" The Quranic voice quickly came into play to counteract the shocking image of believers destroying date orchards: “Whatever you believers have done to their trees, whether cutting them down or uprooting them, was done by God’s leave, so that he might disgrace those who defied him.”4 This was the fault not of the believers but of men like ibn-Ubayy: “Consider the hypocrites who say to their fellows, the faithless among the People of the Book, ‘We would never listen to anyone who sought to harm you, and if you are attacked, we shall certainly come to your aid. "

― Lesley Hazleton , The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad