The Duʿāʾ of Saʿd, and Why This Ghazwah Was Special

There are some lessons in the statement of Saʿd, the statement quoted above. He said, "My Lord, if we are to fight Quraysh again, spare me now for that fight. There are no people I like to fight for Your cause more than those who have opposed Your Messenger, rejected him, and forced him out of his hometown." Saʿd, being the head of one of the tribes of al-Anṣār, wanted to carry on fighting Quraysh if there was any fighting left: we have given the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) a pledge that we will defend him, and since it was the people of Quraysh who drove him out of his home and brought him to Madīnah, we're going to fight for the Messenger of Allah until Allah defeats Quraysh. So he said, "If there's any fighting left, I want to live and be there." But then he said, "If You have willed that this encounter between us would be the last, I pray to You, my Lord, to make this wound of mine my way to martyrdom." So here he's asking Allah to make him die if there's no fighting left with Quraysh.

This shows that Saʿd ibn Muʿādh had no objective in living except to fight the people of Quraysh, to fight jihād fī sabīlillāh. He doesn't want to live to cultivate his land; he doesn't want to live to marry some beautiful women; he doesn't want to live just for the sake of loving life, as is the case with most of mankind, whose only attachment to the dunyā is their attachment to life: they might have a miserable life, but they still want to live it. Saʿd wants to live for a noble purpose, to fight Quraysh. If there's no fighting left, then, O Allah, make me die as a shahīd.

And then he said, "And don't let me die until I see our affair with Qurayẓah have a happy ending for Islam." These were his allies, but now, because his alliance is to the Messenger of Allah, he was asking Allah not to make him die until he sees a happy ending to the affair of the Muslims and Banū Qurayẓah. And, subḥān Allāh, Allah made him be the person to rule among Banū Qurayẓah. If you want to see a happy ending, then you be the one to choose it.

Next lesson: the Battle of Qurayẓah is a special ghazwah, for the following reasons. Number one, it was commanded by Jibrīl, when Jibrīl came to Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and said: go and fight; fight Banū Qurayẓah. Number two, Jibrīl accompanied the Muslims. Anas ibn Mālik says in al-Bukhārī, "It was as though I could see the dust rising in the street of Banū Ghanm, due to the marching of Jibrīl's troops, when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) set out against Banū Qurayẓah" (al-Bukhārī 4118). So Jibrīl (peace be upon him) went to fight against these Yahūd.

The next reason why it's special: the execution of Banū Qurayẓah was a command from Allah, delivered on the tongue of Saʿd. So this was what Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, wanted. This was the ruling that pleased Allah, the Mighty and Majestic; even though it was very strict, it was harsh, this is what Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, wanted. And this shows that this ghazwah was a special ghazwah, and this ghazwah was the ghazwah that drove out the last tribe of the Yahūd in Madīnah.