RIHANA AND JUWAIRIYA

SafIyya was no exception.  Many other women, among them RIhAna and JuwairIya, were taken in and treated as part of the war booty.  RIhAna was a Jewish girl of the BanU Quraizah.  After her husband was beheaded in cold blood along with eight hundred other male members of her tribe in the genocide at Medina, Muhammad kept her as his concubine.  We shall touch upon this massacre again in our discussion of jihAd.

JuwairIya, another of these unfortunate girls, was the daughter of the chief of the Banu�l Mustaliq.  She was captured in the fifth or sixth year of the Hijra along with two hundred other women.  �The Messenger of Allah made a raid upon BanU Mustaliq while they were unaware and their cattle were having a drink at the water.  He killed those who fought and imprisoned others.  On that very day, he captured JuwairIya bint al-HAris� (4292).

In the division of the booty, she fell to the lot of SAbit ibn Qays.  He set her ransom price at nine ounces of gold, beyond the power of her relatives to pay.  �Aisha�s reaction when she saw this beautiful girl being led into the presence of Muhammad is recounted in these words: �As soon as I saw her at the door of my room, I detested her, for I knew that he [Muhammad] would see her as I saw her.� And indeed, when Muhammad saw JuwairIya he paid her ransom and took her for his wife.  JuwairIya was at that time about twenty, and she became the seventh wife of the Prophet.  The whole story is given by Ibn IshAq, the Prophet�s biographer.

There was another girl, named Zainab, again Jewish, who had seen her father, husband, and uncle killed.  She poisoned the roasted lamb she was ordered to prepare for Muhammad.  Suspecting something wrong, Muhammad spat out the very first morsel.  He was saved, and she was immediately put to death, according to some authorities (TabaqAt, vol. II, pp. 252-255).

author : ram swarup