and, after giving their greetings, said, “It is ʿAdal and al-Qārah all over again”—that is, a betrayal like that which befell the men of al-Rajīʿ, Khubayb and his companions.

At this the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared, “Allah is greatest! Rejoice, O community of Muslims.”

Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah relates: When the news concerning Banū Qurayẓah reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he drew his cloak over himself, lay down, and remained thus for a long while. The trial and fear weighed heavily on the people when they saw him lying there, for they realized that nothing good had come regarding Banū Qurayẓah. Then he raised his head and said, “Rejoice in Allah’s victory and His aid.”

When morning broke, the two forces closed in on each other, exchanging volleys of arrows and stones.

Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ supplicated, saying, “O Allah, I ask You for Your covenant and Your promise. O Allah, if You will, You will no longer be worshipped.”

Ibn Isḥāq writes: The ordeal intensified, fear became severe, and the enemy came at them from above and from below until the believers thought every thought—and hypocrisy surfaced—so that Muʿtib ibn Qushayr, a brother of the Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf, said, “Muhammad used to promise us that we would consume the treasures of Chosroes and Caesar, yet today not one of us feels safe enough even to go to relieve himself.” And Aws ibn Qayẓī said, “O Messenger of Allah, our houses are exposed to the enemy”—he said this in the presence of a number of his clan—“so allow us to return home, for they lie outside Madinah.”

I say: Such men and others like them are the ones meant in Allah’s words: “And when the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is disease said, ‘Allah and His Messenger promised us nothing but delusion,’ and when a faction of them said, ‘People of Yathrib, there is no place for you here, so turn back.’ A party of them even asked the Prophet for permission, saying, ‘Our houses are exposed,’ though they were not exposed; they only wished to flee” (al-Aḥzāb 33:12–13).

Ibn Isḥāq continues: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained at his post while the idolaters kept him under siege for more than twenty nights—nearly a month—with no fighting apart from the exchange of arrows. When the hardship became acute, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—so ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah and another trustworthy source on the authority of al-Zuhrī told me—sent word to ʿUyaynā ibn Ḥiṣn and al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAwf al-Murrī, the two leaders of Ghaṭafān, offering them one-third of the date harvest of Madinah on condition that they withdraw with their forces from him and his companions. A settlement was negotiated and a document drafted, but no witnesses had yet signed and no binding accord had been concluded—it was still in the stage of bargaining.

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was about to proceed with it, he summoned the two Saʿds and informed them, seeking their counsel. They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, is this something you yourself desire so that we should comply, or is it a command from Allah that we must carry out, or is it something you are doing on our behalf?” He replied, “It is something I am doing for your sake. By Allah, I would not do it except that I have seen all the Arabs stringing their bows against you as one man and attacking you from every side, so I wished to blunt some of their onslaught from you—at least for now.”

Saʿd ibn Muʿādh said, “O Messenger of Allah, we and these people were once together in associating others with Allah and in worshiping idols; we did not worship Allah, nor…"