The Jews of Arabia … The Christians

Generally speaking, the Jews of Arabia took an inimical stand vis-à-vis the Prophet. Of the Jewish tribes which joined the camp of the unbelievers and fought the believers in the Battle of Uhud were Banu-Nadhir who tried, even after Uhud, to assassinate the Prophet in Yathrib by dropping a huge rock on him from a high wall near which he was sitting. The Prophet's response to this wicked attempt was an order to evacuate their homes in Medina. When they disobeyed him, he besieged them for six days, preventing help from reaching them. Only when they surrendered did he spare their blood, allowing them to come out with all the riches and belongings their camels could carry. They left Medina; most of them went to Khaybar, but a few headed for Sham (Syria).

Once in Khaybar, they resumed their conspiracy and, along with Banu Quraydha (another Jewish tribe), they joined the armies of the pagans whose number exceeded ten thousand men under the command of Abu-Sufyan. Having laid siege to Yathrib for twenty days, Abu-Sufyan gave up his unsuccessful attempt, frustrated by a moat which the Prophet had ordered dug around the city, to protect it from enemy attacks, and deterred by the unleashed elements.

After the Battle of Khandaq, the Prophet attacked Banu Quraydha, and besieged them for twenty-five days until they surrendered.

When the Jewish alliance with the pagans failed, the Jews concluded a pact amongst themselves. The alliance, which by now had become one-hundred percent Jewish, comprised those tribes around, but not too far away from, Medina. An important component, the Jews of  Khaybar  (Banu Nadhir) constituted the backbone of this alliance. When the news of their planning to attack Medina reached the Prophet, he marched on them with his Muslim army. That was to be the Battle of Khaybar which took place in 629 A.D., and in which Allah had willed it that victory be on the side of the Mujahidin who were fighting for His Cause.

As for the Christians, theirs was an amicable and deferential attitude towards the Prophet. Trustworthy narrators  tell us that when a party of the Christians of Arabia paid the Prophet a visit in Medina, he spread his mantle for them to sit on, a token of his love and appreciation for them. The narrators also inform us that Cuqba the Christian - also known as sahib-Ayla (the Stag-man) - went to the Muslims to make peace with them, and that the Prophet sent the Christians letters in which he  assured them of his protection, care  and attention (Hatta, An Extended History of the Arabs , 1949, Vol. I, p. 164). We believe that the following Hadith is authentic : "He who wrongs a zimmi, I am his adversary on the Day of Judgement".

When the pressure on the part of the pagans and their allies became heavier on the Muslims who found themselves in a critical situation, some of them, including Jaafar Ibn Abi-Talib, emigrated to Abyssinia on the Prophet' s advice. He told them on this occasion that in Abyssinia, there was a king in whose kingdom injustice befell no one.

In a letter which Omar Ibn Umayyah al-Dhamiri delivered to Negus, the Prophet said : "… I bear witness that Jesus, the Son of Mary and the Spirit and Word of God, which He had breathed into the Virgin Mary, the kind and the chaste; then she bore Jesus, whom God had created from His Spirit and Breath, as He had created Adam and breathed in him the breath of life …".

In reply to a question addressed by Negus to those who went to him seeking his protection, Jaafar Ibn Abi-Talib said : "We say about Christ that which our Prophet has spoken : 'that Christ is the servant of Allah, His Messenger, His Word and His Spirit which He breathed into the Virgin Mary, the chaste'". Negus answered : "By God! What you have said has not wronged Jesus, the son of Mary". Tabari relates that the Prophet lamented the death of Negus. Ibn-Hisham also told Aicha that Negus's tomb had been glowing for some time after his burial.