Ibn Hishām relates: While besieging them, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed Abū Lubābah Bashīr ibn ʿAbd al-Munḏir to administer Madinah, and the siege lasted fifteen nights.

Ibn Isḥāq reports: My father told me, from ʿUbādah ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, who said: When Banū Qaynuqāʿ took up arms against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy clung to their cause and stood up on their behalf. ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit—who belonged to Banū ʿAwf and enjoyed with them a pact like that of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy—went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, renounced them before Allah and His Messenger, and declared, “O Messenger of Allah, I ally myself with Allah, His Messenger, and the believers, and I disown the pact and allegiance of these unbelievers.”

It was concerning him and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy that the passage in Sūrat al-Māʾidah was revealed: “O you who believe, do not take the Jews and Christians as allies; they are allies only of one another …” until His words, “You see those in whose hearts is sickness hastening toward them, saying, ‘We fear that a calamity may befall us’” —meaning ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy— and up to His words, “But whoever allies himself with Allah, His Messenger, and the believers—the party of Allah, it is they who will triumph” (5:51–56), referring to ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit. We have discussed this in detail in our Tafsīr.

The Expedition of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (may Allah be pleased with him)

Yūnus ibn Bukayr, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, states that it took place six months after the Battle of Badr.

Ibn Isḥāq continues: After the events of Badr, Quraysh feared to use their usual route to Syria, so they took the Iraqi road instead. A caravan of their merchants set out—among them Abū Sufyān—carrying a great quantity of silver, the bulk of their trade goods. They hired a man from Bakr ibn Wāʾil named Furāt ibn Ḥayyān—the ʿAjlī, an ally of Banū Sahm—to guide them along that route.

Ibn Isḥāq says: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, who intercepted them at a watering place called al-Qaradah in the Najd region. He captured the caravan and all it contained, though the men escaped, and he brought the booty to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. On this occasion Ḥassān ibn Thābit composed the following lines (Ṭawīl metre):

“Turn back from Syria’s passes, for between you and them now lies
A clash whose blows gape like the mouths of bellowing camels.”