The Battle of Banu al-Mustaliq and the Fitnah – Part Two (Continued from Part One) The Prophet ﷺ remained for several days in the territory of {{Banu al-Mustaliq}}. Although peace had been established after the tribe embraced Islam, the hypocrites—especially their leader {{Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul}}—were filled with resentment. The Muslims had returned the captives and spoils to Banu al-Mustaliq after their conversion, and this deeply angered Ibn Ubayy. He and the hypocrites had joined the campaign hoping to gain war booty, not out of faith. He therefore began looking for an opportunity to sow division among the Muslims. The Prophet ﷺ was at ease, as the former enemy had now become both brothers in faith and relatives through marriage. The following day, two Muslim men went to the well of {{al-Muraysi’}} to fill their water skins. As mentioned earlier, the well produced water only slowly, so people often had to wait for it to refill. The two men disputed over whose bucket should be filled first. One was {{Jahjah}}, a Muhajir who worked for {{Umar ibn al-Khattab}}, and the other was an Ansari named {{Sinan}}. The disagreement escalated until Jahjah struck Sinan in the face, causing blood to flow from his ear. Seeing the blood, Sinan instinctively cried out with the old tribal slogan of the pre-Islamic era: “O Khazraj!” He called upon his tribe for support, as people had done before Islam whenever they were attacked. Jahjah responded by shouting: “O Quraysh!” People rushed out from their tents, unable to tell what had happened. The Prophet ﷺ also heard the shouting and was the first to reach the scene. When he arrived, he found that it was merely the two young men. Meanwhile, groups of Khazraj men approached from one direction, while men from Quraysh came from another, all with their swords drawn, wanting to know what had happened. The Prophet ﷺ raised both hands in disapproval and said: “Are you calling with the slogans of the Days of Ignorance while I am still among you?” He then asked what had happened, and they explained the dispute. Turning to those gathered, he said: “Support your brother, whether he is the oppressor or the oppressed.” The Companions were surprised. They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, we understand helping him if he is oppressed—but how do we help him if he is the oppressor?” He replied, “By preventing him from committing oppression—that is how you support him.” The Prophet ﷺ spoke with the injured man until he forgave his companion, then admonished the aggressor until he apologized. The matter was resolved within moments. The Muhajirun and the Ansar obeyed the Prophet ﷺ, and the dispute ended immediately. But the hypocrites saw this as the perfect opportunity to create conflict between the Muhajirun and the Ansar. Ibn Ubayy gathered some of the hypocrites in his tent and said with feigned outrage, trying to incite the Ansar against the Muhajirun: “Have they really done this? This is exactly what I feared from the day they entered our land. Yet you brought this upon yourselves. You welcomed them, shared your wealth and homes with them, exposed yourselves to danger while they remained safe. Your men died, your children became orphans, and now they have become so numerous that they compete with you in your own land. By Allah, if you withheld your support from them, they would leave for another place. By Allah, when we return to Madinah, the honorable will surely expel the humiliated.” By this he meant that the Ansar were the “honorable” people of Madinah, while the Muhajirun were refugees whom he described as “the humiliated.” Among those present was a fourteen-year-old boy named {{Zayd ibn Arqam}}, a member of the Khazraj who possessed sincere faith. He immediately went to the Prophet ﷺ, who was surrounded by both the Muhajirun and the Ansar. The Prophet ﷺ loved and respected Zayd. When he had noticed that the boy memorized the Qur’an well, he once said to him: “O Zayd, I see that you memorize the Qur’an as it is revealed. May Allah bless your memory. Will you learn the language of the Jews so that you can read their letters and write on our behalf?” Zayd agreed and mastered their language while still only fourteen years old. He now approached the Prophet ﷺ and said: “O Messenger of Allah, I was in the tent of Ibn Ubayy, and he said such-and-such…” He repeated everything he had heard. The faces of both the Muhajirun and the Ansar changed. The Ansar were ashamed that such words had come from one of their leaders, while the Muhajirun were angered at being described as humiliated. The Prophet ﷺ became deeply upset, but wishing to calm the situation, he asked gently: “Young man, perhaps you harbor some resentment toward your companion and therefore said what you said?” Zayd replied: “No, by the One who sent you with the truth. Nothing exists between us except the brotherhood of Islam.” The Prophet ﷺ said: “Perhaps you misunderstood what you heard.” Zayd answered: “No, by Allah. I neither misunderstood nor added a single word. He said exactly what I have told you.” At that point Umar ibn al-Khattab said: “O Messenger of Allah, let me strike off the head of this hypocrite.” But the Prophet ﷺ replied: “No, Umar. What would people say? They would say that Muhammad kills his own companions.” Although executing the chief hypocrite would have brought political stability to Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ refused because it would have driven new Muslims away from Islam and given its enemies an excuse to spread false accusations against it. The Prophet ﷺ therefore ordered the army to depart immediately, even though it was not the usual time to travel. The weather was extremely hot, and he never normally traveled at such an hour. He did so to occupy the people and prevent the matter from spreading further. Soon {{Usayd ibn Hudayr}}, one of the leaders of the Aws, came to him and asked: “O Messenger of Allah, are we departing at this hour?” The Prophet ﷺ replied: “Have you not heard what your companion Ibn Ubayy has said? He claims that when we return to Madinah, the honorable will expel the humiliated.” Usayd answered: “No, by the One who sent you with the truth. If anyone is to be expelled, you have every right to expel him. By Allah, he is the humiliated one, and you are the honorable one.” When Ibn Ubayy learned that his words had reached the Prophet ﷺ, he came with several hypocrites and repeatedly swore that he had never uttered those words. His companions also swore that he was innocent. Some members of the Ansar, trusting his reputation among his people, suggested that perhaps the young boy had misunderstood. As a result, the blame fell upon Zayd ibn Arqam. Even his stepfather {{Abdullah ibn Rawahah}} reproached him, and Zayd, who was an orphan, withdrew from the people in sadness. The Prophet ﷺ continued traveling, marching through the night and into the following day without stopping. Then, when the sun had risen high and the heat became intense, he finally halted. Everyone immediately fell asleep from exhaustion, and thus the people became occupied and the potential fitnah subsided. The journey resumed again through the night. Meanwhile, Zayd remained deeply distressed. In his heart he prayed: “O Allah, I am too insignificant for Qur’an to be revealed concerning me. But I ask You to place certainty in Your Prophet’s heart so that he will know I spoke the truth. I do not want the people to think I am a liar or a troublemaker.” He kept riding close beside the Prophet ﷺ. Then, shortly after dawn and before sunrise, the Prophet’s camel suddenly became extremely heavy in its movement. Zayd recognized the signs of revelation, for whenever revelation descended while the Prophet ﷺ was mounted, the camel could scarcely move. Zayd later said: “Revelation came upon him. Sweat poured from his forehead, and the camel planted its feet firmly on the ground while I remained beside him.” When the revelation ended, the Prophet ﷺ looked to his right, saw Zayd, smiled warmly, and called aloud: “O Zayd!” He answered, “Yes, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet ﷺ drew close and said: “Allah has confirmed what your ears heard, young man.” He then pointed to Zayd before the Companions and declared: “This is the one whose hearing the Qur’an has confirmed.” He then recited verses from Surat al-Munafiqun: “They are the ones who say, ‘Do not spend on those who are with the Messenger of Allah until they disperse.’ Yet to Allah belong the treasures of the heavens and the earth, but the hypocrites do not understand. They say, ‘If we return to Madinah, surely the honorable will expel the humiliated.’ But honor belongs to Allah, His Messenger, and the believers, though the hypocrites do not know.” The Prophet ﷺ also recited Surat al-Munafiqun during the Fajr prayer that morning. When {{Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubayy}}, the righteous son of Ibn Ubayy, heard that verses had been revealed exposing his father’s hypocrisy, he feared the Prophet ﷺ might order his execution. He came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: “O Messenger of Allah, I have heard that you may wish to execute my father because of what has reached you. If that is your decision, then allow me to bring you his head. By the One who sent you with the truth, the Khazraj know that no one has ever been more dutiful to his father than I have been. But I fear that if someone else kills him, I may not be able to bear seeing my father’s killer walking among the people, and I might kill a believer in retaliation for a disbeliever, thereby bringing destruction upon myself.” The Prophet ﷺ was deeply moved and wept until his beard became wet with tears. He replied: “O Abdullah, I have no intention of killing him. We will continue to treat him kindly as long as he remains among us.” Relieved, Abdullah departed. However, he still wished to discipline his father. As the army approached Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ, as was his custom, remained at the rear of the caravan, saying: “Leave the rear for the angels, for they walk behind me.” Abdullah rode ahead of everyone and stood at the entrance to Madinah with his sword drawn. He allowed every Muslim to pass. But when his father arrived, Abdullah seized the reins of his camel, forced it to kneel, placed his foot on its foreleg so it could not rise, and held his sword before him. He declared: “You claim that you are the honorable one and that the Messenger of Allah is the humiliated? By the One who sent him with the truth, he is the honorable one among us, while you are the humiliated son of a humiliated man. By Allah, you will not enter Madinah until the Messenger of Allah gives you permission.” People who passed by asked, “What are you doing, Abdullah?” He replied, “Go on. This is none of your concern.” Finally, the Prophet ﷺ arrived. Seeing Abdullah restraining his father, he asked: “What is the matter, Abdullah?” He replied: “By the One besides whom there is no god, he will not enter your city or remain beside you until you give him explicit permission.” The Prophet ﷺ wept again and said: “Sheathe your sword, Abdullah. Let your father go. I told you that we would continue to treat him well as long as he remains among us.” Abdullah obeyed, and his father entered the city humiliated. Thus, the hypocrites entered Madinah after their true nature had been exposed. Their hearts became even more filled with hatred toward the Muslims. Soon after returning to the city, they would launch an even greater slander—falsely accusing Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bakr and the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, of adultery.