In the same year, the expedition against Banū Qurayzah took place. Its account is as follows: “When morning came and the Confederates had departed, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, returned to Medina. The people laid down their arms at the time of the noon prayer. Gabriel came to him in the likeness of Dihyah al-Kalbī, riding a mule draped with a blanket, and said, ‘Though you have laid down your arms, the angels have not laid down theirs. Allah commands you to march against Banū Qurayzah. I am going ahead to strike terror into them.’ The herald of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then proclaimed, ‘Whoever hears and obeys must not perform the afternoon prayer anywhere but among Banū Qurayzah.’ The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, besieged them for twenty-five nights until they submitted to the judgment of Sa‘d ibn Mu‘ādh. He ruled that the men should be killed, the property divided, and the women and children taken captive. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had their men executed, including Huyayy ibn Akhtab and Ka‘b ibn Sa‘d, among six or seven hundred men. He brought them out and then had them executed in Medina. From among their women, he selected Rayhānah bint ‘Amr ibn Khunāfah for himself. He had only one of their women killed: Bunānah, the wife of al-Hakam al-Qurazī, who had thrown a millstone down upon Khallād ibn Suwayd and killed him.”

It is reported that ‘Ā’ishah said, “She was with me, laughing and talking, while the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was having their men executed. Then someone called out, ‘Where is so-and-so?’ She said, ‘Here I am, by Allah, and I am certainly going to be killed.’ I said, ‘Woe to you! Why?’ She replied, ‘For something I did.’ She was then taken away and beheaded.”

In the same year, the mission against Ibn Abī al-Huqayq took place. After the affair of the Trench and Qurayzah had ended, the Khazraj discussed who among the enemies of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was comparable to Ibn al-Ashraf, whom Muhammad ibn Maslamah had killed. They did not want the Aws alone, to their exclusion, to have such a distinction. They mentioned Ibn Abī al-Huqayq and asked the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, for permission to kill him. He granted it, and five men of the Khazraj, all from Banū Salimah, set out against him. They came to his house in Khaybar by night and killed him. We have given their names and the remainder of the account of how they killed him in the fourth volume of our commentary on the Jāmi‘ of al-‘Utbiyyah.

[The Sixth Year]

Then came the sixth year. In Jumādā al-Ūlā of this year came the expedition against Banū