The Assassination of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf

In brief

Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf was a wealthy poet and leader of the Banu Nadir in Madinah whose hostility to Islam had grown steadily: he argued against the change of qibla, urged the Ansar not to pay zakat, grieved openly for the Quraysh dead of Badr, went to Makkah to make a pact with Abu Sufyan against the Prophet ﷺ, and finally wrote satirical verse about Muslim women. In the third year of the Hijrah the Prophet ﷺ asked who would deal with him. Muhammad ibn Maslamah of the Aws volunteered and was given leave to say what he did not mean. He and Ka'b's own foster-brother Abu Na'ila won Ka'b's confidence by posing as disaffected followers and pledging their weapons as security for a loan, so that they could come to his fortress armed without suspicion. On a moonlit night the Prophet ﷺ walked them to the edge of the city with a prayer for their success. Ka'b came down to them against his wife's warning and was killed. The other tribes complained, but the Prophet ﷺ took no action, having ordered it himself as ruler and judge of Madinah against a man who had broken the city's constitution by treating with the enemy. Ibn Ishaq says that after that night no enemy of the Muslims felt safe.

Outcome: Other tribes complained about the killing, but the Prophet ﷺ took no action against them since he had ordered it himself; Ibn Ishaq recorded that afterward no enemy tribe felt safe, the intended message being that blatant treason would not go unanswered.