15.1
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik, who said:
15.2
One of the graces God bestowed on his Prophet was these two tribes of the Allies, the Aws and the Khazraj. They vied to best one another in Islam like two rival stallions. The Aws would not achieve some feat without the Khazraj saying, “By God, you will never surpass us in bringing glory to Islam!” And if it was the Khazraj who achieved the feat, the Aws would say the same.
15.3
When the Aws murdered Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf,191 the Khazraj said, “By God, we shall not rest until we have gained satisfaction for God’s Messenger as have they!” Thus, they met among themselves to decide on the most influential of the Jews’ leaders and then sought the Messenger of God’s permission to kill him—and that man was Sallām ibn Abī l-Ḥuqayq al-Aʿwar Abū Rāfiʿ of Khaybar. The Prophet granted them permission to kill him, but he stipulated, “Kill neither child nor woman!” A band then set out; among them was ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAtīk—a member of the Salamah clan and the leader of the troop—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, Masʿūd ibn Sinān, Abū Qatādah, Khuzāʿī ibn Aswad, a man from Aslam and a confederate of theirs, and another man called So-and-so ibn Salamah.
15.4
They set out and eventually arrived at Khaybar. Once they had entered the territory, they passed by each home and locked the owners in from the outside. They then made their way to Ibn Abī l-Ḥuqayq, who was in the upper chamber of his house, reachable only by stairs carved from the trunk of a date palm. The men climbed up the palm trunk to knock on his door. His wife came out and said, “Where do you come from?”
“We are merely Bedouin seeking provisions,” they answered.
“This is the man you seek,” she replied, “so please enter.”
Once inside, they locked the door behind them and rushed at him with their swords. One of them recalled, “By God, in the darkness of the night nothing guided my sword but the whiteness of his pallor on the bed, like an Egyptian shawl cast on the ground!” His wife then screamed at us, and one of our men lifted his sword to strike her, but then he recalled the Prophet’s prohibition. “If it were not for that,” he said, “we would have finished her off that night.” ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays put his weight behind his sword, stabbing Ibn Abī l-Ḥuqayq in the stomach until it had gone clear through. Ibn Abī l-Ḥuqayq began to cry out, “My stomach! My stomach!” three times. Then we left, but ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAtīk was poor of sight and stumbled at the top of the stairs and severely injured his foot.
15.5
We carried him down the stairs and took him with us as far as one of those water canals and stayed there. The Jews of Khaybar then stoked their fires and, after lighting palm branches, began searching for us intently; but God concealed our location from them, and after a while they returned to their homes.
15.6
One of our companions said, “How can we leave when we do not know whether or not God’s foe has truly died?” So one of our men set out to blend in among the crowds. He entered Ibn Abī l-Ḥuqayq’s house along with them and found his wife bent over with a lantern in her hand and surrounded by Jewish men. One of the Jews said, “By God, I heard the voice of Ibn ʿAtīk! But I told myself it couldn’t be true, saying, ‘How could Ibn ʿAtīk be here in these lands?’” Then the wife said something. She raised her head and cried out, “He’s gone,192 by the God of the Jews!”—meaning he had died. I had never heard a word more delightful to my soul! Then I departed and informed my companions that he had indeed died. We carried our companion, and eventually we came to the Messenger of God and informed him of the news.
Al-Zuhrī said: They came on a Friday, and that day the Prophet was preaching from the pulpit. Once he saw them, he cried out, “They have prospered!”