Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 190
190 Then, the third most critical time of the Holy Prophet ’s sa life was when all the Arab tribes united and sent a large army to invade M edina. At that time, some Jewish tribes who were apparently Muslim allies, had also [secretly] joined the enemy. At that time too, it was a woman who acted with courage and defeated the enemy’s attack. As I have just told you, on this occasion, the Jewish tribes [within M edina ] had also joined the non - believers of M ecca , and an enemy force of twenty to twenty - four thousand men from outside was marching to attack M edina. T he Muslims numbered only twelve hundred against them. In t rusting the Jews, the women had been placed in an area facing the Jewish forts. When the Holy Prophet sa came to know of the Jewish tribe ’ s treachery , realizing that the y now sat unprotected, he considered it necessary to safeguard them and appointed nearly five hundred troops from a total of twelve hundred for the protection of the women. But prior to that, all the women remained unprotected. One da y the enemy attacked the Muslims so fiercely that the Holy Prophet sa and his c ompanions ra could not even offer their [obligatory] prayers in peace. The enemy was attacking from the front [of the city] and the Jews were waiting for any opportunity to enter M edina [from the back] without raising the Muslim’s suspicion s to attack and kill the Muslim women and children. One day, the Jews sent a spy to find out whether the women and children were alone or w h e ther there was a certain number of male guards protecting them. The spy began to hover around the specific compound wher e particular families who were at a greater risk from the enemy were gathered. He began looking around to see if any Muslim guards were hidden there. While he was poking around, the Holy Prophet ’s sa paternal aunt, Ha z rat Safiyah ra saw him. By chance, only one Muslim man was present at t he time, [and he] happened to be sick and weak. Ha z rat Safiyah ra said to him, ‘This man has been moving about in the wom en’s area for a long time and is looking everywhere. He must be a spy. Go and fight him. ’ But th is weak hearted and ill c ompanion ra refused to fight and said he was afraid. Ha z rat Safiyah ra grabbed a wooden pole and quietly sneaked up behind the sp y and hit him so hard that he fainted and fell down. As he