The Expulsion of Banu al-Nadir
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:
❧BACKGROUND TENSIONS
By the time of their expulsion, Banū al-Naḍīr already carried a history of friction with the Muslims. A source preserved in ʿAbd al-Razzāq's Muṣannaf records that a faction within the tribe, not the tribe as a body, had once conspired to murder a group of respected Muslims from Ahl aṣ-Ṣuffah, a plot exposed and thwarted before any harm was done. The early historian Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah records that Banū al-Naḍīr also provided logistical and geographical guidance to the Quraysh before Uḥud, helping them choose where to camp in unfamiliar territory. And Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf, one of Banū al-Naḍīr's own most respected and wealthy men through his mother's line, assassinated for his incitement against the Muslims, had already left the tribe aggrieved and on edge before this episode began.
❧THE BLOOD-MONEY VISIT AND THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
The direct trigger came from the aftermath of Biʼr Maʿūnah. ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Ḍamrī, returning from that massacre, had mistakenly killed two men of Banū ʿĀmir who in fact held the Prophet's (ﷺ) protection, a tribe that, per the Constitution of Madinah, meant the entire city bore collective responsibility for the resulting blood-money debt: two hundred camels, a genuinely enormous sum best distributed across the whole community (Islamic fiqh generally assigns collective tribal responsibility for accidental manslaughter debts of this kind). Needing help raising the funds, the Prophet (ﷺ), Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and a small group of Companions went to Banū al-Naḍīr, one of Madinah's wealthiest tribes, whose lands and fortified compounds lay south of the city amid their date-palm groves.
The tribe's leaders welcomed them warmly, perhaps too warmly, and asked them to wait outside the fortress while they conferred. Inside, some pressed to seize the opportunity: drop a boulder from the fortress wall directly onto the Prophet (ﷺ) as he sat below, eliminating the Muslim leadership in a single stroke. The plan was approved and set in motion within minutes. The Prophet (ﷺ), informed by Jibrīl, simply stood and walked away without a word of explanation, returning to Madinah while the Companions and the Yahūd alike waited in confusion for his return. Allah later referenced this specific attempt in Sūrah al-Māʾidah (5:11): "Idh hamma qawmun an yabsuṭū ilaykum aydiyahum fa-kaffa aydiyahum ʿankum", remember when a people intended to reach out their hands against you, and He restrained their hands from you, a verse Ibn ʿAbbās identified as referring directly to this incident.
❧THE ULTIMATUM AND ʿABDULLĀH IBN UBAYY'S FALSE PROMISE
Back in Madinah, the Prophet (ﷺ) sent Muḥammad ibn Maslamah, who had known the tribe personally since before Islam, to lay out exactly what had been plotted and to deliver an ultimatum: leave Madinah within ten days, or face execution if found remaining. Banū al-Naḍīr, caught red-handed, initially agreed to go.
Word reached ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl, the senior figure of pre-Islamic Madinah and a personal ally of the tribe (including Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf), who could not accept their expulsion. He sent them an emphatic promise: he would never obey anyone against them, would fight alongside them if attacked, and would go into exile with them himself if they were forced out, and that his allies among the powerful tribe of Ghaṭafān, some two thousand strong, would join in their defense. Allah exposed the hollowness of this vow in Sūrah al-Ḥashr, declaring him a liar who would neither fight for them nor accompany them into exile, and who would flee at the first sign of danger exactly as he had at Uḥud.
Persuaded by these promises, Ḥuyayy ibn Akhṭab, chieftain of Banū al-Naḍīr and father of the future Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥuyayy, reversed the tribe's decision over the objection of others within it, and sent back a defiant message: "Do whatever you want."
❧THE SIEGE
On hearing this, the Prophet (ﷺ) declared "Allāhu Akbar," recognizing the response as an opening rather than a threat, and mobilized an army of roughly seven hundred the same day, a speed that reportedly stunned Banū al-Naḍīr, who had expected days of preparation rather than hours. The siege lasted somewhere between a week and ten days, with no actual fighting, as the tribe waited for ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy's promised reinforcements, which never came, he neither fought nor went into exile with them.
Midway through the siege, to demonstrate confidence and to renew the wider Constitution of Madinah, the Prophet (ﷺ) took the bulk of the army to Banū Qurayẓah, the third Jewish tribe of Madinah, both to guard against the two tribes combining forces and to have Banū Qurayẓah formally reaffirm their treaty obligations, a pledge Banū Qurayẓah would break decisively at the Battle of al-Aḥzāb roughly a year and a half later, a betrayal made all the graver by this direct, repeated reaffirmation beforehand.
A further blow to Banū al-Naḍīr's resolve came when the Muslims began cutting down sections of the tribe's prized date-palm groves, orchards that had taken five to eight years to mature and represented decades of accumulated labor. Watching this from their fortress caused real anguish among the tribe and even some unease among the Companions over the wisdom of the tactic; Allah addressed the matter directly in the Qurʾān (see the companion note on Sūrah al-Ḥashr).
❧SURRENDER AND EXODUS
With no help arriving and no realistic path forward, Banū al-Naḍīr surrendered unconditionally after roughly a week to ten days. The terms the Prophet (ﷺ) granted were notably generous given the tribe's leadership had personally plotted his assassination: their lives, families, and property were spared, and they were permitted to take whatever their camels could carry into exile, everything except weapons.
Ibn Isḥāq records that the resulting procession was an extraordinary sight: camels straining under piled fabrics, jewels, and household treasures accumulated over generations, with the tribe even prying off their own ornately carved doors rather than leave anything of value behind. Denied the ability to take their fortresses and homes themselves, many of the tribe took axes to their own dwellings out of pure spite rather than let the Muslims occupy them intact, structures built with architectural techniques more advanced than anything the Arabs of the region practiced at the time. A small number of individuals accepted Islam during this period and were permitted to remain with their property intact. The rest of the tribe relocated primarily to Khaybar, setting the stage for a further and much larger confrontation there several years later.
DATING
Early Sīrah authorities Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī and ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr placed this incident shortly after Badr, but later historians, al-Wāqidī, Ibn Saʿd, and Ibn Isḥāq, corrected this, since the entire episode was triggered by the Biʼr Maʿūnah blood-money debt, which could only postdate Uḥud. The strongest position places the expulsion in Shawwāl of the fourth year of the Hijrah.