He requested the Prophet to help them and to avenge the blood of the oppressed.

He requested the Prophet to help them and to avenge the blood of the oppressed. In the end of his verses he said: "O Prophet of Allah! While some of us were at the bank of the water of Wateer and others were offering prayers the idolatrous Quraysh, who had signed a non-aggression pact covering a period of ten years, fell upon our unprotected and unarmed people at midnight and massacred them".

He repeated this verse: "They massacred us while we were Muslims", many times to arouse the sentiments and the spirit of swordsmanship of the Muslims. The stirring verses of the chief of the tribe had their effect. The Prophet turned to 'Amr in the presence of a large number of Muslims and said: "O 'Amr bin Salam! We shall assist you".

This decisive reply gave a wonderful peace of mind to 'Amr, because he became sure that the Prophet would very soon avenge the fate of Bani Khuza'ah upon Quraysh, who were the real cause of the tragic event. However, he could not imagine that this task would bring about the conquest of Makkah and the end of the oppressive rule of Quraysh. Soon afterwards Budayl bin Warqa' came to the Prophet along with a group of the people of Bani Khuza'ah to seek help.

He informed him of the co-operation of Quraysh with Bani Bakr about the striking and killing the men of Bani Khuza'ah, and then they proceeded to Makkah. The Prophet's Decision Makes Quraysh Uneasy Quraysh regretted very much what they had done, and realized that they had provided a very dangerous pretext to the Muslims and had committed an act which violated the very spirit of the pact and its terms.

With a view to pacifying the Prophet and to seek the confirmation and strengthening of the ten years' pact, (and according to one version) for its extension,[^2] they sent their leader, Abu Sufyan, to Madina so that he might hide their crimes and transgression by all possible means. He proceeded to Madina and on the way he met Budayl, the leader of Bani Khuza'ah, at a place called Asfan situated near Makkah.

He enquired from Budayl whether he had been to Madina and had informed Muhammad of the recent developments. Budayl replied that he had gone to see his oppressed kinsmen and to console them, and had not at all been to Madina. Saying this he proceeded to Makkah. However, Abu Sufyan broke the dung of his camel and found in it the stones of the palm-dates peculiar to Madina. He, therefore, became sure that Budayl had gone to Madina to see the Prophet.