Three Options

So they laid siege to Banū Qurayẓah, and it lasted about twenty-five days. In one narration it's twenty-five; in another it's twenty-seven. And, as mentioned, Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said, wa qadhafa fī qulūbihim al-ruʿb: He cast fear in their hearts; He cast terror in their hearts. And this is a soldier of Allah that we see comes up again and again. It happened with Banū al-Naḍīr (59:2), and it happens with Banū Qurayẓah. So Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will cast fear in the hearts of the enemies of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.

So Kaʿb ibn Asad gathers his people, and he says, "I'll give you three options. I'll give you three options." He said, "You are aware of the difficult position in which we find ourselves. I'm offering you three possibilities to choose from. The first one is to believe in this man, Muḥammad, and to follow him. By Allah, we are now certain that he is a prophet and a messenger sent by Allah. He is indeed the one described in our own book. If you do so, you spare your own lives and protect your children and families." They objected to this, and they said, "We will never abandon the Old Testament^** and substitute anything else for it."

So Kaʿb said, "Since you refuse me this possibility, I suggest to you that we kill our women and children and go out to fight Muḥammad and his followers. If we do so, we can fight much harder, since we have no responsibility behind us. We can fight him until Allah rules between us. If we are exterminated, then we will face death without any worry about our offspring. If, on the other hand, we achieve victory, we will soon find new women and have new children." They said, "What would be the purpose of our lives if we kill these poor women and children? What would we live for then?"

He said, "If you refuse this also, the only thing I can suggest to you is that, since tonight is the Sabbath night, it may well be that Muḥammad and his followers may relax their watch, thinking that we wouldn't do anything serious on the Sabbath night. Let us then take him by surprise and fight them to the bitter end." They said, "Do you want to spoil our Sabbath and violate it in a way that has never been done before, except by those whom you know, and who received the punishment you know?"

Then one of them, his name is Nabbāsh ibn Qays, said, "How do you expect us to take them by surprise, when you can see that they are getting stronger every day? In the early days of the siege, they were in their positions during the day and retreating at night. Now we see them maintaining the siege day and night. The surprise element isn't in our hands." Kaʿb ibn Asad looked at them and said, "None of you has ever made a firm decision since he was born."