among themselves, and Muḥammad (peace be upon him) has chosen the daughter of their king to be his wife. The only reason I said otherwise is that I wanted to get my money, because I was worried that Quraysh would confiscate it from me when they learned that I am Muslim. Now, al-ʿAbbās, give me three days: keep this secret for three days, and then say whatever you want.

Al-Ḥajjāj left Makkah after he had got all of his money. And then, after three days, al-ʿAbbās came and visited the wife of al-Ḥajjāj and asked her: where is your husband? She said: he has already left. And then she tried to offer him her condolences — because the kuffār of Quraysh knew, even though the Islam of al-ʿAbbās was secret, that deep in his heart he was a Muslim and his sympathies were with his nephew. So she tried to offer her condolences to him. She said: may Allah not make you sad; the news has been very hard on us. He said: yes, Allah will not make me sad — and, al-ḥamdu lillāh, nothing has happened except what we like. Allah has opened Khaybar, has allowed Muḥammad (peace be upon him) to conquer Khaybar, and the spoils of Khaybar are being divided among the Muslims, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) has chosen the daughter of their king to be his wife; and if you care for your husband, you had better follow him. She said: I think you are telling the truth. And she left and followed her husband.

And then al-ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) put on some fine clothes, special clothes, and passed by the gathering places of Quraysh. When they saw him, they said: may only good befall you, O Abū al-Faḍl — Abū al-Faḍl is his kunyah. He said: al-ḥamdu lillāh, only good has befallen me, with the praise of Allah. Al-Ḥajjāj has told me that Khaybar has been conquered by the Messenger of Allah, and that the Muslims have divided Khaybar among themselves, and that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) has married Ṣafiyyah; and he told me to keep this secret for three days, because he only came here to take his money from you, and then he was going to leave you. And now, suddenly, the depression that had been on the Muslims was transferred to the kuffār, and the joy that had been with the kuffār was transferred to the Muslims. They switched places. Al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿIlāṭ (may Allah be pleased with him) tricked them. As Malcolm X used to say: they had been bamboozled.

Now al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿIlāṭ made it out with his wealth, and his wife followed him. And then, obviously, the news reached Makkah after that with the details of what had happened, and they realised that it had been a devastating defeat for the Yahūd: the stronghold — the only remaining stronghold of the Yahūd in al-Ḥijāz. There were a few other small pockets of the Yahūd, but they posed no threat to the Muslims: for example, there were Yahūd in Taymāʾ and Yahūd in Fadak, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) signed some treaties with them after that. But the strongest stronghold was Khaybar, and now it was over. The story of al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿIlāṭ is authentic: it has been narrated by Imām Aḥmad, and it fulfils the requirements of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.