The Two Tribes Nearly Come to Blows

"The greatest blame for this lay with ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl, some of the Khazraj, and Misṭaḥ and Ḥamnah, daughter of Jaḥsh. Ḥamnah spoke thus because she was the sister of Zaynab, daughter of Jaḥsh, who also lived with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and Zaynab was the only one of his wives who would rival my status with him. Zaynab herself was given Allah's protection through her religion, for she spoke only good of me. Ḥamnah spread her rumours about me to do harm for her sister's sake, and I suffered for that." So ʿĀ'ishah is saying that Zaynab wasn't involved in this; it was her sister doing it, and she was doing it for her sister's sake without Zaynab asking for that.

ʿĀ'ishah continues: "When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) made this address, Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr stated, 'Messenger of Allah, if they were from al-Aws, we would deal with them for you. If from our Khazraj brethren, then give us your order, and I swear by Allah, they deserve to have their heads cut off.'" Now, Usayd is from al-Aws. He is saying: if it is from al-Aws, we'll deal with them; if it's from al-Khazraj, tell us what to do and we'll do it.

ʿĀ'ishah said: "Then Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah arose. He had previously been considered a fine man. He said, 'You lie, I swear by Allah. You'd certainly not cut off their heads, and you only made that statement because you knew that they were of Khazraj. If they had been from your own tribe, you'd never say that.' Usayd said, 'It's you who lie. I swear by Allah's life, you're a hypocrite arguing on behalf of the hypocrites.' People became so angry that there was almost fighting between these two tribes of Aws and Khazraj."

Subḥān Allāh, this is four or five years after them becoming Muslim, and still the problem of nationalism is so divisive that it could cause them to fight inside a masjid. And this shows how dangerous nationalism is — tribalism, a jealousy for one's tribe. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that this is one of the things of jāhiliyyah that will remain in this Ummah: "Among my people there are four characteristics belonging to the pre-Islamic period which they do not abandon: boasting of high rank, reviling other peoples' genealogies, seeking rain by the stars, and wailing" (Muslim 934). So one needs to be very careful of this problem. And these are great Ṣaḥābah. These are great Ṣaḥābah; this is not about munāfiqīn here. Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah is a great Ṣaḥābī. Usayd is a great Ṣaḥābī. The Aws and the Khazraj are the Anṣār. Nevertheless, they were going to fight.

So now the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) has his own problem, the problem of this slander of his family. ʿĀ'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "People became so angry that there was almost fighting between these two tribes of Aws and Khazraj. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stood down and came in to see me." After the Messenger of Allah had settled the problem, he walked out and came to see ʿĀ'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her). "And he called for ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Usāmah ibn Zayd and consulted with them.