Ten Days to Leave

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) received revelation from Allah (swt): Jibrīl came to him and warned him that the Jews were planning to assassinate him. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stood up and left without telling the Companions anything — he simply walked away. The Companions waited, and waited, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not show up. They went and inquired, went back to Madīnah and asked where the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was, and he told them what had happened — that Jibrīl had come and told him that the Jews were planning to assassinate him.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent them a letter. He told Muḥammad ibn Maslamah to go to them and tell them — this is related in Ibn Isḥāq's account of the sīrah — "The Messenger of Allah has sent me to you, to tell you: leave my land. You have broken the covenant I made with you by what you intended of treachery, and I have given you ten days; whoever of you is seen after that, his neck will be struck." Muḥammad ibn Maslamah did not simply go to Banū al-Naḍīr and tell them he was sent by the Messenger of Allah to say that he was telling them to leave his land — he told them that they had betrayed the agreement by conspiring against him, and that they had ten days to leave; anyone seen after that would be killed. So they had ten days to pack up and leave; otherwise, anyone who was seen would be killed. Now, Muḥammad ibn Maslamah had been their ally in the time of Jāhiliyyah. They said, "We would not have expected the last person we would have expected to come and deliver this message to us to be you, Muḥammad ibn Maslamah." Muḥammad ibn Maslamah answered them: Islam has changed us, and our hearts are different; things are different now, and now we are Muslims. Now our loyalty goes to Allah (swt), and our covenant with Allah (swt) is more important than our former covenants with you, and our agreement with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — to support him, help him, and obey him — is more important than our former agreements with you: taghayyarat al-qulūb wa maḥat al-Islāmu al-ʿuhūd — "our hearts are different, and Islam has abrogated the covenants."

Their initial reaction was to accept and leave peacefully. But ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy, the head of the hypocrisy, of the hypocrites, told them: if they stayed firm and resisted, he would not give up on them; if they fought, he would fight along with them, and if they were expelled, he would leave with them. He told them plainly: he had two thousand men, from his own people and from other Arabs sympathetic to their cause — do not leave. So this strengthened Banū al-Naḍīr, and they changed their mind and decided to stay and fight. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), when he heard the news, said, ḥārabat Yahūd — the Jews want to fight.