Battle of Banu al-Mustaliq (al-Muraysi')

# The Battle of Banu al-Mustaliq

A Pre-emptive Strike

The Battle of Banu al-Mustaliq — also known as the Expedition of al-Muraysi' after the well near which the main engagement took place — occurred in Sha'ban 5 AH. Banu al-Mustaliq was a branch of the Khuza'ah tribe living south of Medina toward the Red Sea coast. The Prophet ﷺ received intelligence that their chief, al-Harith ibn Abi Dirar, was gathering warriors with the intention of attacking Medina. Rather than wait for the attack, the Prophet ﷺ led a pre-emptive expedition.

The Muslim force surprised Banu al-Mustaliq, killed their fighters, and captured a large number of their families and livestock. The military engagement itself was swift and decisive — the tribe was not prepared for the coordinated Muslim response. Among those taken captive was Juwayriyah bint al-Harith — the daughter of the tribe's chief — who would become one of the Prophet's ﷺ wives, and through that marriage her entire tribe would be freed as an act of grace by the companions who now felt that the relatives of the Prophet's ﷺ wife could not remain as slaves.

The Incident of the Water Well

On the return journey from al-Muraysi', a dispute broke out at a water well between a man from the Muhajirun (Migrants) and a man from the Ansar (Helpers) over water access. The quarrel escalated quickly from a personal dispute to a tribal one — each man called on his own group for support. Voices were raised, including a cry of "O Muhajirun!" and "O Ansar!" — a direct invocation of pre-Islamic tribal loyalties.

The Prophet ﷺ, when this was reported to him, was furious. He said: "Leave this call — it is vile. It is the call of Jahiliyyah (the Age of Ignorance)." He addressed the community directly: the Muslim community is not a collection of tribes calling on their tribal loyalties — it is a single ummah defined by its submission to Allah. The incident was a reminder of how deeply the tribal identity was embedded, and how quickly it could reassert itself even among the companions when tempers ran high.

The Hypocrites and the Scandal

It was in this heated atmosphere that Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul — the hypocrite leader of Medina who had been consistently hostile to the Prophet ﷺ and his community — made a remark that was reported throughout the camp and eventually reached the Prophet ﷺ. He reportedly said: "When we return to Medina, the mightier will expel the meeker from it" — meaning that his own Medinan faction would drive out the Muhajirin (Migrants from Mecca). He reportedly also made a statement suggesting that the Ansar had only themselves to blame for hosting the Prophet ﷺ and his followers.

Zayd ibn Arqam, a young companion, heard the statement and reported it to the Prophet ﷺ. Umar ibn al-Khattab, when he learned of it, urged the Prophet ﷺ to execute Abdullah ibn Ubayy. The Prophet ﷺ declined, saying that he did not want it said among the Arabs that Muhammad kills his own companions. The Quran addressed the incident directly in Surah al-Munafiqun (63), confirming that Abdullah ibn Ubayy had indeed said what was reported, but supporting the Prophet's ﷺ decision not to execute him: "They are the enemy, so beware of them."

The Marriage to Juwayriyah

Among the captives from Banu al-Mustaliq was Juwayriyah bint al-Harith, daughter of the tribe's chief. She fell to Thabit ibn Qays as her captor and arranged to purchase her freedom through a kitabah (contract of emancipation). She came to the Prophet ﷺ to request his help in completing the payment. The Prophet ﷺ offered an alternative: he would pay her ransom and marry her. She accepted.

The effect of this marriage was immediate and extraordinary. When the companions learned that Juwayriyah had become the Prophet's ﷺ wife, they said that the people of Banu al-Mustaliq had become the in-laws of the Prophet ﷺ — and they freed every captive they held from the tribe. Aishah later said: "I know of no woman who was a greater blessing to her people than Juwayriyah." The entire tribe — which had been at war with the Muslim community and whose members had been taken captive — was freed through a single marriage, not through ransom or negotiation but through the Prophet's ﷺ decision to make their chief's daughter a member of his household.

The Battle's Place in the Seerah

The Battle of Banu al-Mustaliq is important not primarily for the military engagement — which was minor — but for the three other events it contained: the tribal dispute at the well and the Prophet's ﷺ strong rejection of tribal loyalties, the hypocrisy of Abdullah ibn Ubayy and the revelation of Surah al-Munafiqun, and the marriage to Juwayriyah that freed an entire tribe. It is also the expedition on which Aishah was left behind inadvertently and the incident of the ifk (the false accusation of adultery) began — events covered in a separate entry. The expedition of Banu al-Mustaliq concentrated within a single campaign the major social, political, and personal tensions of the Medinan period. It demonstrated that the Jahiliyyah tribal identities — however deep their roots — could reassert themselves without warning and required constant prophetic correction, that the hypocrites remained dangerous not through open opposition but through rumor and divisive speech, and that the Prophet's ﷺ capacity for mercy (in the marriage to Juwayriyah that freed an entire captured tribe) was as much a political and military instrument as any sword. The marriage to Juwayriyah in particular illustrates a pattern that runs through the Prophet's ﷺ marriages during the Medinan period: alliances sealed through family connection, communities brought into the Muslim fold not through subjugation but through the recognition of shared bonds — and the resulting expansion of mercy outward in circles that the force of arms alone could never have achieved.

Sources: Sahih al-Bukhari (Kitab al-Maghazi, Kitab al-Nikah); Sahih Muslim; Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah; Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra; Surah al-Munafiqun (63)