~Immediately after the Battle of Khandaq, Year 5 AH (627 CE) · 5 AH
Details differ across the sources
The number of Banu Qurayza men executed is reported very differently across sources: Ibn Ishaq gives 600-700 (noting some accounts exaggerate to 800-900), while a hadith in Musnad Imam Ahmad gives around 400.
In brief
The Siege of the Banu Qurayza followed immediately on the Battle of Khandaq in 5 AH. The Banu Qurayza, a Jewish tribe living inside Madinah under treaty, had broken that treaty during the siege and sided with the confederates. As soon as the Muslims came home, Jibril AS brought the command to march on them at once, and the Prophet ﷺ ordered that no one pray Asr except at the Banu Qurayza. The Muslims besieged their fortress for twenty-five days. Inside, the chieftain Ka'b ibn Asad offered his people three ways out, including accepting the Prophet ﷺ's message, and they refused them all; their offers to leave with their wealth, as the Banu Nadir had, were also refused, since the Prophet ﷺ insisted on unconditional surrender. When they surrendered, their old allies the Aws pleaded for mercy, and the Prophet ﷺ let them choose their own leader, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA, then dying of his Khandaq wound, as judge. Sa'd ruled that the fighting men be executed, the women and children taken captive and the property distributed, and the Prophet ﷺ called it the judgment of Allah. Sources put the number executed between about 400 and 700; no children were killed, and those who had embraced Islam or were vouched for were spared. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA died of his wound a few days later.
Outcome: The Banu Qurayza surrendered on the 25th day. By the verdict of their own former ally Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA, which the Prophet ﷺ called the judgment of Allah from above the seven heavens, the adult men were executed (Ibn Ishaq says 600 to 700), the women and children taken captive, and the property distributed, with a fifth to the state. The Muslims gained some 1,500 swords and shields, 2,000 spears and 300 coats of mail. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA died of his Khandaq wound a few days later.
A definitive end to organized Jewish tribal power within Madinah itself, closing the arc that began with the expulsions of the Banu Qaynuqa and Banu Nadir. The judgment was carried out not by the Prophet ﷺ directly but by Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, the Aws' own chosen leader, on the Aws' own insistence: the sources are explicit that the Banu Qurayza were punished for breaking their covenant and allying with the ahzab against the Muslims during the siege of Khandaq, not for their identity as Jews; many scholars point out that the sentence mirrors, almost word for word, the law of siege warfare set out in Deuteronomy 20:10-14.
The Year of the Trench·Chapter 5 of 9
See the whole storyOther events recorded in 5 AH. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
The morning after the confederates flee, Jibril AS sends the army straight on to the Banu Qurayza.
Have you put down your weapon?
Jibril AS arrived just after the Prophet ﷺ had returned from the Battle of Khandaq and begun to lay down his weapon to rest.
Yes.
As for the angels, they have not put it down yet, and I have just arrived with a new contingent. Ya Muhammad ﷺ, Allah is commanding you to go to the Banu Qurayza, and I am heading there right now, and I am going to shake the earth for them.
Whoever hears must obey! And nobody is allowed to pray Asr except at Banu Qurayza!
Ali RA plants the flag, the Prophet ﷺ camps in front of the fortress, and twenty-five days of siege begin.
Sent by the Prophet ﷺ's direct command, reached the fortress of the Banu Qurayza first and planted his flag outside it.
Ya Rasulullah, why don't you camp over here?
Ali RA rushed to intercept the Prophet ﷺ before he reached the Banu Qurayza's fortress, not wanting him to hear the insults they were shouting at him.
Perhaps they are saying things about me?
Yes, they are.
Once they see me, they will not be able to say those things.
O group of the Jews! Didn't Allah humiliate you? Hasn't Allah's anger come upon you?
O Abu al-Qasim, you were never one who acted foolishly.
Answering on behalf of the Banu Qurayza from within the fortress.
Surrounded the fortress of the Banu Qurayza and called them to surrender; they refused.
Ka'b ibn Asad offers his people three choices, their envoys plead for the terms given to Banu al-Nadir, and one man walks out on the last night.
O my people, I suggest one of three choices: we accept this man's religion, for wallahi, we all know that he is the prophet that has been prophesied in our books. If we do so, our lives and property will be safe.
Let us kill our own families, so we don't have to worry about what will happen to them, and then charge outside with our swords drawn until one of us (we or the Muslims) is eliminated. If we die, we have left nothing to worry about; and if we win, there are plenty of women we can marry afterward.
If you refuse the first two, the only option we have is to surprise-attack the Muslims. And the only day that will be a surprise is the day of the Sabbath: they will not be expecting us to break our own Sabbath!
Wallahi, since the day your mothers gave birth to you, none of you have ever made one decision in your lives.
O Muhammad ﷺ, give to us what you gave to the Banu Nadir.
Asking to be allowed to leave with their wealth and families, as the Banu Nadir had.
No.
Keep the camels and property, but just save us.
No. Only an unconditional surrender. I will not accept anything less than an unconditional surrender.
I will never betray the promise of Muhammad ﷺ.
Amr ibn Sa'da had refused to join Ka'b ibn Asad's plan to break the covenant with the Muslims.
Who is it?
Called out after the Muslims besieging the fortress heard someone slip out into the night, on the twenty-fourth night of the siege.
Amr ibn Sa'da.
O Allah, overlook my overlooking of him.
Let Amr ibn Sa'da go.
That was a man whom Allah saved because of his honesty.
The Aws beg for their old allies; the Prophet ﷺ lets their own dying leader decide.
Ya Rasulullah, you spared the Khazraj's ally, so spare our ally as well!
Will you be happy if one of your own decides their fate?
I have chosen for you Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, your own leader.
You have only been chosen by the Prophet ﷺ because you are going to be merciful.
Said to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh by the Aws carrying him to render judgment, hoping their old ally the Banu Qurayza would find him merciful.
Now is the time for Sa'd to not care about the criticism of any critic when it comes to Allah and His Messenger.
Stand up to greet your leader.
Said to the Ansar as Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was brought to the fortress.
I call you to Allah: will you listen and obey me with whatever verdict I give?
And you as well, ya Rasulullah?
Yes.
My judgment in them is that their men should be executed, their property distributed, and their women and children taken as captives.
Wallahi, O Sa'd, you have decreed upon them the judgment of Allah from above the seven heavens.
Ran a tent that served as a field hospital for the wounded and sick during the siege of the Banu Qurayza, where Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA was cared for.
Huyayy ibn Akhtab and Ka'b ibn Asad are led out, a woman laughs beside Aisha RA, and Thabit ibn Qays RA tries to repay an old debt.
I was a boy that was spared that day because I didn't have hair.
A later recollection of that day.
Led out of the fortress wearing his finest garment, a red silk embroidery, secured tightly with strings around his body to prevent it from being taken after his death.
Wallahi, I have never regretted my animosity towards you. But whoever Allah humiliates, that is the real one who is humiliated.
O my people, don't be sad. This is the decree of Allah upon the Bani Israel.
Lowered his neck and was executed.
O Ka'b, why didn't you benefit from the advice of Ibn Kharrash, for he believed in me, and he commanded you to follow me, and he gave his salam to me through you if you saw me.
I swear by the Torah, O Abu al-Qasim, this is true. And were it not for the fact that the Jews would criticize me and say that I converted because I was scared of death, I would have followed you even now. But I die upon the faith of the Jews.
Sat with the prisoners of the Banu Qurayza; one of the women was laughing and joking with her even as her own people were being executed.
Called by name, stood up to be led away.
Why are you standing?
To be killed.
Why?
Because of something I did.
Later learned that the woman had killed one of the Companions during the siege by dropping a grinding stone on him from above the fortress wall (the only woman executed that day).
I never ceased to be amazed at her laughing while she knew she was going to be executed.
Do you remember me?
Asked of al-Zubayr ibn Batta among the Banu Qurayza prisoners, the man who had once saved Thabit's life in the Wars of Bu'ath before the Hijrah.
Of course, you are that person I saved.
It's time for me to repay that favor. Do you wish me to repay that favor?
Of course. A generosity from a generous person will always be appreciated.
Ya Rasulullah, please give me al-Zubayr: allow al-Zubayr to be spared.
He is for you.
Of what use is life without family?
Ya Rasulullah, please give me his family as well.
They are for you.
Of what use is life without money?
Went back to the Prophet ﷺ once more and asked on Zubayr's behalf.
For you as well.
Where is so-and-so? Where is so-and-so? What is the purpose of life without friends and tribe? Send me to my death.
Was executed, having asked to be sent to his death rather than live without his friends and tribe.
Taken captive after the fall of the Banu Qurayza; invited to Islam by the Prophet ﷺ, but at first refused.
Given time to decide her fate; when she realized the Prophet ﷺ meant to let her go rather than keep her, she embraced Islam, wishing to remain with him for the gentleness and care he had shown.
I will free you and marry you. And your freedom will be the mahr.
This is better for me and you.
Invoked by Huyayy ibn Akhtab as he was led to execution.
“What honorable company!”
Invoked in closing reflection on Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA's role in the judgment.