Whomsoever among the men of the Jews you overcome, kill him.' Accordingly Muhaisah ¹ ibn Mas'ud attacked and killed one of the Jewish merchants, a man who used to deal and do business with them, Ibn Subainah ^.2 And Huwaisah ibn Mas'ud had not yet, when that occurred, become a Muslim. He was older than Muhaisah. When (Muhaisah) had killed him (Ibn Subainah), Huwaisah began to beat him and to say, O enemy of God, hast thou slain him? Certainly, by God, it was to increase the fat in thy belly by means of his property.' Muhaisah [in telling the story] said, 'I said, By God, if he who commanded me to kill him bade me kill thee, I should surely behead thee.' He said, By God, it was indeed the beginning of Huwaisah's conversion to Islam. He said, 'God! If Muhammad bade thee kill me, wouldest thou really kill me?' (Muhaisah) said 'Yes, by God: had he commanded me to cut off thine head, I should have done it.' (Huwaisah) said, ' By God, this religion has verily attained to something wonderful in thy case.' Accordingly Huwaisah became a Muslim. Ibn Ishaq says: ' A client of the Banu Harithah told me this tradition on the authority of Muhaisah's daughter (who had heard the story) from her father Muhaisah. '"

A slightly different account of Huwaisah's conversion to Islam is given by Ibn Hisham himself ³ from another source. But it varies very little from this, and represents (as this account does) his conversion as due to terror at another murder committed by Muhaisah, also by Muhammad's command.

Ibn Ishaq' account of the murder of Salam ibn Abil Huqaiq is another instance of the kind of deed which Muhammad sanctioned. He tells us that there

was rivalry between the two tribes of the Ansars, Aus and Khazraj, each being resolved that the other should not excel it in zeal for Islam and Muhammad. Accordingly, he says, "When the Aus had destroyed Ka'b ibnu'l Ashraf in his enmity towards the Apostle of God, the Khazraj said, 'By God, they shall never excel us in this: Accordingly they consulted one another as to what man was in hostility to the Apostle of God, like Ibnu'l Ashraf: and they remembered Ibn Abi'l Huqaiq, and he was at Khaibar. Therefore they asked permission of the Apostle of God to slay him, and he gave them leave. Accordingly five men of the Khazraj, of the Banu Salmah, five persons, set out unto him, 'Abdu'llah ibn 'Utaik and Mas'ud ibn Sana and 'Abdu'llah ibn Unais and Abu Qatadatu'l Harith ibn Rab'i and Khaza'i ibn Aswad, one of their confederates, who had embraced Islam. Accordingly they set out. And the Apostle of God placed in command of them 'Abdu'llah ibn 'Utaik, and forbade them to kill a child or a woman. They went forward until they came to Khaibar. They came during the night to the village of Ibn Abi'l Huqaiq. They did not visit a house in the village without fastening it upon its inmates. And (Ibn Abi'l Huqaiq) was in an upper room of his, to which there was a staircase. Accordingly they ascended by it until they stood at his door. They asked permission to come in to him. His wife came out to them. She said, 'Who are you?' They said, 'Men of the Arabs: we are' seeking for corn.' She said, 'There is your friend, go in to him.' When they went in to him, we locked the room upon ourselves and upon her, ¹ through fear lest, if there should be a combat over him, she should intervene between us and him. Therefore his wife cried out and screamed at us. We came unexpectedly upon him with our swords: (he was in his bed) : and, by God, in the blackness of the night nothing directed us to him except his pallor, [which looked] as if he had been