Muhammad and The Jews — Page 83
THE FAILURE OF THE CONFEDERACY escape and the Muslims seem to have no difficulty in locking up these tame prisoners. lbn Isl,iii. q reports again without clear isnad, "Then the Apostle went out to the market and dug trenches in it". 1 lbn Isl,iii. q has used the words fakhandaqa biha khanadiqa. 2 It is interesting that al-Wii. qidi has dropped this wording and instead used the words fa amara bikhududin. 3 The word khudud for trench is ofa doubtful nature4, but al-Wii. qidi, obviously, used it because some of the classical commentators of the Qur"'an consider that the a~hab al-ukhdud 5 were the Christians of Najrii. n who were massacred by the Jewish king Dhii Nuwii. s. Most probably al-Wii. qidi was aware of the role of the Jews of Yathrib in inciting Yusuf Dhu Nuwii. s to make war against Najrii. n. 6 e Ali and Zubayr were the executioners, and the prisoners were brought in batches. 7 lbn Isl,iii. q says : As they were taken out in batches to the Apostle they asked Ka"b what he thought would be done with them. He replied, "Will you never understand? Don't you see that the summoner never stops and those who are taken away do not return? By Allah it is death!" 8 These are the people who had surrendered to the judgment of Saed who had condemned all the adult males to be executed. It seemed they knew nothing about this sentence of death. But the woman who was sitting with e. A"ishah as the "Apostle was killing her men", and was laughing a great deal, knew that she was to be killed. When her name was suddenly called c. A"'ishah cried, "What is the matter?" 'I am to be killed', she replied. " "eA"'ishah used to say'', lbn lsl)ii. q continues, 'I shall never forget her cheerfulness and her great laugh, when all the time she knew that she was to be killed'. 9 I;Iuyayy b. Akhtab died bravely and al-Zii. bir b. Bii. tii. al-Qura?i refused to take advantage of the pardon given to him and his family. 1 Ibn Hisham, pp. 689. 2 Ibid. , pp. 689-90. 3 Al-Waqidi, Vol. II, p. 513. 4 R. B. Serjeant, "Ukhdiid", BSOAS, XXII (1959), p. 572. 5 Ibn Kathir, Vol. IV, pp. 494-95. 6 Irfan Shahid, The Martyrs of Najriin: New Docume11ts, p. 268. 7 Al-Waqidi, Vol. II, p. 513. 8 Ibn Hisham, p. 690. 9 Ibn Hisham, pp. 690-91. The story must be rejected; neither al-Bukhari nor Muslim who report from "'A"ishah have accepted it. 83