As a child, she was lovely and most endearing, the favorite of all her family. As a young woman, she was sought after by the most distinguished men among her own people. Besides, her family was highly distinguished for learning. Her father was a rabbi of high distinction, living in Yathrib, the old name of Madinah, among the Jews who had immigrated there to await the advent of the last of God’s prophets and messengers. His knowledge was such that he could easily recognize the Prophet in one meeting, because all divine scriptures, in their original forms, included good descriptions of the man God would be sending to deliver His last message to mankind.
Huyayy ibn Akhtab was her father, and he certainly heard of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) when he was still advocating his message in Makkah. Later on, when Islam began to make its way into Madinah with the early converts among its people, Huyayy was eagerly awaiting a chance to establish the truth about Muhammad, realizing that Madinah was to be the place to which the last Prophet would migrate. When this happened, and the Prophet arrived in Madinah, Huyayy sought to meet him to determine whether he was truly the last prophet or an impostor. How did that meeting go? We have this report by his daughter, Safiyyah:
“I was my father’s favorite child, and I was also the favorite of my uncle, Abu Yasir. They would never see me with a child of either of them without picking me up in preference to the other child. When God’s Messenger arrived in Madinah and stayed at Quba’, my father, Huyay ibn Akhtab and my uncle, Abu Yasir, went to see him before sunrise. They did not return home until sunset. They were so tired when they came back that they could have dropped as they walked. My face was beaming with a smile as I went toward them. Neither, however, took any notice of me, because they were obviously very depressed. I heard my uncle, Abu Yasir, say to my father, Huyay: “Is it truly he?” My father answered: “Yes, indeed. By God, it is he.” My uncle said: “Do you recognize him perfectly?” My father answered in the affirmative. Then my uncle asked: “What are you going to do?” My father answered: “By God, I will be his enemy as long as I live.”
Later events proved that Huyayy was true to his word, standing in determined opposition to the Prophet and to Islam, raising forces and forging alliances to try to suppress Islam and eradicate the Muslims. Why should he do that? Why does a man of religion stand in opposition to a messenger of God when he has determined that he is delivering God’s true message? Huyayy looked at the fact that Muhammad was not of Jewish descent as a great disaster that meant that the divine message was no longer entrusted to the Israelites. His pride would not allow him to follow a Gentile. Yet he could have stopped at that and refused to follow Islam. No one would have bothered him, had he chosen to do so. But he went further than that. He wanted to prove to God that His choice of a messenger was wrong by defeating Muhammad and killing him if he could manage that.
He was behind more than one attempt to assassinate the Prophet and he raised armies to attack Madinah. His hostility echoed that of Abu Jahl who was also motivated by tribal pride to oppose Islam, but Huyayy was the more dangerous and more hostile conspirator. Yet his daughter was to become the Prophet’s wife.
