had been Gracious and taught them the greeting of the dwellers of the Paradise: “peace be upon you!”
To a question raised by the Prophet (Peace be upon him), about his object, ‘Umair said that he had  come to see that his captured son was well treated. As for the sword, which the Prophet (Peace be  upon  him) asked him about, he cursed it and said that it gained them nothing. On exhorting him to tell his  real goal, he remained obdurate and did not divulge the secret meeting with Safwan. Here the Prophet
(Peace be upon him) got impatient and he himself revealed to ‘Umair his secret mission. ‘Umair was  taken by surprise, and incredible astonishment seized him, and immediately bore witness to the
Messengership of Muhammad (Peace be upon him) He then began to entertain Allâh’s praise for  having  been guided to the ‘Straight Path’. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) was pleased and asked his
Companions to teach ‘Umair the principles of Islam, recite to him the Noble Qur’ân and release his son  from captivity.
Safwan, meanwhile, was still entertaining false illusions as to the approaching redemption of honour,  and burying the memory of Badr into oblivion. He was impatiently awaiting ‘Umair’s news but to his  great surprise, he was told that the man had embraced Islam and changed into a devoted believer.
‘Umair later came back to Makkah where he started to call people unto Islam and he did actually  manage to convert a lot of Makkans into Islam.
INVASION OF BANI QAYNUQA:
We have already spoken about the treaty that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) signed with the Jews.
He was very careful to abide by it to the letter and the Muslims did not show the least violation of any  of its provisions. The Jews, however, whose natural disposition is closely linked to treachery, betrayal  and covenant-breaching, could not rid themselves of the tradition of theirs, and started a process of  intrigues and troublemaking with the aim of producing schism in the growing solid Muslim ranks. Here  is a relevant model of their behaviour: Shas bin Qais, an elderly Jew, a terrible disbeliever and a  greatly  envious man of the Muslims, passed by a group of Muhammad (Peace be upon him) followers of Aws  and Khazraj. He perceived a prevalent spirit of reconciliation and an atmosphere of rapport and amity  enveloping the whole group; an unusual scene categorically in conflict with the animosity and hatred  that characterized their pre-Islam behaviour. He, therefore, sent a youth of his to sit among them,  remind them of Bu‘ath war between them and recite some of their verses which they used to compose  satirizing each other; all of this with the intention of sowing the seeds of discord and disagreement  and  undermining the new Islamically-orientated inter-tribal relations. The youth did in fact succeed and  the  two parties at no time recalled the old days and pre-Islam tribal fanaticism sprang to the front to bring  about a state of war.
The Prophet (Peace be upon him) was reported of this account, and immediately, at the head of some
Emigrants, set out to see to the situation. He began to rebuke them but in the manner of the great  instructor and the tolerant spirit of the understanding guide: “O, Muslims! Do you still advance pre-
Islamic arguments after I have been sent to you (as a Messenger). Remember that it is not rightful for  you to turn backward after Allâh has guided you to the Straight Path, delivered you from disbelief and  created amity between you.” The Muslims readily realized that it was a Satanic whim and a plot  hatched  by the enemies. They directly embraced each other and went back home quite satisfied and in full  obedience to the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him).
Such were the practices of the , trouble-making, dissension-sowing, falsehood-fabrication, faking  belief  in the day, and practising disbelief at night. In everyday life, they used to tighten the ropes of  financial  dealings on the Muslims. If they happened to owe a Muslim something, they would shirk their  obligations on grounds that he had converted into a new religion and they would allege the basis of  agreement was no longer valid. If it was the other way, they would never cease to harass him day and  night to pay back the debt, all of which in a desperate attempt to demolish the great edifice of the  new  religion that was rapidly gaining ground and speedily towering up skyward.
THE QAINUQA' JEWS BREACH THE COVENANT:
Seeing that Allâh sided with the believers and granted them a manifest victory and perceiving the
Muslims’ awesome presence in Madinah, the Jews could no longer contain themselves or conceal