For this reason they planned to create mischief and thought...

For this reason they planned to create mischief and thought, on account of their wealth and the influence which they wielded in Madina, that they would be able to subdue the shelter less Prophet (S) and his followers. It is evident that the Prophet (S) could not yield to the enmity of the Jews and if he had surrendered to their strength and influence, it would have been as good as his having proclaimed his own defeat.

In view of this he, in the first instance, warned the Jews of Bani Qaynuqa and then those of Bani Nazir to refrain from creating trouble. As, however, they did not pay any heed to the warnings, he was obliged to give orders regarding their expulsion and they left the city in a state of great humiliation and helplessness and thus saved their lives.

They were not allowed to carry away anything except the provisions for their journey up to Khayber (in the interior of the Hijaz) or Azra'at (situated in Syria).

On the other side were the Arabs of Ghati'an and Huzayl and other tribes of the suburbs, and similarly the tribes of Najd and the frontiers of Syria, who were seeing the phantom of the new system, felt that Islam had brought its own rules and was inviting people to work and make efforts so that they might lead their lives in this manner, instead of indulging in fighting and plundering.

They had therefore, sharpened their stings like a monster and were clutching at the face of the Holy Prophet (S) and had become a barrier before his reforms. They were afraid that the new system would eradicate the very foundations of their tribal life and the ways of their plundering.

In short, Quraysh in Makkah, his neighbours the Jews of Madina, the Arabs of Ghatfan and Huzayl, the tribes living in nearby places and those belonging to Najd and the frontiers of Syria, and so to say the entire Arab world had risen and mobilized against him. Although Islam had become sufficiently strong, the enemies of Islam who had cooperated with one another possessed a great strength. Apart from that, in those days the Holy Prophet (S) was faced with a group of hypocrites.

The hypocrisy of these persons was reckoned to be a weak point of Islam and a proof of the slackness of its authority, and the enemy could break the fort of Islam through this way and enter it.