The fourth year of the Hijrah (A.D. 625) opened with the despatch of 500 Muslims against the tribe of Asd, who were making preparations to invade al-Madīnah. The enemy fled at the appearance of the Muslim troops, and the place was sacked.
During this year there were several expeditions. Amongst others, one against the Jewish tribe Banū Naẓīr, whose homes were spoiled, and the people banished, because they would not accept the mission of the “Apostle of God.” There is an allusion to this event in the second Sūrah of the Qurʾān. A second expedition was also made to Badr, but there was no fighting, although the event is known as the second battle of Badr; for after waiting eight days for an engagement with the Quraish, the Muslims returned in triumph to al-Madīnah.
It was about this time that Muḥammad made two additions to his ḥaram, by marrying Zainab, the widow of ʿUbaidah, who fell at Badr, as his fifth wife, and Ummu Salimah, the widow of Abū Salimah, who fell at the battle of Uḥud, for his sixth; thus exceeding the legal number of four wives, to which he restricted his followers.
Muḥammad being threatened by combined contingents of the Quraish, the Banū G͟hat̤fān and the Jewish tribes of Naẓīr and Quraiz̤ah, who advanced upon al-Madīnah with an army of 12,000 men, he, at the advice of a Persian named Salmān, caused a trench to be dug round the city, and then issued forth to defend it at the head of 3,000 Muslims. Both sides remained inactive for nearly a month, when, at last, the Quraish and their allies broke up the siege. This engagement is known in Muslim history as G͟hazwatu ʾl-K͟handaq, or the “Battle of the Ditch.” Special reference is made to this event in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxiii. 9], where the success of the Muslims is attributed to the intervention of God, “who sent a blast and a host that were not seen.”
The next expedition was against the Jewish tribe, the Banū Quraiz̤ah, when Muḥammad led an army of three thousand men with thirty-six horse. The Jews sustained a siege of some twenty-five days, but were at last compelled to capitulate. Their fate was left to the decision of the Prophet’s companion, Saʿd, whose sentence was that the male captives should be slain, the female captives and children sold into slavery, and the spoils divided amongst the army. The Prophet commended the cruel judgment of Saʿd, as a decision according to the judgment of God, given on high from the seven heavens; and about 700 captives were deliberately beheaded, in parties in the presence of Muḥammad. One of the female captives, Rīḥānah, whose husband and male relatives had perished in the massacre, the Prophet reserved for himself. This cruel massacre of the Banū Quraiz̤ah is commended in the XXXIIIrd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, verse 25.
Before the close of this year, Muḥammad married his cousin Zainab. The Prophet had previously given her in marriage to Zaid ibn Ḥāris̤ah, his freed man and adopted son. But upon visiting the house of Zaid, and not finding him at home, the Prophet accidentally cast his eyes on Zainab, and was so smitten with her beauty, that he exclaimed, “Praise belongeth unto God, who turneth the hearts of men even as He will.” Zainab saw that she had made an impression on the Prophet’s heart, and when her husband returned, recounted the circumstances to him. Zaid determined to part with her in favour of his friend and benefactor, and offered to divorce her. But the relations of the Arabs to their adopted children were so strict, that nothing but a revelation from heaven could settle the difficulty. It was to meet this domestic emergency that the Prophet produced the following verses of the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxiii. 36–38], to sanction his own heart’s desire:—
“And it is not for a believer, man or woman, to have any choice in their affairs, when God and His Apostle have decreed a matter: and whoever disobeyeth God and His Apostle, erreth with palpable error. And, remember, when thou saidst to him unto whom God had shown favour, and to whom thou also hadst shown favour, ‘Keep thy wife to thyself, and fear God;’ and thou didst hide in thy mind what God would bring to light, and thou didst fear man; but more right had it been to fear God. And when Zaid had settled concerning her to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it might not be a crime in the faithful to marry the wives of their adopted sons, when they have settled the affair concerning them. And the behest of God is to be performed. No blame attacheth to the Prophet where God hath given him a permission. Such was the way of God with those prophets who flourished before thee.”
The scandal of the marriage was removed by the pretended revelation, and according to the Traditions, Zainab used to vaunt herself as the one wife of the Prophet’s ḥarīm who had been given in marriage by God Himself. At all events, she exchanged a husband who had a pug nose and was short and ill-favoured for one who was the leading chief of Arabia!
Muḥammad’s numerous marriages (four being the legal number—[Sūrah iv. 3]) were likely to excite the jealousy and opposition of less favoured Muslims, but an additional chapter of the Qurʾān avoided complications, and allowed the “Prophet of God” greater liberty in this respect! See [Sūrah xxxiii. 49]: “O Prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and the slaves whom thy right hand possesseth … and any believing woman who has given herself up to the Prophet, if the Prophet desireth to wed her; a privilege for thee above the rest of the Faithful.”
About this time certain injunctions were issued for the seclusion of women, and for the regulation of social and domestic intercourse ([Sūrah xxv].). These rules were made more stringent in the case of the Prophet’s own wives, who, in the case of incontinence, are threatened with double punishment ([Sūrah xxxiii].). The jealousy of the Prophet, who was now getting old, was allayed by the Divine command, that his wives should, in the event of his death, never marry again. The obligation devolving on believers, to consort equally with their several wives, was also relaxed specially in the Prophet’s favour ([Sūrah xlviii].).