The Banu Qurayza Incident
The Battle of Banu Qurayza (627 CE) occurred after the Qurayza were judged to have violated their treaty with the Muslims during the Siege of Medina. Sa’d ibn Mu’adh, whom both the Qurayza and the Prophet agreed to accept as arbiter, decreed the execution of the fighting men and the distribution of women and children.
Rayhana was among those distributed. The Prophet chose her.
He offered her freedom and marriage. She asked for time. The sources record that she was in deep grief over her tribe’s fate, and initially declined to accept Islam. The Prophet said: “If you accept Islam, I will keep you for myself.”
Her Status in the Household
The classical sources are genuinely divided on Rayhana’s status:
One group: She remained a slave concubine, never accepting formal marriage, and later accepted Islam. She died before the Prophet.
Another group: She eventually accepted formal marriage (nikah) and became one of the wives, though she is not consistently counted among the Ummahat al-Mu’minin (Mothers of the Believers).
Ibn Sa’d in the Tabaqat treats her as a wife; Ibn Hazm and others dispute this.
Her story resists clean categorization — which itself is part of what makes it historically significant: the Prophet’s household included a range of relationships more complex than the formal lists of nine wives suggest.
See also: Seerah Safiyya Bint Huyayy, Seerah Khadijah, Seerah Aisha, Prophet Muhammad, Hijra, Fiqh Al Nikah