Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 320
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 320 person should be executed separately, and not within sight of others. When Huyay bin Akhtab, chief of Banu Nadhir, was being led to execution, observing the Holy Prophet, he said, ‘Muhammad, I do not regret having opposed you, but the truth is that he who abandons God, is abandoned by God. No remedy is available against the decree of God. This is His command and His decree. ’ When Ka’ab bin Asad, chief of Banu Quraidhah, was being conducted to the place of execution, the Holy Prophet urged him impliedly to the acceptance of Islam. He replied, ‘Abu Qasim, I am held back from embracing Islam only by the consideration that if I we re to do so, it might be said that I had been afraid of death. So let me die a Jew. ’ Zubair bin Batia was a leading member of Banu Quraidhah, who had at one time done a favour to a Muslim, Thabet bin Qais, who pleaded with the Holy Prophet that Zubair may be spared, to which he agreed. Thabet carried the good news to Zubair. He said his li fe would be worth little to him while his wife and children were prisoners. Thabet went back to the Holy Prophet and mentioned to him what Zubair had said, whereupon he directed that Zubair’s wife and children may be freed. When Thabet told Zubair of this further favour, he said, what would he and his wife and children subsist upon? Thabet again approached the Holy Prophet, who directed the restoration of his property to Zubair. When Thabet went to him with the news of this final concession, he inquired, ‘H ow have our chief, Ka’ab bin Asad, and the chief of the Jews of Arabia, Huyay bin Akhtab fared?’ Thabet told him that they had been executed, on which Zubair