“…they are exhausted, and I have nothing in my hand to give them. So grant us the conquest of the greatest of their fortresses, the one that holds the most food and fat.’

The next morning the Muslims advanced and Allah enabled them to capture the fortress of al-Ṣaʿb ibn Muʿādh. Nowhere in Khaybar was there a fortress richer in provisions and suet than that one.

Ibn Isḥāq (1) said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had already taken a number of their forts and collected whatever booty Allah granted him, he came to their strongholds al-Waṭīḥ and al-Sallām. These were the last forts of Khaybar to fall, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ besieged them for several—ten-odd—nights.

Ibn Hishām adds: Their battle-cry on the day of Khaybar was, ‘Yā Manṣūr, amīt, amīt!—O Victorious One, strike! strike!’

Ibn Isḥāq (2) reported to me from Buraydah ibn Sufyān al-Aslamī, from certain men of Banū Salamah, from Abū al-Yasar Kaʿb ibn ʿAmr, who said:

We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Khaybar one evening when a flock of sheep belonging to a Jew approached, heading for their fortress while we were besieging them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Who will provide us some of these sheep for food?’

Abū al-Yasar replied, ‘I will, O Messenger of Allah.’

He said, ‘Then do so.’

So I dashed off like an ostrich. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw me running, he prayed, ‘O Allah, let us benefit from him!’

I reached the flock just as the first animals were entering the gate; I seized two sheep from the rear, tucked them under my arms and raced back as though carrying nothing at all until I laid them before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He slaughtered them and the people ate.

Abū al-Yasar was among the last of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to die. Whenever he narrated this incident he would weep and say, ‘By my life, they truly did enjoy me, until I was among the last of them to depart.’

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī states in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah (3): Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Iṣbahānī told us, saying: Abū Saʿīd ibn al-Aʿrābī narrated to us; Saʿdān ibn Naṣr narrated to us; Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us from ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī—or from Abū Qilābah—who said:

When the Prophet ﷺ arrived at Khaybar, he came at a time when the fruit was still green. People ate it eagerly and came down with fever. They complained to him, so he ordered them to cool water in water-skins, then pour it over themselves between the two calls to dawn prayer, pronouncing Allah’s Name over it. They did so, and it was as though they had been released from shackles.

Al-Bayhaqī adds: We have transmitted the report with a continuous chain from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rāfiʿ, who placed the pouring of the water between Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ.

Imām Aḥmad (5) said: Yaḥyā and Bahz both narrated to us; they said: Sulaimān ibn al-Mughīrah narrated to us; Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl narrated to us;