The Messenger of Allah ﷺ thereupon handed him over to al-Zubayr, who subjected him to torment-interrogation. Ḥuyayy had previously slipped into a deserted ruin, and someone said, “I have seen Ḥuyayy prowling about a ruin here.” They went, searched, and found the leather bag in that ruin. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then put the two sons of Abū al-Ḥuqayq to death—one of them was the husband of Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥuyayy ibn Akhṭab—took their women and children captive, and distributed their property because of the pledge they had broken. He intended to expel them from the land, but they pleaded, “O Muḥammad, leave us here so that we may cultivate and maintain it.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his Companions had no servants to work the land, nor did they have the time to do so themselves, so he left them Khaybar on the condition that half of every crop, every date-palm and anything else would belong to them, subject to whatever decision the Messenger of Allah ﷺ might later make. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah used to come to them each year, estimate the yield, and then require them to hand over half. They complained to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the strictness of his estimate and tried to bribe him. He said, “Enemies of Allah, would you give me unlawful gain? By Allah, I have just come from the one most beloved to me, yet you are more hateful to me than your multitude of apes and swine. Nevertheless, my hatred for you and my love for him shall not prevent me from being just with you.” They replied, “It is by such justice that the heavens and the earth stand.”
The narrator continued: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ noticed a greenish bruise on Ṣafiyyah’s eye and asked, “O Ṣafiyyah, what is this mark?” She said, “My head was in the lap of Ibn Abī al-Ḥuqayq while I was asleep and I dreamed that a moon fell into my lap. When I told him, he struck me and said, ‘Do you aspire to marry the king of Yathrib?’” She added, “At that time the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the most detested of people to me—for he had killed my husband and my father—but he kept apologising, saying, ‘Your father gathered the Arabs against me,’ and recounting what he had done, until my aversion vanished.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to give each of his wives eighty wāsaqs of dates and twenty wāsaqs of barley every year. During the caliphate of ʿUmar they deceived the Muslims and pushed Ibn ʿUmar from a rooftop, dislocating both his hands (1). ʿUmar therefore proclaimed, “Whoever holds a share in Khaybar, let him come so that we may divide it,” and he divided it among them.
Their leader protested, “Do not expel us; allow us to remain as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and Abū Bakr allowed us.” ʿUmar replied, “Do you think I have forgotten the saying of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: ‘What will happen to you when your mount jolts you toward Syria one day, then the next, and then the next?’” He then distributed Khaybar among those who had been present at Khaybar from the people of al-Ḥudaybiyah.
Abū Dāwūd (2) narrated an abridged version of this report through Ḥammād ibn Salamah.
Al-Bayhaqī (3) said: al-Bukhārī cited it in his “Book,” remarking, “Ḥammād ibn Salamah also narrated it.” I say: I have not found it in the “Aṭrāf” (4); Allah knows best.
Abū Dāwūd (5) also said: Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Mahrī narrated to us; Ibn Wahb reported to us; Usāmah ibn Zayd al-Laythī informed me