As we discussed the muslims learnt that Banu Quraydha had switched sides.

Ibn Is
haaq narrates news reached the Banu Quraydha Huyay is coming so they were worrie
d as this smells like treachery: so their cheifton Ka'ab shut the door. And Huya
y is standing outside and knocking on the door saying "let me in". And Ka'ab sai
d "No - you are bringing bad luck, if they hear you are here". Ka'ab said "I hav
e a treaty from Muhammad and I will not break my promise for I have only seen fr
om his truthfulness and fulfillment". But Huyay kept on begging and knocking unt
il finally he used a different tactic: "the only reason you aren't opening the d
oor is because you don't even want to feed me. You are so selfish and stingy tha
t you don't want to share your food" so he is using emotional blackmail. Basical
ly he is saying "at least give me some food I am all alone outside". As soon as
the door opened he starts saying "I have brought oceans of men, and the chiefton
s of the Quraysh, Gatafaan etc and they have promised me they will not leave unt
il they've wiped out Muhammad and his companions." Can you imagine - he knows wh
at points to press. That deep down inside he known Ka'ab wants to side with his
peolpe but is scared of losing and trechary.
And he is relentless: he kept on persudaing and persuading more and more until h
e is so confident he said "I will pledge my own safety with your safety: if anyt
hing happens to you I will face the same consequence". It was the own verdict th
at Allah delivered to him. Ka'ab was still hesitant and said "You are not good n
ews - you are a cloud that when you look at it, it looks like good water but all
it gives is thunder and lightening". Deep down inside he knows its not right but Huyay kept on pressing until finally he conviced Ka'ab to flip sides. So Ka'
ab physically tears up the treaty. And the prophet PBUH confirmed it at least th
ree times - the latest of them was just a few months ago. Look at the context of
what happened to them! It was fully just. Even Ka'ab said "Muhammad has always
been good to us, he's fulfilled his promise etc" but when Huyay said "I will be
with you" - so Ka'ab thought if he is that confident he must be right. And frank
ly it makes sense - they were 10,000 strong so how indeed could they fail.
The prophet PBUH had a preminition about the Banu Quraydha so the the prophet PB
UH asked Zubair to go to them and check. Most likely Zubair saw Huyay of war pre
perations etc and for doing this the prophet PBUH praised Zubair and said "every
nabi has a helper and you are my helper". And again he chooses Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad
(leader of Aws), Sa'ad ibn Ubada (leader of Khazraj) - he was the one with the g
arden wherein the sahabah discussed who should be khalifah after the prophet PBU
H. And therefore between him and Abu Bukr there was small bit of tension but tha
ts beside the point. And Abdullah ibn Ruwaha, and Qawat ibn Jubair - these four
went to confirm the news of Zubair. And the prophet PBUH said "If it is true, te
ll me indirectly - don't say it explicitly". Why? Because the prophet PBUH is in
the public - he dosen't have a private audience. And anything said to him can b
e heard by others. So he said "indicate to me, for we don't want to spread fear
among the people to weaken them. But if they are still on the treaty shout it ou
t loud". And they went to the Banu Quraydha but ibn Ishaaq said they were most v
ulgar and foul mouthed they had ever seen. And they said "who is this person? We
don't know any Muhammad and we have no treaty with him". It was the pinnacle of
arrogance. Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad was known to have a temper, so he flared up and curs
ed them in a vile manner. And they responded back in kind. And Sa'ad ibn Ubada h
eld on to Sa'ad and said "the matter between us and them is beyond cursing".
So they return back to the prophet PBUH and gave the names of the two tribes tha
t did Ar Rij and Bir Ma'uana. When the prophet PBUH heard this he said "Allahuak
bar". SubhanAllah his yakeen was so firm that he knew them flipping meant their
lands and property would come to the muslims. Of course it was last tribe not up
on Islam in all of Madinah at the time. Eventually the rest of the sahabah found
out and so this night was the worst night of the entire 25 days - the uncertain
ty and fear of not knowing what would happen to their women and children. Allah
says this in the Quran:

"[Remember] when they came at you from above you and from below you, and when ey
es shifted [in fear], and hearts reached the throats and you assumed about Allah
[various] assumptions.
There the believers were tested and shaken with a severe shaking."
And the munafiq made it worse: they wanted to ask permission to go back home and
protect their family. They said they have to protect their families but in real
ity they were cowards and did not want to fight. And one of them said out loud "
here was Muhammad" - note they never called him RasulAllah, this was one of the
signs of hypocrisy. Allah says in the Quran "don't call Muhammad like you call o
ne another" but the munafiqun did. So they said "here was Muhammad promising us
the treasures of Qisra and Kaysar, and now one of us is too scared to go and def
ecate (go to the toilet)". So once again Ahzab exposed the munafiqs.
We find one of the biggest benefits that Islam does not want to spread the news
of evil even if it is true. It dosen't sensationalise even the truth: if somethi
ng happened that is bad, and its the truth, don't tell anyone about it. Here the
prophet PBUH heard the Banu Quraydha flipped, but he kept it on the low. The so
ciety today has hyper inflated media where every grizzly and gruesome matter is
showed, analysed - every scandal, every rumour etc. Why do you need to know the
details of rape, murder etc? Even if its true, constant exposure decensitises th
e hearty of the society. Even during the time of the prophet PBUH there were pro
stitutes - Bhukari tells us. And a rape did happen - Muslim tells us this. But y
ou never advertise these things. But when you are constantly exposed people get
decensitised to murder, rape, killing etc. A murder is not even news-worthy anym
ore. In Islamic society you don't even say this type news - if a rape occurs you
catch the purpose, pass a judgement and then announce this person will be sente
nced to punishment. When a issue happened in the time of Umar RA, some of the se
nior sahabah said "let's go back and then spread the news". Keeping all these af
fairs hidden keeps the fitrah pure.
We also see the amazing yakeen of the prophet PBUH to take the worst possible ne
ws and say "Allahuakbar!" There were at least 2000 people of the Banu Quraydha w
ithin Madinah, and they have a fortress - how can the muslims protect against th
em? And yet the prophet PBUH had so much trust in Allah he said "Good news - gla
d tidings". Anyone who didn't have a true connection with Allah would have falte
red and collapsed then and there. We also continue to see the reality of the mun
afiqun. That they are mocking the prophet PBUH with their narrowmindedness that
"he promised us qisra and kaysar (persia and rome) but we can't even relieve our
selves". And subhanAllah look at how impatient they are - barely 6,7 years after
this munafiq offered these words, not even a decade or generation, the muslims
were eating from the plates of qisra and kaysar exactly as the prophet PBUH prom
ised. As the prophet PBUH said "You people are too hasty you don't trust it will
happen".
When the news spread the army was already thinly divided: to demonstrate a show
of force they were marching all night long with torches that "Allahuakbar" so th
at in case anyone comes there is an impression given that the army is larger tha
n it is. As it is the army is thinned out as there was a constant patrol: it's a
large trench and going back and forth took a long time. But now since the Banu
Quraydha flipped, the prophet PBUH had to split the army in two and send a conti
ngent to protect the fortress where the women and children were. And to make sur
e the Banu Quraydha know they are being monitered.
When the Quraysh came, they did not know what to do when they saw the trench. Th
ey realised they cannot charge - they set up camp and wait out. They had supplie
s, 10,000 men and it was just a waiting game that they knew they would win. Nume
rous minor skirmishes occured: it was the largest gathering of non muslims again
st the prophet PBUH, and yet it was the smallest number of causalities amongst t

he major battles. And this is truly a miracle - and it was because Allah fought
directly on their behalf. Even though they were facing 10,000! At most there was
6 or 7 - most of them by bows and arrows. This is truly a sign for us to reflec
t upon.
Of the minor skirmishes, a small group led by Amr ibn Abd-Wud and five other peo
ple broke through the trench line and reached the other side. And this Amr ibn A
bd-Wud was known for his feriocity in battle. In the battle of Ahzab he had put
on the red turban which was meant to inflict fear - it was known for both sides,
that a red turban is a "sign of death". And he was a strong man - when he came
across a contingent of muslims immediately came across. Amr said "who will fight
me?" And Ali RA said "I will". But the prophet PBUH "Ya Ali this is Amr ibn Abd
-Wud, let one of the seniors fight him". But no one stood up, so Amr said for th
e second time "Who will fight me?" Ali went again but the prophet PBUH stopped a
nd said again "He is Amr ibn Abd-Wud". For the third time he said "Who will figh
t me?" For the third time Ali stood up but the prophet PBUH said agian "It is Am
r ibn Abd-Wud" and Ali RA said "And so what if it is Amr". So the prophet PBUH a
llowed him to leave.
Ali approached Amr and Amr asked "who is this". And Ali said "Ali ibn Abi Talib"
but Ali was a kid to Amr so he said "Oh my little kid, go back and send a man I don't want to fight a kid". Amr has seen Ali RA grow up so he's like a kid to
him. And he said "And I have no desire to kill and harm you" but Ali RA said "I
have a desire to kill you". At this Amr flipped and he charged forward on his h
orse, and Ali is charging forward on his own horse too, and ibn Ihsaaq says the
dust that the horses raised up completely covered what happened. And the only ne
ws that came to them was a takbeer from the middle of the dust. According to ano
ther report, when they got close, Amr ibn Abd-Wud jumped off his horse as did Al
i, and he tried his hardest to give him a blow to his head, and Ali raised his s
hield and Amr hit it with so much force the shield broke. But simultaenously in
a split second Ali RA with his other hand plunges into the neck of Amr. And Ali
was a true warrior with immense fighting skill.
Another person who crossed over was Nawful ibn Abdullah and it was Zubair ibn Al
Awwam who charged up to him, and Nawfuls body literally split in half. Someone
told Zubair "what an amazing sword you have!" and Zubair said "no no it's not th
e sword, it's the arm". And Nawfuls body laid there for a while, but after a whi
le the Quraysh cried out "let us purchase the body so we can burry it". The prop
het PBUH said "this corpse is filthy, and the price is filthy; we do not buy the
price of corpses, come and get it and bury it". And indeed the prophet PBUH gav
e the dignity of burial to everyone. Khalid ibn Waleed also crossed over, and we
know the genius of Khalid - he had a swordfight but no one died and he was one
of the few people to cross over. Similarly Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal crossed over bu
t he didn't kill anyone and had to go back over. The total number of pagans who
were killed was around 3/4. The total number of muslims, mostly with arrows, was
at most 6 or 7. And its truly a sign how few casualities of the muslims were.
Of course the most tragic death was the death of Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad. He is the chei
fton of the Aws. And the Aws had more prestigious in the days of Jaheleya. They
were richer, they had the market place, they were more land owners and businessm
en, so he was already their cheifton and at a young age. Aisha RA narrates when
she was in the fortress she was sitting with the mother of Sa'ad, and he comes t
o bid her mother farewell, and he's dressed in his armour. At the time the verse
s of hijab had not yet come down - they came down at the END OF THE 5TH YEAR (CH
ECK - PARADOX!) of Hijrah. So Sa'ad comes and tells her mother 'farewell' but he
r mother said 'don't waste your time with me you are late - go to the front'. As
he departs Aisha RA said "how sparse is his armour" and she said his arms were
all open and he only had armour covering his chest. And it turns out he was inju
red exactly where he was exposed: an arrow struck him deep into the upper part o
f his right arm (clavicle) next to his next, and he died a few weeks after the b

attle. And it was Hibab ibn Al Arikah that shot him, and he shouted out "take th
is from me, and I am ibn Al Arikah" i.e. he is boasting. Sa'ad responded that "A
llah will cause your face to be sweating in the fire".
And was Sa'ad? He was of the earliest converts at the hand of Musab ibn Omair. A
nd its because of Sa'ads conversion that his entire tribe converted to Islam. An
d he told his tribe "I will not speak to anyone until you leave idoletry and acc
ept Islam". And they loved him his entire subtribe embraced Islam. The incident
of Badr: that when the prophet PBUH realised the Quraysh have an army, and he ha
d the Ansar and muhajir with them. And so he says to them "what do you say". And
so Abu Bukr RA stood up, then Umar RA and then another sahabi of the muhajir st
ood up and made even more. But then there was silence and the prophet PBUH asked
the same question again "what do you say?" And it was Sa'ad who the intelleganc
e, imaan and courage to figure the prophet PBUH is waiting for them. And so he s
tood up and said "perhaps you are waiting for us? Walahi go forth and go into th
e water, and go to the moon, wherever Allah has told you to go, and you will fin
d us right behind you. We will never say what Bani Isreal said to Musa, we say '
you are your Lord go fight, we are with you'".
Another story is that he was close friends with Ummayah ibn Khalaf, and they con
sidered themselves to be 'business brothers' and they stayed at each others hous
es. After the Hijrah Sa'ad went to Mecca and Ummayah said "don't go out in the d
aytime, go out at night". Abu Jahal heard the noise and saw Sa'ad. And so he sai
d "how dare you come to Mecca when you've taken Muhammad?" And Sa'ad began verba
lly raising his voice. Ummayah said to Sa'ad "don't rebuke Abul Hakam he is our
leader" - it was going to get physical and Ummayah tried to calm Sa'ad down and
hold him back, but Sa'ad said to Ummayah "get your hands off me! For walahi I he
ard the prophet PBUH say he will kill you". And Ummayah said "Muhammad will kill
me?! Walahi this must be true for he has never spoken a lie in his life". And h
e went back shocked to his wife and said "Muhammad has said he will kill me!" an
d his wife said "IF he said this it's true". And when Badr happened, he tried to
avoid the battle but Abu Jahal got the better of him and he marched to his deat
h.
Sa'ad was the one that when he died the prophet PBUH said the angels prayed his
janazah and took his body up, and in Bhukari its narrated that the throne of All
ah shook at the death of Sa'ad. Two interpretations: it shook out of happiness t
o greet him, or it shook out of anger someone killed him. In any case when Sa'ad
was wounded, he made a dua to Allah that "Oh Allah if you will allow the Qurays
h to come back and fight, allow me to live and fight them. Because there is no n
ation more despised to me than them for what they've done to your Rasul. But if
this is the last battle, except me as a shaheed, BUT allow my eyes to be sweeten
ed and comforted by seeing what happens to the Banu Quraydha". And he made this
dua on his 'death bed' since he died within two weeks of this. And he wants to s
ee the Banu Quraydha because he feels such anger at what they did. And of course
it was Sa'ad who was in charge of the punishment. And indeed his dua was accept
ed: as soon as the battle finished, Sa'ad could not even walk - he had to be car
ried to Banu Quraydha, and in that state he gave the verdict Allah was pleased w
ith and he dies shortly after that. This is the reality of a dua for someone who
gives his life to Allah.
Two years after Sa'ad died, an incident happened but the first name that comes t
o the mind of the prophet PBUH was Sa'ad. In the years of sending letters to the
kings and rules, and it began around the 7H/8H, one of the letters came back fr
om the province of (now known as) Bahrain. And the emporer wrote back a somewhat
sympathetic letter, and he gifted the prophet PBUH one of the finest robes he'd
ever worn. And its said the robe had gold decerations on it, and the sahabah ha
d seen nothing like this. The arabs were not known for producing such goods: the
y would import the good cloth and finest cloth came from Persia. So you can imag
ine the quality of the cloth that a ruler is giving to another ruler. And in Tir

midhi its said the sahabah went around the prophet PBUH to look at his garment.
This shows us many things. Of them, its completely halal to wear fine clothes an
d the prophet PBUH is wearing an extremely, luxurious garment. But the perfectio
n is that the prophet PBUH never spent money on it, and that his heart was not a
ttached to it, and he himself was shocked at how shocked they were. He said "Are
you impressed with this?!" It shows he is not impressed or as attached as the s
ahabah. He said out of nowhere "For walahi the hankercheif of Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad in
Jannah is better than all of this". SubhanAllah who is the person the prophet P
BUH is thinking off? The prophet PBUH is saying his hankercheif is better than a
ll of this. It shows how much love the prophet PBUH had for Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad. And
much more can be said, but this was Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad. And the muslims had to set
up a special tent for Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad because of the severity of his wounds, an
d as soon as Khandak finished a few days later he died.
Of the things we learn of the siege itself. On one day, the patrol, skirmishes a
nd arrows became so severe that the muslims could not pause to pray Asr. And the
re is a big contraversy as to whether salah tul Qahf was revealed or not. And it
indeed was, but they were SO busy that it was a genuine moment where they liter
ally forgot about Asr. And there are many hadith regarding this incident in Bhuk
ari. And much fiqh is derived from this incident about delaying salah and making
up delayed salah etc. The prophet PBUH never intentionally missed a prayer - we
have only two instances where he missed salah: this is one of them, and the oth
er is when the prophet PBUH and the army was marching the entire night non stop
and then they rested an hour before Fajr. And the prophet PBUH said "who will gu
ard us and wake us for Fajr?" Bilal RA said "I will" and so the whole army fell
asleep but Bilal RA was so tired he also fell asleep. And the first to wake was
the prophet PBUH with the heat of the sun, and the first thing he said was "Ya B
ilal what happened?!" And Bilal said "ya RasulAllah the same one that caused you
to sleep caused me to sleep! It's not my fault He who took your soul took my so
ul". So that was a genuine oversleeping of Fajr that took place once.
In terms of this incident: its narrated that Umar RA came to the prophet PBUH an
d said "Ya RasulAllah I was not able to pray Asr before the sun had set" and the
prophet PBUH said "I too did not pray Asr" and so its said they both did wudu a
nd prayed Asr after the sun had set. Bhukari mentions the prophet PBUH said "the
y have made us busy, so much so, we have not even managed to pray 'salaatul wust
aa (the middle salah - Asr)'. May Allah fill their houses and graves with the fi
re". Notice he is so angry, not because they are attempting to kill him, but bec
ause they have managed to prevent Asr. So what is the case of the one whose mone
y, television etc prevents them from praying Asr? HEre is the prophet PBUH on th
e battlefield fuming that he's missed Asr.
From the fuqaha derive that when you need to make salaat, you make them up in th
e right order. For example, even though it was Magrib, the prophet PBUH prayed A
sr first and then Magrib. So the general rule is to pray Asr and then Magrib. Ok
, now what if you haven't prayed for 15 years? You obviously can't pray 15 years
of salah first. So it dosen't apply. Second, the scholars say if you praying on
e salah will make two salah missed then you jump to the next.
One final point: where did the turn come about and what happened? It was the rol
e of Nuaym ibn Masud Al-Ghatafani. This was when the tide shifted, probably arou
nd the 20th day. Out of the blue someone walks into the camp of the muslims, and
his name is Nuaym ibn Masud from Gatafaan. And he says to the prophet PBUH "I h
ave accepted Islam, so tell me to do whatever you want". Now Nuaym ibn Masud was
the one Allah used to shift the entire tide around. He isn't Mecci or Madani so
we don't know much. In the conquest of Mecca, he carried the flag of Gatafaan a
nd this was a big honour for him. We don't know his fully story. What we do know
is that his first mention comes in the fourth year of the Hijrah. He was of the
elite but not the cheif. He is one level below the chief: and to do what he did
you needed to be one rank below the chief. So Nuaym was in Mecca and he is a pa

gan at the time. He has a good friendship with Abu Suffyan and says "we had made
a promise with Muhammad that we would meet at Badr (second Uhud at Badr) - you
go to Muhammad and convince him not to come so it appears he didn't come instead
of us". So he wants him to paint a false picture so the people hear HE never sh
owed up. So Nuaym agreed, he's never seen the prophet PBUH and so he agreed a bi
g amount of fortune to do this. Note at this stage Gatafaan is neutral so Abu Su
ffyan is using him to plant false information. And so he informed the prophet P
BUH of this lie, that "I have seen such a large army and they are eager to fight
etc". But the prophet PBUH said "walahi I will go fight them even if I am alone
". This is the first and major exposure Nuaym has to the prophet PBUH. The secon
d minor thing was that the prophet PBUH made a treaty with the sub tribe of Nuay
m regarding what to do with the caravan of the Quraysh.
YQs theory: it appears these interactions impressed Nuaym so much.He saw the br
avery and truthfulness of the prophet PBUH, and he interacted with the muslims i
n Madinah, that Islam became very dear to him. He met with the prophet PBUH twic
e - subhanAllah out of all of the people of Gatafaan he has interacted with the
prophet PBUH twice. So he converted to Islam, and the next time he is able to in
teract with the prophet PBUH, he is a secret muslim. And he is the only muslim i
n his entire tribe. And this shows us "whoever has taqawah in Allah, Allah will
make a way for him from a source he never expected". SubhanAllah how and where d
id this gatafaani come from?! Nuaym literally sneaks away, makes his way to the
camp of the prophet PBUH and says "I am at your service, do want you want". So o
ut of nowehere Allahs help came through Nuaym. The prophet PBUH said to him "you
can't do anything on our side, go back and do anything you can do to protect us
". So Nuaym said "do you give me permission to do anything?" The prophet PBUH sa
id "war is tricks and deciet". And note the arabic is 'kida' - its NOT trechary/
treason. Islam allows 'kida' during times of war. Sunt Zu wrote 'The Art of War'
and he wrote a whole list of maxims in war, and he said 'lying is 9/10s of war'
. This is how war works. This is genuine war that involves this type of 'kida' b
ut NEVER treason which is 'kiyaana'. Treason is signing a treaty and then tearin
g it up. Treason and trechary is to break a promise etc. This is haraam. 'Kida'
is simply deciet: you are not promising anything. You're just using tactics.
In any case Nuaym took this saying as a green light. So what did he do? He went
first to the Banu Quraydha. And this is amazing if you think about it: he had pe
rsonal friendships with Abu Suffyan and the Banu Quraydha. And he did what Abu S
uffyan told him to do which makes him a good friend and trustworthy. And he is f
rom the tribe of Gatafaan so he is neutral. SubhanAllah Allah's tribe is perfect
. What did he do? He went to the Banu Quraydha and said "you know who I am - we
have had dealings in the past, now I am here for your own good. This land is you
r land, this property is your land, as for the Quraysh they have nothing to lose
if they just leave. You have nothing to lose - if they find an opportunity to a
ttack they will attack, but if not they will just leave. So my advice to you is
refuse to fight until they give you some hostages from themselves as collateral.
If they do this they will never abandon their own until they have fought Muhamm
ad". And it makes complete sense - Allah out of nowhere throught Nuaym brings th
is plan and this is indeed 'ilhaam (wahi)'. And they found this to be very sensi
ble.
Then he went to the Quraysh and told Abu Suffyan "you know my status: you know w
ho I am. News have reached me and I feel my friendship owes that I tell you but
please keep this is a secret: know that the Banu Quraydha regret what they are d
oing. And they've sent a messege to Muhammad saying 'if we hand over some of the
Quraysh to execute will you forgive us for what we've done?'" So he tells Abu S
uffyan "if they come to you and ask for some hostages, then this is a sign of tr
eason and trechary". Then he went to his own tribe and told them that "they want
some hostages from you, and they won't give you any hostages until you hand ove
r some of your own, so take my advice and insist you get some of theirs first".
Sure enough within a few hours an emmisary from the Banu Quraydha comes to the Q

uraysh, his name is Azad ibn Samueal saying "we have thought about our matter, a
nd we want you to send some of your ashraaf to us so that we can be assured you
won't leave". And the same thing happened with the other tribes - all three trib
es are sending emmisaries and they are all saying "you hand first" but nobody is
handing it over. The seeds of doubt are being sewn and this is the start of the
destruction of the Ahzab army.