The Second Jewish Tribe

Banu al-Nadir was the second of Medina's three major Jewish tribes to break its covenant with the Prophet ﷺ and face expulsion. They occupied fertile agricultural land south of Medina, living in fortified settlements with orchards and date palms that made them among the wealthiest communities in the region. Like Banu Qaynuqa before them, they had signed the Constitution of Medina and were formally allied with the Muslim community against external attack. Unlike Banu Qaynuqa — whose expulsion came after an incident in the marketplace — Banu al-Nadir's breach involved a direct assassination attempt against the Prophet ﷺ himself.

The events occurred in Rabi' al-Awwal 4 AH. The Prophet ﷺ visited Banu al-Nadir to ask their assistance in paying the blood money for two men who had been killed by a companion who had misunderstood a previous arrangement. This was a legitimate request under the covenant — blood money obligations were shared between the tribes. Banu al-Nadir agreed to discuss it, and the Prophet ﷺ sat against a wall of one of their houses while they deliberated. What followed, according to the narrations, was a plan that never reached execution: a man climbed to the roof above where the Prophet ﷺ sat with the intention of dropping a large stone on him. Jibril warned the Prophet ﷺ of the plot before it could be carried out. The Prophet ﷺ rose, left, and returned to Medina.

The Ultimatum and the Siege

The Prophet ﷺ sent a message to Banu al-Nadir: they had ten days to leave Medina. They had violated the covenant by plotting against his life. If any of them were found in Medina after ten days, they would be killed.

Initially, Banu al-Nadir began preparing to leave. Then Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul — the hypocrite leader who had also interceded for Banu Qaynuqa — sent word encouraging them to stay. He promised to send two thousand fighters to their defense and said that Banu Qurayza would also join them. This message encouraged Banu al-Nadir to refuse the expulsion order and fortify themselves in their compounds.

The Prophet ﷺ besieged them. The promised support from Abdullah ibn Ubayy never came — the hypocrites did not send fighters. Banu Qurayza, honoring their own obligations under the covenant, did not join the revolt. After approximately fifteen days of siege, with no relief coming, Banu al-Nadir agreed to leave on the condition that they could take what they could carry on camels — one camel load each, with the exception of armor and weapons.

The Departure

The departure of Banu al-Nadir from Medina was, by various accounts, a spectacle of determined dignity in defeat. They loaded their belongings, with women dressed in their finest jewelry, playing instruments as they left — a display of pride intended to demonstrate that they were leaving by choice, not in humiliation. They went primarily to Khaybar, the Jewish fortress-city to the north, though some went to Syria. Their departure was permanent — Banu al-Nadir as a Medinan community ceased to exist.

Their agricultural land and property — the orchards, the houses, the stores of grain and armor — fell to the Muslim community. The Quran addressed this directly in Surah al-Hashr (59): "Whatever Allah has given to His Messenger from the people of the towns — it is for Allah and the Messenger and for near relatives and orphans and the needy and the traveler." This surah is sometimes called Surah Banu al-Nadir. It addresses the theological justification for the expulsion, the principle governing how captured property should be distributed, and the nature of the hypocrisy that Banu al-Nadir had relied on and that failed them.

The Quranic Reflection

Surah al-Hashr (59:1-17) is the most direct Quranic commentary on the expulsion. Verse 2 is striking: "He it is who expelled those who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture from their homes at the first gathering. You did not think they would leave, and they thought that their fortresses would protect them from Allah. But Allah came to them from where they had not expected, and He cast terror into their hearts — they were destroying their own homes with their own hands and the hands of the believers." The verse identifies the terror in their hearts, not the military siege, as the decisive factor — and notes that they destroyed their own homes before leaving, so the Muslim army could not benefit from intact buildings.

The surah then warns the hypocrites — those who had promised support and failed to deliver — about their fate and their fundamental unreliability. The surah's placement in the Quran — addressing a specific historical event and drawing from it universal principles about divine sovereignty, the nature of betrayal, and the failure of false alliances — makes it one of the most instructive surahs in the Medinan corpus. It closes with some of the most celebrated divine attributes in the Quran (59:22-24): "He is Allah, other than whom there is no god — the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Most Gracious, the Ever-Merciful. He is Allah, other than whom there is no god — the Sovereign, the Holy, the Giver of Peace, the Granter of Security, the Guardian over all, the All-Mighty, the Compeller, the Supremely Great. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him." The closing of a surah about a specific military and political event with these transcendent divine attributes is characteristic of Quranic style: the particular historical moment is placed within an infinite frame, reminding the reader that the expulsion of Banu al-Nadir was not simply a political achievement but an act of divine governance — and that the attributes of sovereignty, holiness, and all-encompassing knowledge that close the surah are the same attributes that governed the events described within it.

Sources: Sahih al-Bukhari (Kitab al-Maghazi); Sahih Muslim; Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah; Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra; Surah al-Hashr (59:1-24)