Saturday, December 26, 2020

Juwayriyyah

Juwayriyyah was the eleventh woman whom the Prophet married. She was from the Bani Mustaliq tribe who had been defeated by the Muslims. She was the tribe leader's daughter and had been captured along with many others of her clan. She initially fell under the simultaneous responsibilty of 2 Muslim men. This is among the cases where a guardian was not allowed to be intimate with his war prisoner.

Nothing prevented the prophet from selecting her for himself prior to dividing the booty.  This shows that in the division of war spoils, there existed no favouritism where a conquered tribe's elite would fall under the authority of the leaders among the Muslims. When he eventually freed and married her, it was in answer to her own plea to him, as she sought to compensate her guardians and ransom herself. The prophet Muhammad proposed to buy her freedom and marry her, which she accepted. He in no way presented the option to marry him as a precondition for paying her ransom. As a result of this farsightedness, the Muslims observed that these fellow Arabian captives had become relatives of the Prophet, and consequently freed many of them, up to a 100 families. Impressed by these manners, the whole tribe of Bani Mustaliq entered into the fold of Islam. The conversion of this large tribe had a great impact throughout Arabia. She died in 56AH.

As to the Bani Mustaliq, this was the second confrontation between them and the Muslims. They had initially taken part in the anti-Muslim coalition of the battle of Uhud. Some time after the events of Khaybar, they began mobilizing for war, on the road to Mecca which they controlled in big parts, and inciting the Arab tribes around them to merge into a new anti-Muslim coalition. As he received information about those enemies that had already engaged the Muslims in battle, the Prophet initially sent someone to gather intelligence. The threat was not only confirmed but it also was reported to him that they were planning a large scale invasion of Medina. The Muslims thus set out on Sha'ban of 6AH (scholars differ on the year, between the 5th and the 6th) for the spring of al-Muraysi between Medina and Mecca to launch a preemptive strike that would thwart the coalition attempt at its core. No man of the enemy was able to escape; 10 were killed, and the rest captured as well as women, children, cattle and sheep.

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