Zaynab bint Al-Harith

Her family were of Yemenite origin. They emigrated to the Hejaz region. Her father, Al-Harith ibn Al-Harith, and his two brothers, Marhab ibn Al-Harith and Yasir, were famous warrior-poets.[1][2] Zaynab appears to have been a firstborn child, as her father bore the kunya “Abu Zaynab”. However, she also had a brother, Al-Harith ibn Al-Harith.[3]

In summer 625 members of the Nadhir tribe arrived in Khaybar, having been exiled from Medina by Muhammad.[4] Among them was Sallam ibn Mishkam al-Nadiri, a warrior-poet whom Zaynab in due course married.[5][6] Some sources suggest that Sallam and Zeynab had a son, Kharija.[7]

Muhammad besieged Khaybar in June 628. Zaynab, along with the other women and children, was barricaded in the fortresses of al-Khatiba, while her husband Sallam commanded the resistance from the Natat area. He was killed in battle on the first day, and Zaynab’s brother Al-Harith took over the defence of Khaybar.[8]

Nine days later, Ali managed to penetrate the fortress of Na’im. Zaynab’s father challenged the Muslims to single combat and killed several of them before Ali killed Al-Harith. Marhab ibn Al-Harith then stepped forward to avenge his brother, but after a bloody battle, Ali also killed him. (An alternative version states that Muhammad ibn Maslama was the one who killed Marhab.) Marhab’s brother Yasir then ran out to avenge him, and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam killed him.[9] After this, a general battle broke out; the Jews were defeated when the Muslims killed Zaynab’s brother Al-Harith.[10][11]

Over the next ten days, Zaynab witnessed civilians, weapons and treasures being brought into the safety of the al-Khatiba fortresses while the Muslims captured the forts in the Natat and Al-Shiqq areas. Civilians were moved around by night as the weaker forts were conquered. Finally the invaders spent a month attacking the three fortresses of al-Khatiba. There was no actual fighting, but the defenders could not withstand the siege indefinitely because Muhammad cut off their water supplies; and so they surrendered.[12][13]

As the leaders went to Muhammad to negotiate the terms of surrender, soldiers ran into the castles to collect weapons, treasures and captives. It was presumably from these warriors that Zaynab was able to enquire about Muhammad’s favourite food. On hearing it was shoulder of lamb, she killed a lamb (some versions say a goat) from her flock, seasoned the shoulder with a deadly poison and roasted it. When the treaty negotiations were finished, Zaynab pushed her way into Muhammad’s presence and offered him the meal as a gift.[14][15]

Narrated Ibn Shihab:
Jabir ibn Abdullah used to say that a woman from the inhabitants of Khaybar poisoned a roasted sheep and presented it to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who took its foreleg and ate from it. A group of his companions also ate with him. The Messenger of Allah then said: Take your hands away (from the food). The Messenger of Allah then sent someone to the woman and he called her. He said to her: Have you poisoned this sheep? The woman replied: Who has informed you? He said: This I foreleg which I have in my hand has informed me. She said: Yes. He said: What did you intend by it? She said: I thought if you were a prophet, it would not harm you; if you were not a prophet, we should rid ourselves of him (i.e. the Prophet). The Messenger of Allah then forgave her, and did not punish her. But some of his companions who ate it, died. The Messenger of Allah had himself cupped on his shoulder on account of that which he had eaten from the sheep. It has been a Jewish knowledge that there will be a prophet at the end. He will not be killed and will die natural death. Banu Nadhir's Jews made many attempts to kill Prophet Muhammad to prove that he is not a true prophet but failed. This attempt was perhaps last one. Abu Hind cupped him with the horn and knife. He was a client of Banu Bayadah from the Ansar.
—Sunan Abu Dawood 4510

Ibn Ishaq states that she considered if he was a real prophet, he would be informed of her deed.

When the apostle had rested, Zaynab d. al-Harith, the wife of Sallam b. Mishkam prepared for him a roast lamb, having first inquired what joint he preferred. When she learned that it was the shoulder she put a lot of poison in it and poisoned the whole lamb. Then she brought it in and placed it before him. He took hold of the shoulder and chewed a morsel of it, but he did not swallow it. Bishr b. al-Bara b. Ma’rur who was with him took some of it as the apostle had done, but he swallowed it, while the apostle spat it out, saying, ‘This bone tells me that it is poisoned.’ Then he called for the woman and she confessed, and when he asked her what had induced her to do this she answered: ‘You know what you have done to my people. I said to myself, If he is a king I shall ease myself of him and if he is a prophet he will be informed (of what I have done).’ So the apostle let her off. Bishr died from what he had eaten.
Marwan b. Uthman b. Abu Sa’id b. al-Mu’alla told me: The apostle had said in his illness of which he was to die when Umm Bishr d. al-Bara came to visit him, ‘O Umm Bishr, this is the time in which I feel a deadly pain from what I ate with your brother at Khaybar.’ The Muslims considered that the apostle had died as a martyr in addition to the prophetic office with which God had honoured him.
- The Life of Muhammad, p. 516

Another version says that when she attempted to kill him, Muhammad declared that Allah wouldn’t allow her. However, it still left an effect on his mouth:

Anas reported that a woman came to Allah's Messenger with poisoned mutton and he took of that what had been brought to him (Allah's Messenger). (When the effect of this poison were felt by him) he called for her and asked her about that, whereupon she said: I had determined to kill you. Thereupon he said: Allah will never give you the power to do it. He (the narrator) said that they (the Companion's of the Holy Prophet) said: Should we not kill her? Thereupon he said: No. He (Anas) said: I felt (the affects of this poison) on the uvula of Allah's Messenger.
—Sahih Muslim 2190a

The Muslims asked if they should kill Zaynab, but Muhammad replied, “No.”[16][17]

Hadiths attributed to Aisha[18] and Anas ibn Malik[19] mention that Muhammad on his deathbed remembered the excruciating pain from when he was poisoned.[20]

Umm Bishr [the stepmother of Bishr ibn al-Baraa] came to the prophet during his illness and said, "O apostle of Allah! I never saw fever like it in any one." The prophet said to her, "Our trial is double and so our reward [in heaven] is double. What do the people say about it [his illness]?" She said, "They say it is pleurisy." Thereupon the apostle said, "Allah will not like to make His apostle suffer from it (pleurisy) because it indicates the possession of Satan, but (my disease is the result of) the morsel that I had taken along your son."[21].

In his deathbed mentioned the pain of the poisoning which he suffered:

Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet in his ailment in which he died, used to say, "O 'Aisha! I still feel the pain caused by the food I ate at Khaibar, and at this time, I feel as if my aorta is being cut from that poison."—Sahih al-Bukhari 4428

A hadith of Sunan Abu Dawud says that Muhammad had himself cupped to heal himself from the poison. Other hadiths do not mention cupping. Another hadith of Sunan Abu Dawud has Muhammad stating that he thought the lamb was behind his illness.[22]

Other traditions ascribe the blame generally on tribe of Khaybar for trying to poison Muhammad.[23][24][25]

A year later, when Bishr ibn al-Bara died, Zaynab was handed over to Bishr’s relatives. They exacted their right of blood-vengeance and killed her.[26][27]