Life-of-Muhammad

82Life of Muhammad sadisloyalty and discourtesy of his father with thecompassion and kindness of the Prophet sa , he made forMedina full of suppressed anger against his father. Hestopped his father on the way and said he would not lethim go any farther on the road to Medina until he hadwithdrawn the words he had used against the Prophet sa ."The lips which said, 'The Prophet sa is despised and youare honoured,' must now say, 'The Prophet sa is honouredand you are despised.' Until you say this I will not letyou go." 'Abdullah bin Ubayy ibn Salul was astonishedand frightened and said, "I agree, my son, thatMuhammad sa is honoured and that I am despised."Young ‘Abdullah ra then let his father go (Hisham, Vol. 2).We have mentioned before two Jewish tribes whohad to be banished out of Medina on account of theirmischievous machinations and murderous intrigues.Banu Nadir, one of the two, migrated partly to Syria,partly to a town called Khaibar in the north of Medina.Khaibar was a well-fortified Jewish centre in Arabia. TheJews, who had migrated there, began to excite the Arabsagainst Muslims. The Meccans were already swornenemies of Islam. No fresh provocation was needed toexcite the Meccans against Muslims. Similarly theGhatafan of Najd, because of their friendly relations withthe Meccans, were hostile to Muslims. The Jews settledin Khaibar already counted on the Quraish of Mecca andthe Ghatafan of Najd. Besides these, they planned toturn Banu Sulaim and Banu Asad against Islam. Theyalso persuaded Banu Sa‘d, a tribe in alliance with theJews, to join the Meccans in an alliance against Islam.After a long intrigue a confederacy of Arab tribes wasorganized to fight the Muslims. This included theMeccans, the tribes living in territories around Mecca,the tribes of Najd, and those living in territories to thenorth of Medina.