“Why, O Prophet! dost thou hold that to be forbidden which God hath made lawful to thee, from a desire to please thy wives, since God is Lenient, Merciful? God hath allowed you release from your oaths; and God is your master; and He is the Knowing, Wise. When the Prophet told a recent occurrence as a secret to one of his wives (i.e. Ḥafṣah), and when she divulged it and God informed him of this, he acquainted her with part and withheld part. And when he had told her of it, she said, ‘Who told thee this?’ He said, ‘The Knowing, the Sage hath told it me. If ye both be turned to God in penitence, for now have your hearts gone astray … but if ye conspire against the Prophet, then know that God is his Protector, and Gabriel, and every just man among the faithful; and the angels are his helpers besides. Haply if he put you both (i.e. Ḥafṣah and ʿĀyishah) away, his Lord will give him in exchange other wives better than you, Muslims, believers, devout, penitent, obedient, observant of fasting, both known of men and virgins.’ ”
In the Muḥarram of A.H. 7, Muḥammad assembled a force of 1,600 men, and marched against K͟haibar, a fertile district inhabited by the Jews, and situated about six days’ march to the north-east of al-Madīnah. The attack on K͟haibar taxed both the energy and skill of the Warrior Prophet, for it was defended by several fortresses. The fort Qamuṣ was defended by Kinānah, a powerful Jewish chief, who claimed for himself the title of “King of the Jews.” Several assaults were made and vigorously repulsed by the besieged. Both Abū Bakr and ʿUmar were equally unsuccessful in their attempts to take the position, when the Prophet selected ʿAlī to lead a detachment of picked men. A famous Jewish warrior named Marhab, now presented himself, and challenged ʿAlī to single combat. The challenge was accepted, and ʿAlī, armed with his famous sword “Ẕū ʾl-Fiqār,” given to him by the Prophet, cleft the head of his adversary in twain, and secured a victory. In a few days all the fortresses of the district were taken, and K͟haibar was subjugated to Islām.
Amongst the female captives was Ṣafīyah, the widow of the chief Kinānah, who had fallen at Qamuṣ. One of Muḥammad’s followers begged her for himself, but the Prophet, struck with her beauty, threw his mantle over her, and took her to his ḥarīm.
The booty taken at K͟haibar was very considerable, and in order to secure the district to Muslim rule, the Jews of the district were exiled to the banks of the Jordan.
It was during the K͟haibar expedition that Muḥammad instituted Mutʿah, an abominable temporary marriage, to meet the demands of his army. This is an institution still observed by the Shīʿahs, but said by the Sunnīs to have been abolished by Muḥammad. [[MUTʿAH].] It was at K͟haibar that an attempt was made, by a Jewess named Zainab, to poison Muḥammad. She dressed a kid, and having steeped it in deadly poison, placed it before the Prophet, who ate but a mouthful of the poisoned kid when the deed was discovered. Zainab was immediately put to death.
The subjugation of the Jewish districts of Fadak, Wādī ʾl-Qurā and Tannah, on the confines of Syria, followed that of K͟haibar. This year, in the sacred month of Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, Muḥammad decided to perform the ʿUmrah, or religious visitation of Makkah [[ʿUMRAH]], and for this purpose he left al-Madīnah with a following of some 4,400 men. When they were within two days’ march of Makkah, their advance was checked by the hostile Quraish, and Muḥammad, turning to the west from ʿUsfān, encamped at al-Ḥudaibiyah, within seven miles of the sacred city. At this spot a truce was made, which is known as the treaty of al-Ḥudaibiyah, in which it was stipulated that all hostilities should cease for ten years, and that for the future the Muslims should have the privilege, unmolested, of paying a yearly visit of three days to the Kaʿbah.
After sacrificing the victims at al-Ḥudaibiyah, Muḥammad and his followers returned to al-Madīnah.
The advent of the holy month Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, of the next year (A.H. 8), was eagerly expected by Muḥammad and his followers, for then, according to the terms of the truce of al-Ḥudaibiyah, they might, without molestation, visit the holy city, and spend three days in the performance of the accustomed rites. The number of the faithful swelled on the approach to nearly 2,000 men, and the Quraish thought it best to retire with their forces to the heights overlooking the valley. Seated on his camel al-Qaṣwā, which eight years before had borne him in his flight from the cave of S̤aur a hunted fugitive, the Prophet, now surrounded by joyous crowds of disciples, the companions of his exile, approached and saluted the holy shrine. Eagerly did he press forward to the Kaʿbah, touched with his staff the Black Stone, seven times made the circuit of the holy house, seven times journeyed between aṣ-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, sacrificed the victims, and fulfilled all the ceremonies of the lesser pilgrimage.
While at Makkah he negotiated an alliance with Maimūnah, his eleventh and last wife. His marriage gained him two most important converts—K͟hālid, the “Sword of God,” who before this had turned the tide of battle at Uḥud; and ʿAmr, destined afterwards to carry to foreign lands the victorious standards of Islām.
The services of these two important converts were quickly utilised. An envoy from Muḥammad to the Christian Prince of Bostra, in Syria, having been slain by the chief of Mūtah—a village to the south-east of the Dead Sea—a force of 3,000 men, under his adopted son Zaid, was sent to exact retribution, and to call the offending tribe to the faith. On the northward march, though they learnt that an overwhelming force of Arabs and Romans—the latter of whom met the Muslims for the first time—was assembling to oppose them, they resolved resolutely to push forward. The result was their disastrous defeat and repulse. Zaid and Jaʿfar, a brother of ʿAlī, fell defending the white banner of the Prophet. K͟hālid, by a series of manœuvres, succeeded in drawing off the army, and conducting it without further loss to al-Madīnah. A month later, however, ʿAmr marched unopposed through the lands of the hostile tribes, received their submission, and restored the prestige of Islām on the Syrian frontier. Muḥammad deeply felt the loss of Zaid and Jaʿfar, and exhibited the tenderest sympathy for their widows and orphans.