Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)

Qureysh, raised the siege in disgust. And when Ghaṭafân one morning found Qureysh had gone, they too departed for their homes.

On the very day when the Muslims returned from the trench, began the siege of the traitorous Banî Qureyẓah in their towers of refuge. It lasted for twenty-five days. When they at length surrendered some of the tribe of Aûs, whose adherents they were, asked the Prophet to show them the same grace that he had shown to the tribe of Khazraj, in the case of Banî Naḍîr, in allowing them to intercede for their dependents.

The Prophet said: “Would you like that one of you should decide concerning them?” They said: “Yes,” and he appointed Sa‘d ibn Mu‘âdh, a great chief of Aûs, who had been wounded and was being cared for in the Mosque. Sa‘d was sent for and he ordered their men to be put to death, their women and children to be made captive, and their property to be divided among the Muslims at the Prophet’s will.

I have taken this account from the narrative of Ibn Khaldûn, which is concise, rather than from that in Ibn Hishâm, which is exceedingly diffuse, the two accounts being in absolute agreement. Vv. 26 and 27 refer to the punishment of Banî Qureyẓah.

In v. 37 the reference is to the unhappy marriage of Zeyd, the Prophet’s freedman and adopted son, with Zeynab, the Prophet’s cousin, a proud lady of Qureysh. The Prophet had arranged the marriage with the idea of breaking down the old barrier of pride of caste, and had shown but little consideration for Zeynab’s feelings. Tradition says that both she and her brother were averse to the match, and that she had always wished to marry the Prophet. For Zeyd, the marriage was nothing but a cause of embarrassment and humiliation. When the Prophet’s attention was first called to their unhappiness, he urged Zeyd to keep his wife and not divorce her, being apprehensive of the talk that would arise if it became known that a marriage arranged by him had proved unhappy. At last, Zeyd did actually divorce Zeynab, and the Prophet was commanded to marry her in order, by his example, to disown the superstitious custom of the pagan Arabs, in such matters, of treating their adopted sons as their real sons, which was against the laws of God (i.e. the laws of nature); whereas in arranging a marriage, the woman’s inclinations ought to be considered. Unhappy marriage was no part of Allah’s ordinance, and was not to be held sacred in Islâm.