15- Banu Nadir
Shortly after this the Jews of the Banu
al‑Nadir plotted to murder the apostle of Allah himself, but Allah
sent down a warning to the apostle. He issued orders to prepare an
expedition against the Jews, and marched out and besieged them for six
nights, during which time Allah sent down the prohibition against the
drinking of wine.
Meanwhile, certain persons of
Medina
who were not Believers sent a message to the Banu al‑Nadir, saying,
‘Hold out, and defend yourselves; we shall not surrender you to
Muhammad. If you are attacked we shall fight with you and if you are sent
away we shall go with you.’ But they were in truth unwilling to fight on
behalf of the al‑Nadir, for Allah had filled their hearts with
terror. Then the Jewish tribe asked that the apostle of Allah should not
shed their blood, but permit them to carry away as much of their property
as their camels could bear. He consented and they loaded as many of their
possessions as they could on their camels, even demolishing their houses
that they might take away the thresholds. Then they left, with their
wives, children, and household goods, and accompanied by their drums,
flutes and singers. The rest they left to the apostle of Allah.
When the Jews had departed Muhammad went on an expedition
to punish the people of
Najd
, who had slain all but two of the forty men he had sent to instruct the
people in Islam. The parties approached each other, but no battle took
place, for they were afraid of each other, and the apostle marched his men
away again.
In the fourth year of the Hijra the apostle marched
to Badr as he had agreed with Abu Sufyan after the battle of Uhud, and
waited there eight days. Abu Sufyan marched out from
Mecca
with his army as far as Majanna; then he said to his people, ‘This is
not meet for you, save in a year of plenty when there are shrubs where the
cattle may browse and milk for the men to drink. This year is one of
scarcity and I shall return home. Do you likewise.’ So the Quraysh army
returned to
Mecca
and were nicknamed by the people who had stayed at home ‘the Sawiq
army’ ‑ the army that went out only to drink porridge. So Muhammad
waited in vain at Badr and then returned to
Medina
.
For some months after’the Second Badr’,
Muhammad was occupied in small punitive and foraging expeditions, during
one of which he ventured as far as the borders of
Syria
.
His personal life at this time was not without
incident. Since the death of Khadija, he had acquired seven wives,
foremost among whom was the daughter of Abu Bakr, Aisha. She had been
married to the apostle at the age of ten, and was still only sixteen years
old when, quite innocently, she provoked a scandal at
Medina
.
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