Scarcely had Bishr uttered these words than his face, overspread by a blackish hue, became distorted, and he writhed on the ground, a prey to unbearable suffering.
The Prophet sent at once for the Jewess and said to her: 'Thou hast poisoned this lamb?'—'Who told thee so?'—'This!' and he showed her the fragment of shoulder he held.—'It is true,' she confessed.—'Why didst thou do this thing?'—'My father, my uncle, my husband and many of my people have suffered the sad fate thou knowest of, by thy fault. And I did think: if Mohammad is naught but a mighty monarch, I end his days and glut their vengeance and mine. If, on the contrary, he is truly a Prophet, he is in no danger, because his Allah will warn him of my purpose.'
This clever answer calmed the Prophet and he was perchance on the point of pardoning the guilty woman for her abominable crime, when Bishr expired at that moment. Mohammad delivered the Jewess into the hands of the dead man's relatives who came clamouring to be avenged. Zainab was crucified and the remains of the fatal lamb were burnt.
Although the Prophet spat out the perfidious piece of meat almost as soon as it passed his lips, the poison filtered through his body as far as his entrails, and he never fully recovered from its pernicious effects. Three years later, when fatally ill, Bishr's sister coming into his house to ask after his health, he told her: 'The vein of my heart was torn by the food I ate with thy brother, at Khaibar.'
AMRATU'L-QADA OR THE PIOUS VISITATION
(Year VII of the Hegira, A.D. 629)
At the same time as the expeditionary forces, laden with spoils, came back from Khaibar, the last emigrants arrived from Abyssinia. Among them was Jafar, son of Abu Talib and brother to Ali. Their return made Mohammad very joyful. With sincere effusion, he kissed Jafar between the eyes and declared: 'I know not which causeth me the greatest joy: the taking of Khaibar, or the return of Jafar.'
Among those returning was also Umm Habiba, daughter of Abu Sufyan, the Prophet's mortal enemy. She had emigrated with her husband, Ubaydu'llah ibn Jahsh, but he was a convert to Christianity and had died in Abyssinia, while she remained steadfast to Islam. As a reward for such fidelity, as well as hoping to disarm by alliance one of his most fierce adversaries, the Prophet had sent Amr ibn Umayya to the Negus, asking to be married by proxy to Umm Habiba and to have her sent back afterwards with the other emigrants. This being done, Umm Habiba, on arriving at Al-Madinah, was received in the dwelling of her illustrious husband.
As for the emigrants, Mohammad proposed that they should be allowed a share of the Khaibar booty. This arrangement being ratified by unanimous consent, they were thus compensated for having sacrificed their property and left their country in order to remain true to their faith.
The date on which the treaty of Al-Hudaibiyah gave the Prophet the right to come to Makkah with his disciples to visit the Holy Places having arrived, he was now on the point of being able to fulfil one of his most ardent aspirations and also see his native land.
Followed by the same number of pilgrims, and driving before him the same number of camels, destined to be sacrificed, as in the expedition of Al-Hudaibiyah, he made his partisans disarm and left in the valley of Batn Ya'jiju, a great quantity of weapons, brought as a precautionary measure, in the care of a guard, two hundred strong, commanded by Aws ibn Khawli. 'We only penetrate into the Holy Land,' declared the Prophet, 'carrying the arms of the traveller: our swords in their scabbards, according to the terms of our oath, but if we detect in the glances of the idolatrous Quraish the slightest sign of treachery, our other weapons will be found handy.'