Muhammad and The Jews — Page 79
THE FAILURE OF THE CONFEDERAC Y said to Sa"-d, "You have given the judgment of Allah above the seven heavens". 1 (xi) The Apostle went out to the market and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches. There were 600 to 900. 2 The inner contradictions in the above account cannot be reconciled. To sum up Ibn IsJ:iaq's account, the fate of the B. Quray+ah was already decided by the Apostle: Abu Luba bah already knew it and having revealed it inflicted upon himself a self-imposed punish- ment. Sa"-d b. Mu"-adh wished to live till he had avenged the B. Qurayz;ah's treachery and when approached by the Aws he made it clear that in the cause of Allah he did not care for any man's censure. Furthermore he is the same Sa"-d who had gone to the B. Qurayzah before the Battle of the A/:lziib and when the Jews told him they had no agreement or understanding with the Apostle he "reviled them and they reviled him. He was a man of hasty temper and Sa"-d b. "-Ubadah said to him, 'Stop insulting them, for the dispute between us is too serious for recrimination,". 3 The Tradition reported by Abu Sa"-id al-Khudri and given by Al-Bukhari and Muslim is very difficult to accept; it means that the B. Qurayz;ah surrendered on the condition that the man who so recently reviled them and was praying for vengeance should be appointed their judge. They were inviting a death sentence. It may be noted that the first two reporters Abu Sa"'id al-Khudri and Abu Umamah were An~ari and were more interested in reporting the status of Sa"-d. This lf adith is shadhdh. and ijmiill. lbn l:lajar has unsuccessfully tried to reconcile its apparent contradiction with c A "'ishah's report by quoting lbn IsJ:iaq's account. 4 By the time Sa"-d arrived to judge, the news of his intention to sentence them to death had reached the quarter of e. Abd al-Ashhal and yet he goes through the formalities of asking the A ws if they would accept his judgment and these very people who had asked for kind treatment for the B. Qurayz;ah, instead of denouncing him as prejudiced and as having disqualified himself as an impartial judge, say "Yes". Afterwards he asks the Apostle the same question and the Apostle, whose intention& were known to Abu Lubabh, who in turn had disclosed them to the B. Qurayzah, says, "Yes. " Iflbn IsJ:iaq's account is correct, one is obliged 1 Ibn Hisham, p. 689. 2 Ibid. , pp. 689-90. 3 Ibn Hishlim, p. 675. 4 Supra, pp. 77-78, sub para. (vi). 79