Muhammad and The Jews — Page 44
Apostle did not take hasty decisions, specially those which he could not execute. It would be wiser to wait till the situation was stabilized. Though the battle of the Abziib was a defensive war and the Muslims had gained a victory on the home ground, yet they were not secure enough to declare Yathrib a baram. It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that Yathrib was declared a baram after the affair of the B. Quray:?ah, which in fact was a continuation of the battle of the A/. zziib. It was at about the same time that the muniifiqiln had been brought under control. The Apostle was strong enough to administer a public reprimand to them after the affair of the B. al-Mu~taliq. The Surat al-Muniifiqiln was revealed in 6/627. 1 Al-Samhiidi, who has dealt with the date, the boundary and the prohibitions within the baram territory in detail, placed the creation of this baram according to If adith after the Apostle's return from Khay bar in 7/628. 2 Serjeant refers to al-Samhiidi and admits that he should have been "inclined to suggest that the declaration of the baram could have taken place some time after the failure of the Prophet's enemies to take Medina at the battle of al-Khandaq at the earliest, and what more suitable occasion could there be for declaring Medina a sacred enclave than when it had just manifested its holiness by repelling the invader?" 3 However, for "many strong reasons, into which I cannot enter here"4 Serjeant falls in line with other historians. One can detect Serjeant's reasons and one of them seems to be the same difficulty which Montgomery Watt faces. He goes on to say that "surprisingly enough, this document opens with clauses in which the Jews are spoken of as paying nafaqah along with the Muslims". 5 Historians, both Muslims and non-Muslims, seem to have assumed without any critical examination that after the departure of the B. al-Nac;lir and probably the B. Quranah Medina was bereft of its Jewish population. In fact, a closer examination of the Sabifah indicates that the clauses pertaining to the Jews were incorporated after the B. al-Nac;lir and some of the B. Quray?:ah had been expelled from Medina for their 'treachery'. On his arrival in Yathrib the Apostle had not expected treachery from the Jews, though he did not expect whole-hearted 1 Rev. E. M. Wherry, A Comprehensive Comm en tary on the Quran, Vol. IV, p. 147. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, Vol. IV, p. 369-70. 2 Serjeant, "The Constitution of Medina", p. 9. 3 Ibid. , p. 10. 4 Ibid. s Ibid.