The Expulsion of Banu Nadir: One Event, How Many Reasons?

A Man Rises Without a Word

Medina, the fourth year of the Hijra — according to the most common account. The Prophet of Islam sits with a handful of companions against the wall of a fortress belonging to Banu al-Nadir, one of the Jewish tribes of Medina. He has come to ask for help in paying blood-money. Their chiefs say: yes, Abu al-Qasim, sit, we will help you. Then, in the middle of the gathering, he stands up and walks back toward Medina without saying a word, leaving his companions behind. Within days there is an ultimatum, then a siege, then palm trees burning outside the fortresses, and then an entire tribe loading its belongings onto camels and leaving Medina forever.

Why did he stand up? Ibn Ishaq says: because news came from heaven that a man was climbing to the roof to drop a rock on his head. But open other early books and the date changes, the reason changes, and the rock disappears. And in the middle of it all stands a verse of the Qur'an — 59:5 — about palm trees cut down and palm trees left standing.