Читать книгу Muhammad: His Character and Conduct - Adil Salahi - Страница 9
ОглавлениеCHAPTER 2
SUMMARY OF EVENTS DURING THE PROPHET’S LIFETIME
AS A MATURE MAN OF FORTY, Muhammad was now also a Prophet. It took some time for him to be reassured of his role, and in this Khadījah played an important part. She was certain that her husband – clearly a man of moral rectitude and wisdom – could have nothing to do with the world of evil. Eventually, with reassurance came belief. Muhammad now believed in God’s Oneness and in the absolute falsehood of the idols that were worshipped by the Arabs. Once this was firmly established, the next stage was ushered in, and he became God’s Messenger, with the task to make the right faith known to people and to call on them to believe in it and to bring their daily life in accordance with it. He was told:
You, wrapped in your cloak, arise and give warning. Glorify your Lord’s greatness; clean your garments; stay away from all filth; do not hold up what you give away, showing it to be much; but to your Lord turn in patience. (74: 1-7)
In the first revelation, God told him to read. Bearing in mind that Muhammad was unlettered, this meant recitation from memory: an action that initially had little bearing on others. However, he was then told to arise and give warning. This was no longer a passive action to be performed for and by himself. Rather, this required interaction with others, as he was to warn them that they needed to believe in God’s Oneness and abide by His commands. Muhammad (peace be upon him) henceforth known by his titles of the Prophet and God’s Messenger – accepted both tasks and went about performing them as best as he could, praying to God to help him and trusting in His support. Following Divine guidance, he began to approach people, explaining to them his role and message and calling on them to accept Islam: the new faith whose very name means total submission to God.
On God’s instructions the Prophet began his mission in private, speaking to individuals who were close to him and whom he could trust. A family unit of Muslims was soon formed which included Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, who was around thirty years of age, Khadījah, and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the Prophet’s young cousin whom he had taken into his home to ease his uncle’s burden as Makkah went through hard times. Abū Bakr, the Prophet’s close friend, also accepted Islam without hesitation. Other recruits soon followed, including the Prophet’s daughters, Abū Ṭālib’s wife Fāṭimah bint Asad, and Umm Ayman. Young men, such as Talḥah ibn ʿUbaydillah, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ and Saʿīd ibn Zayd, came forward, as did ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir and his parents Yāsir and Sumayyah. A small Muslim community thus came into existence. Although the advocacy of the new faith continued in secret, the Quraysh elders noticed that something was going on. However, they did not bother to look into this, as they assumed it could represent no danger to their established social order.
Three years later, the Prophet was instructed to make his message public and to call on people to accept it. As he was to prove throughout his career, he never shrank from the fulfilment of a duty. Therefore, he addressed his immediate Hāshim clan, and invited them for a meal. He compassionately appealed to them to accept Islam, as this would save them from the social ills that plagued their materialistic way of life and give them a future life to look forward to. He also addressed all the clans of the Quraysh, standing on al-Ṣafā hill, near the Kaʿbah, and made it clear to them that God had entrusted him with a message that was applicable to all mankind in all generations. In both cases, he was met with hostile reception, particularly from his uncle Abū Lahab.
The confrontation did not result in much trouble at the beginning; but soon the Makkan chiefs realized that the message of Islam was steadily gaining recruits from the people who belonged to their various clans. The message heralded a fundamental change to the social order that, at the time, gave the chiefs their privileges and kept the slaves, the poor and the weak at their mercy, as Islam advocated an equitable distribution of wealth. Most importantly, it threatened the religious authority that the Quraysh exercised over the entire Arabian Peninsula. The Quraysh elders could not take the Prophet personally to task, because he was protected by his clan, and the elders did not want a feud to occur within their community. They tried to negotiate some arrangements that would silence the message of Islam, but Muhammad would accept no compromise, and the negotiations broke down more than once. Every time this occurred, the breakdown ushered in a period of persecution of the weaker elements, who became Muslims. The atmosphere in Makkah became much tenser: the threat of a bloody confrontation increased, as hardliners among the unbelievers became far more vocal, advocating the need to put an effective stop to the call to Islam. In 615 CE, two years after having gone public, the Prophet advised many of his followers to immigrate to Abyssinia, a country “ruled by a just king, where you may have a safe haven.”1
A total of eighty-three men and nineteen women immigrated to Abyssinia, where they were given asylum by Negus, its king. These represented about half the Muslim community in Makkah at the time. This immigration is often described by Muslim (and other) historians as a flight from persecution. However, a careful look at the names of the immigrants and their standing with their clans shows that they were not the target of the Quraysh campaign of persecution. They belonged to the most distinguished families and clans in Makkah and enjoyed the full protection of their clans. Thus, they could not come to any physical harm. Rather, those who bore the brunt of that campaign of persecution stayed in Makkah. The immigration was indeed a strategic measure, aiming at establishing a new base for Islam, where it could be advocated among the local population without fear of any harm. Some of those immigrants stayed in Abyssinia, on the Prophet’s orders, for fifteen years. They could have joined the Muslims in Madinah after the Prophet and his Companions settled there in 622 CE. Although some of them did, the more distinguished figures (including the Prophet’s own cousin, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib) remained in Abyssinia until the Prophet finally recalled them in 629. When they returned, they brought with them a large delegation of Abyssinian Muslims, who visited Madinah and pledged loyalty to the Prophet.
This immigration to Abyssinia might have averted an immediate danger that might have engulfed the entire Muslim community in Makkah. The Makkan chiefs remained hostile to Islam. They were unwilling to listen to its message, and administered harsh treatment to its advocates. However, they no longer felt that Islam represented a threat to their established order. The Prophet understood that his message was addressed to all mankind, not merely the Makkan society. Hence, he needed to bring it to others. His immediate target was the rest of the Arabian tribes. This group was not difficult to reach, as Makkah was the centre of an annual pilgrimage, where contingents from all tribes came over to perform the pilgrimage rituals, to venerate the major idols and to offer worship at the Kaʿbah. The pilgrimage had continued to be the focus of the life of the people of Makkah ever since the Prophets Abraham and Ishmael built it many centuries earlier. However, the Quraysh had distorted most of its rituals and introduced some weird practices: such as walking around the Kaʿbah naked. The presence of people from various tribes afforded an opportunity for the Prophet to address them and explain the message of Islam to them. Moreover, people came to Makkah at all times to visit the holy place and worship there. Some brought with them some goods to sell.
The Prophet sought to meet any visitor to Makkah and explain Islam to them. The idea of God’s Oneness was generally acceptable to the Arabs, even though the concept of God had long been twisted and distorted. The idols they worshipped in addition to God did not have a clear status in the thinking of the Arabs: they thought of them as partners with God, or assistants to Him, and they assumed that the idols would bring people closer to God. Indeed, the very concept of God was blurred in their minds. He was distant and vague. Therefore, the clear Islamic concept of God’s Oneness and the rejection of all partners appealed to many. However, there were some constraints that made most people hesitate or refrain from accepting Islam.
During the pilgrimage season, the Prophet went to the camps of different tribes and explained his message to them. Generally speaking, their response was hostile. The Quraysh mounted a counteroffensive, sending some of its most eloquent speakers to address the different tribes and warn them against listening to Muhammad. They made it clear that the Quraysh would consider any positive response to Islam as a hostile action and threatened military retaliation against any tribe that offered Muhammad such response. The Quraysh speakers also harped on the idea that had strong appeal in tribal society: that as Muhammad was the son of the Quraysh and they knew him well, they would have embraced his idea without hesitation, had it been any good. In the tribal system of Arabia, the tribe was always the benefactor of any of its sons or daughters who had something good to offer. If they stood solidly against someone, that person’s chances of success were heavily curtailed. Therefore, most of those tribes were more willing to listen to the Quraysh speakers and take their advice, rather than listen to the Prophet.
Moreover, the Quraysh started an effective smear campaign against the Prophet himself, describing him as a liar, a poet, a madman and a sorcerer. When they realized that using so many descriptions had become counterproductive, they held a conference to agree on what to say to pilgrim delegations. The conference reviewed all these options, realizing that none held much credibility. Ultimately, they agreed to say that he was a “sorcerer who had come up with vague recitations that generated discord between man and wife, and between brothers within the same family.” Most tribes listened to these arguments by the Quraysh and wanted nothing to do with the Prophet. They felt that they had more interests with the Quraysh than with an individual whose claims to receive revelations from on high could not be proven. Although some tribes were willing to listen to him, and were impressed with the superb beauty of the Qur’ān as he recited its passages and with the values it preached, they were unwilling to commit themselves, as they felt that they could be taking on something bigger than they could cope with.
Nevertheless, the Prophet continued to use the pilgrimage season as a platform to address the Arab people. He was certain that his message was a true message from God and it was to ultimately triumph. He was encouraged by the fact that individual converts continued to trickle in. No matter what verbal abuse the Quraysh hurled against him and his message, he continued to preach it undeterred. However, it was extremely painful to him to see the weaker elements among his followers being subjected to torture and physical pressure in attempts to turn them away from Islam. Indeed, some of those who belonged to higher families were imprisoned and tortured by their own families.
This overall situation continued to deteriorate. The hardliners among the Quraysh had been able to wrestle the initiative and impose biting sanctions on the Muslim community, and they wanted to expand this. They managed to carry the entire Quraysh with them in imposing a total economic and social boycott against the Hāshimite clan. They wrote down terms that specified that no one in the Quraysh would have any commercial dealings with any Hāshimite, not even selling them food, and that no marriage with them would be agreed upon until they handed Muhammad to the Quraysh to kill. The Hāshimites would not agree to such humiliation, and both the Muslims and the unbelievers among them endured the boycott with fortitude. Not everybody in the Quraysh were happy with the boycott, but they had to go ahead with it so as not to breach the traditions of their tribal society. Hence, the boycott lasted three years, until five people from different clans of the Quraysh successfully plotted its abrogation.
The ninth year of the Prophet’s mission was approaching its end when the boycott was ended. However, there was no sign that the Quraysh would moderate its stance of opposition to Islam. Abū Ṭālib continued to protect the Prophet, although he decided not to become a Muslim. However, Abū Ṭālib had reached old age, and a few months later he became ill. A number of the chiefs of the clans went to him, requesting him to negotiate some accommodation between them and the Prophet. The Prophet insisted that he could not change God’s message: they had to believe in God’s Oneness and that Muhammad was God’s Messenger. This was the last attempt at any sort of accommodation. Soon afterwards, Abū Ṭālib died, and a few weeks later, Khadījah also died. Thus, the Prophet was deprived of the care and support he received from his uncle in his public life and from his wife at home. The situation was becoming even more difficult for him.
The Prophet thought of taking his message to new areas. He travelled to Taif, a mountainous town approximately forty-five miles away, where the major tribe of Thaqīf lived. He spoke to its chiefs and to the public, but he experienced a very hostile reception. The chiefs of the Thaqīf set their slaves to chase him out of their town, and they hurled stones and other objects against him, so that his feet were bleeding as he finally took refuge in a garden belonging to two brothers, ʿUtbah and Shaybah, who were chiefs of the ʿAbd Shams clan of Quraysh. These brothers were unbelievers, but they were sympathetic to their tribesman, sending him a plate of grapes with a slave of theirs. When the chase was over, the Prophet moved away from Taif, returning to Makkah, but he felt he could not enter the city unprotected. He sent word to some of its chiefs, and al-Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdiyy, a distant uncle, provided him with protected entry. Before reaching Makkah, the Prophet sat down to reflect on his situation. He appealed most passionately for God’s support:
To You, My Lord, I complain of my weakness, lack of support and the humiliation I am made to receive.
Most Compassionate and Merciful! You are the Lord of the weak, and You are my Lord. To whom do You leave me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom You have given power over me?
If You are not displeased with me, I do not care what I face. I would, however, be much happier with Your mercy.
I seek refuge in the light of Your face by which all darkness is dispelled and both this life and the life to come are put on their right courses against incurring Your wrath or being the subject of Your anger. To You I submit, until I earn Your pleasure. Everything is powerless without Your support.2
At that point, the angel Gabriel came to tell him that God had granted his appeal: “Here with me is the angel in charge of mountains to take your instructions.” The angel of the mountains greeted him and said: “I am at your service. If you wish I can close the two mountains over their valley.” The Prophet said: “No. I hope that there will be among their offspring people who worship God alone, associating no partners with Him.” Some years later, the Prophet remarked that this episode of the trip to Taif was the hardest he had ever to face.
Back home in Makkah, the Quraysh felt that Muhammad was now vulnerable to their abuse. They compounded verbal abuse with physical assault by throwing dirt on him while he was engaged in his worship in the Grand Mosque. They challenged him with absurd demands. They stopped at nothing in trying to hurt him.
The year 620 was to witness the beginning of a transformation in the fortunes of Islam and its Prophet. First, he was taken on a night journey, when the angel Gabriel came to him, bringing a heavenly steed that travelled at high speed. Gabriel took the Prophet to Jerusalem, where he met all the earlier Prophets, including Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. He led a congregational prayer, and they all joined in. This was a symbol of the unity of God’s messages, brought to their fullness by the message of the Qur’ān. From Jerusalem, the angel took him up to heaven, where he was shown some of what those who are destined to hell will suffer and the great rewards for those who will be admitted to heaven. The prayer duty was amended to five prayers each day for all Muslims, throughout the year. The Prophet was then brought back to Makkah. This all happened within a few hours, and he returned at the time of the dawn prayer.
Some Muslim scholars maintain that this was a spiritual journey, and others say that it was all a very vivid dream. There is no need to say that this journey did not actually occur, because God is certainly able to accomplish whatever He wills. If he decides to take the Prophet, or anyone else, on a miraculous journey, He does so. This is just as easy for God as sending rain or wind, or making the earth suitable for human life, or giving a child the faculties of hearing and speech. People may say that these are natural laws, but it is God who has made them and set them in operation. The miraculous only seems so because it is unfamiliar to us. In fact, every aspect of life is a miracle and everything in the universe is miraculous: these things are all easy for God.
The Prophet’s willingness to report his night journey, given his hostile audience, was a mark of his strengthened and well-founded confidence in the truth of his message. He continued to preach with fresh zeal. By the time the next pilgrimage season approached, the Prophet was more determined than ever to carry his message to people outside Makkah, despite the growing difficulties he was facing. The pilgrimage season of 620 brought him a breath of hope and fresh air, as he met six pilgrims from Yathrib (later to be called Madinah). The Arab community in Yathrib was largely a farming community, and they lived side by side with a large Jewish community. The Jews used to boast of their monotheistic religion, telling the Arabs that they anticipated the emergence of a new Prophet who would be permitted to fight and use arms against his opponents. When trouble emerged between Arabs and Jews, the latter would threaten the Arabs, saying that they would follow the new Prophet and cause the Arabs to suffer a crushing defeat. Those six Arabs from Yathrib sat with the Prophet and listened to his exposition of his message and to his recitation of the Qur’ān. They were highly impressed and declared their acceptance of Islam. The Arabs of Yathrib belonged to two main tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj, who were often in war with each other. Those six told the Prophet: “We have left our people in a terrible state of division and enmity. If God brings about their unity through you, no one will be more honourable than you.” They promised to explain their new faith to their fellow tribesmen and to meet the Prophet again in the next pilgrimage season.
They kept their promise, bringing with them six others. In this second meeting, all twelve pledged themselves as firm believers in Islam. The terms of the pledge were: “We believe in God and associate no partner with Him. We shall not steal, commit adultery, kill our children, assert a falsehood with regard to the parenthood of our children, or disobey the Prophet in anything reasonable.” In this meeting, there was a discussion of the needs of the new Muslim community in Yathrib. The Prophet sent one of his most learned Companions, Muṣʿab ibn Umayr, with them to teach new Muslims the principles of Islam and the Qur’ān. Muṣʿab was also to organize the efforts of advocacy of Islam among the people of Yathrib. His mission was very successful, and Islam spread rapidly in Yathrib, with whole clans converting to the new faith. On his return to Makkah ten months later, Muṣʿab reported to the Prophet that the city offered a good base for Islam.
The pilgrimage season of the following year (622 CE), which was the thirteenth since the start of Islam, witnessed an unprecedented step in Arabia. The Prophet met with seventy-three men and two women from Yathrib, who were all Muslims. They were part of the pilgrimage contingent from the city. Under the cover of the night, they came out stealthily from their camp in Mina to meet the Prophet. They pledged to support him and declared themselves ready to make whatever sacrifices they would need to make. They asserted that they would fight anyone who would oppose him, and that they welcomed all Muslims in Makkah to come over to Yathrib, where they would share with them all they have. They agreed that together they would form a community separate from others, with the bond of Islam making them all a single nation (an ummah). Their only condition was that this new alliance would come into force once the Prophet had arrived in Yathrib.
Over the next three months all Muslims who could do so immigrated from Makkah to Yathrib. They travelled in small groups, taking with them only some small items they could carry. They abandoned their homes and businesses, and deserted their clans. Only those who were physically prevented from travelling stayed behind. The Prophet remained in Makkah with Abū Bakr and ʿAlī, his cousin, until he received instructions to travel. In the meantime, the Quraysh realized what was going on and feared the worst. In an emergency meeting, the chiefs of the clans considered all options and decided to move immediately to kill the Prophet. The plot was to choose a brave young man from each clan so as to share in the responsibility for the assassination. This method was agreed upon so that the Hāshimites would realize that they could not fight the rest of the Quraysh on their own. They would then accept blood money in compensation.
The Prophet managed to escape his would-be assassins and took every precaution to mislead them. He arrived in Madinah after two weeks, where he received a very warm welcome. He immediately set about organizing his new community, which consisted of the Muhājirūn (the immigrants from Makkah), and the Anṣār (the supporters who were the Muslims from Yathrib, which was henceforth called God’s Messenger’s city, or Madinah for short). The Prophet took four measures of great importance:
1. He built a mosque to serve as a place of worship, a school where Muslims learnt the details of their faith, a meeting place, and a government headquarters.
2. He established a strong bond of brotherhood between the Muhājirūn and the Anṣār, making one of each group a brother of one of the other group. This brotherhood was considered to be so important that it superseded the tribal bond.
3. He drew a covenant with the other groups in Madinah, namely the Jews and the Arab unbelievers, making them all citizens of the new state that he established in the city. This was a detailed document specifying duties and commitments of each group. This was the first written constitution in human history, establishing a pluralist society based on citizenship.
He sent out several armed expeditions into the areas surrounding Madinah, so as to demonstrate that the new state did not fear anyone. The Arabian society was used to tribal raids that were launched for easy gain. The Prophet wanted to show that Madinah was too strong for anyone to contemplate such an attack. Moreover, the expeditions threatened the trade route of the caravans of the Quraysh, without actually engaging in any fighting: except once resulting in a small clash between a group of six Muslims and a small caravan. These expeditions were formed of the Muhājirūn only.
The new society in Madinah was discovering vistas of life that the people had never encountered. The treatment of other people as brothers and sisters in faith, rather than blood relations and tribesmen, gave all Muslims a new meaning of life. Having a cause to work for also added a new dimension to their outlook. As advocates of Islam, they brought its message to their relatives and fellow citizens. For the first time, the Muslims could conduct their lives according to Islamic teachings without fear. More people were embracing the faith every day. The Prophet continued his efforts of moulding the new community, smoothing its rough edges and consolidating the fledgling Islamic state. However, this state of affairs could not last long, as the Quraysh represented a serious threat and had managed to reassert its position as the leading force in Arabia. If Islam was to move beyond Madinah, it had to neutralize the threat of the Quraysh.
From another point of view, the Muslim community lived in poverty: the influx of the Muhājirūn placed a heavy burden on the economy of the city, and the Quraysh had confiscated all the possessions that they left behind. Therefore, the Prophet was looking for an opportunity to redress this imbalance.
Such an opportunity offered itself in Ramadan of the second year of the Prophet’s settlement in Madinah (year two in the Islamic calendar, which starts with the Prophet’s immigration to Madinah). The Prophet received intelligence that a large trade caravan belonging to the Quraysh was on its way back from Syria to Makkah. He called on Muslims to move quickly to intercept it. A force of 313 men, most of them from the Anṣār, marched with the Prophet to intercept the caravan. The Prophet did not order a full mobilization, because that would have taken time, and the caravan might be then difficult to chase. Moreover, the Muslim force was ill equipped for a major fight. Abū Sufyān, the leader of the caravan, was moving wearily when he came parallel with Madinah. He soon heard that a Muslim force was out to intercept his caravan. He took two actions in response: he moved towards the sea to march by the seaside route, and he sent information to Makkah, urging its people to come to his defence. A well-equipped army of 1000 fighters moved fast to defend the caravan, which was able to slip away and escape its Muslim pursuers.
The two forces met at Badr. Although the Prophet had tried to avoid an armed clash, the hardliners in the Quraysh army thought they should not miss such a chance of defeating the Muslims in battle. However, the Muslims were able to score a resounding victory. Many of the chiefs of Quraysh’s clans were among seventy of their soldiers killed in battle, and a similar number were taken prisoners. The Muslim losses were fourteen martyrs. There was some discussion about the fate of the prisoners of war. Some of the Prophet’s Companions were in favour of killing them in order to demonstrate to the whole of Arabia that the Muslim community was uncompromising toward unbelievers. The Prophet, however, decided to let them go against the payment of ransom. Those who had no money, but were literate, were given their freedom in return for teaching ten Muslim children to read and write.
Over the next few years a number of momentous events occurred, with enemies of Islam resorting to various methods of confrontation. First, the Jewish tribe of Qaynuqāʿ in Madinah violated the treaty that the Prophet made with all Jewish tribes in the city, as well as with the Arab unbelievers. After the Muslims besieged them, the tribe agreed to leave Madinah and find another place.
Then, it was the turn of the Quraysh to launch an attack on Madinah. One year after the Battle of Badr, a 3000-strong army marched at speed, aiming to take the Muslims by surprise. The Muslim fighting force numbered only 700. A battle was fought, in which the Muslims initially gained the upper hand; however a battalion positioned on a hill to the rear deserted their position, thinking that the battle was over and victory was assured. This enabled two units of the Quraysh army to launch a counterattack from behind. The Muslim army was thus besieged. A number of the Quraysh fighters had vowed to kill the Prophet, and when the Muslim troops were in chaos as a result of the attack from their rear, those fighters launched a determined attack against him. They injured him and broke his teeth, however, he was defended by a small number of his dedicated Companions and the attack against him was repulsed. This clash, known as the Battle of Uḥud, ended in a military defeat for the Muslims, who lost seventy martyrs (ten percent of their fighting force).
This battle revealed the existence of hypocrites in Madinah. These were people who pretended to be Muslims, but did not really believe in Islam. Their leader, ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy, was able to cause a split in the Muslim ranks before the battle, taking with him no less than 300 men who had initially marched with the army. This reduced the Muslim army to around 700 soldiers, who were left to face a force that was four times their number. The pretext offered by the deserters was absurd, and the Qur’ān quotes their argument: “Had we known there would be a fight, we would certainly have followed you.” (3: 167)
Arguably, in any state based on a coherent set of principles and an ideology, there will always be some people who stand against the system. If their opposition is openly expressed, there is little problem for society. However, where this opposition engages in secret plots to undermine the system, problems arise. When the Prophet established the first Muslim state in Madinah, those of its Arab population who did not accept Islam were of two types: the first were those who continued to reject Islam, making no secret of their stand. No problem was ever recorded with them, either as individuals or as a group. They were large in number initially, but many of them in time decided to embrace Islam, as they began to realize the truth of its message. The second group included those who realized that Islam was gaining in strength and that unless they joined its ranks they would be cut off by their people. Yet, they had no interest in becoming Muslims. Therefore, they pretended to accept Islam, but did not believe in it in reality. These were the hypocrites, and they were to cause the Muslim community significant problems.
The Muslim defeat in the Battle of Uḥud encouraged some tribes to resort to trickery in order to score some success against the Muslim state. Two specific events caused the Prophet and the Muslim community much distress. The first, known as al-Rajīʿ, involved people coming to the Prophet requesting him to send a few of his Companions with them to teach their Muslim people the Qur’ān. He sent six of his Companions, but the group attacked them on the way and killed four of them. Then they sold the other two to the Quraysh, where they were killed in revenge for the soldiers who were killed at Badr. The second involved between forty and seventy Muslims, who were well-versed in the Qur’ān. They travelled to Najd to advocate Islam, after the Prophet had received assurances that they would be under the protection of the local chiefs. However, they were entrapped and killed.
The home front was not always easy for the Muslim state. The next group to pose a problem was the Jewish tribe of al-Naḍīr. They were party to the convention established by the Prophet after his arrival in Madinah, which committed them to certain duties of citizenship. The Prophet wanted to test their commitment to these duties. He went to their quarters with three of his trusted Companions. He asked them for help in the payment of the blood money of two men a Muslim man had killed by mistake. They agreed to help, requesting the Muslim group to sit down while they raised the money. However, they tried to assassinate the Prophet while he sat waiting. The angel Gabriel informed the Prophet of the plot, and he immediately left on his own and headed towards his mosque. He then sent them notice to evacuate the city. He offered for them to take what they wished of their possessions and to appoint agents to manage their farmland. At first they agreed, but then they received word from ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy, the chief hypocrite, promising full support: he even vowed to fight alongside them if the matter came to a battle. Therefore, they rejected the Prophet’s offer. The Prophet laid siege to their forts. As the siege began to take its toll, and they realized that no one would actually come to their support, they agreed to evacuate the city, accepting terms that were much worse than those the Prophet had initially offered. They had to relinquish their farmland, although they destroyed their homes so that the Muslims would not benefit from them.
The success against al-Naḍīr did not prevent some Arabian tribes from trying their luck against the Muslim state. A tribe called al-Muṣṭalaq thought that they could attack Madinah and make easy gains, particularly after the setbacks it suffered. However, the Prophet employed a highly successful tactic, making use of the element of surprise. When he received intelligence of an impending attack, he moved very quickly to neutralize the threat. The Prophet’s tactics never included a surprise attack on any people. Rather, he used surprise to make his presence in force felt so that the enemy would realize that resistance was useless. That would achieve much better results for the Muslims, at little or no cost. This is the approach he adopted for the Muṣṭalaq threat. The Muslims were totally unexpected when they actually appeared at the wells of the Muṣṭalaq tribe. A short battle ensued, before the Muṣṭalaq surrendered, having lost ten of their men.
All these engagements and the victories scored by the Muslim community still did not allow the Muslim state in Madinah to live in peace. They had powerful enemies all over Arabia, who were not prepared to listen to the message of Islam. Even Arabian tribes that lived in remote areas and did not feel concerned with the conflict between the Quraysh and Islam preferred to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. They continued to look at the situation as a conflict between the Quraysh and one of its sons. Those who were actively hostile to Islam began to feel that they must join forces in order to stand any chance of victory. Therefore, an alliance was forged between the Quraysh, the major Arabian tribe of Ghaṭafān, and the Jews. They raised an army of 10,000, which was the largest ever seen in Arabia, and marched towards Madinah, having solemnly pledged to each other that they would exterminate Islam and the Muslim community.
Madinah was vulnerable to attack only from the north. To the east and west of the city there were two wide stretched areas of volcanic rocks that were too difficult for any enemy to traverse. To the south were the date farms of the Anṣār and the forts of the Jewish tribe of Qurayẓah, which were bound by a treaty with the Muslims. The Prophet ordered that a moat should be dug at the northern entrance to Madinah, which should be wide and deep enough to stop the invading army. This was done very quickly, with all Muslims, including the Prophet himself, sharing in the digging and the removal of the dust and stones. By the time the attacking army arrived, the moat was completed and Madinah was well fortified. The attackers could only lay a siege, hoping for the morale of the defenders to collapse.
The first couple of weeks of the siege showed no weakening in the Muslim ranks. The mastermind behind the forging of the alliance, Ḥuyayy ibn Akhṭab (the chief rabbi of the Naḍīr Jews who were evacuated from Madinah eighteen months earlier), worked hard to bring his objective to fulfilment. He went to the Qurayẓah Jews and succeeded in persuading them to join the alliance and to attack the Muslims from the rear: thus, the Muslims would be fighting on two fronts. On learning this, the Muslims responded to the Prophet’s call to show total reliance on God and to place their unwavering trust in Him. Before the Qurayẓah Jews were ready to launch their attack, God sent a violent storm over the area where the allied forces were encamped. This demoralized the unbelievers, as their supplies were already running very low, after having laid siege to Madinah for twenty-seven days. Therefore, the commander of the Quraysh forces, Abū Sufyān, gave orders to withdraw. The Ghaṭafān followed suit. In the morning, the Muslims looked across the moat they had dug and found that the enemy had disappeared.
That left the Qurayẓah Jews, with whom relations had collapsed and no trust could be re-established. The Muslims laid siege to them in their forts. After twenty-five days of siege, they surrendered, accepting whatever verdict could be passed on them. The Prophet allowed them to choose their judge from among his Companions. They chose Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, who was their ally before Islam. Saʿd’s verdict sentenced the combatants among them to death. Around twenty people were thus executed, including Ḥuyayy ibn Akhṭab, the forger of the alliance that had aimed to annihilate Islam and the Muslims.
This left the Muslim state in a much stronger position. The Prophet remarked that the Muslims could now be on the offensive. However, this was not among his priorities. He was certainly ready to meet any threat from any quarters, but he never sought to subdue any tribe or community by force. He would have loved to see all people consider his message and make an informed decision on whether to accept it or not, but he would not force it on anyone, as he considered that to convert people by force would be entirely alien to the nature of Islam. The end of the encounter with the allied forces of unbelievers ushered in a period of relative peace for the Muslim state, which the Prophet used to consolidate the basis of the Islamic society he had established in Madinah. The bond of brotherhood that prevailed in that society was stronger than any that can be seen in any state functioning under any system or ideology. With this internal consolidation, the Muslim state was quietly acquiring greater strength. Therefore, it was with great enthusiasm that the Prophet announced that they would visit Makkah to perform the mini-pilgrimage (i.e. the ʿUmrah) and worship at the Kaʿbah.
The Prophet marched at the head of 1400 of his Companions carrying no arms other than swords in their sheaths, which was the essential type of arms for a traveller in the desert. They took with them a large number of animals to sacrifice at the Kaʿbah, as part of their religious rituals. The Quraysh were greatly agitated at the news. They needed to take a decision on whether to allow the Muslims to proceed and come into Makkah or to prevent them, even if it led to a battle. Their dilemma was that as custodians of the Kaʿbah (a shrine revered by all Arabs) they were committed to allowing anyone to visit for worship. Besides this, the Muslims timed their march in the middle of the sacred months when all fighting was prohibited. This was an Arabian tradition based on the faith of the Prophet Abraham. On the other hand, if they let the Muslims come in and worship, this would be seen throughout Arabia as tilting the balance of power much further in favour of the Muslims. After much debate, they decided to deny the Muslims entry into Makkah, regardless of the consequences. They despatched an advance force to a position outside Makkah to engage the Muslims should they try to force their entry. Should fighting ensue, they would be ready with their reinforcements. Receiving intelligence of that, the Prophet took a circuitous route to avoid meeting the Quraysh advance force. However, when he reached al-Ḥudaybiyah his she-camel sat down and would not move. No matter how his Companions tried to get the she-camel to rise, she would not. The Prophet realized that this was a sign to seek some peaceful arrangements with the Quraysh. He declared to his Companions that he would agree to whatever the Quraysh were prepared to offer in order to avoid bloodshed.
The Quraysh sent several emissaries to demand that the Muslims should go back. Each one of them returned with the advice to let the Muslims visit, as they intended no harm. The Quraysh rejected all such advice. The Prophet then sent them his Companion, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, to reassure them of the Muslims’ intentions. ʿUthmān was detained too long in Makkah, and a rumour circulated that he was killed by the Quraysh. At this point, the Prophet took a pledge from all his Companions to fight to the finish. The Quraysh realized that they acted wrongly when they detained ʿUthmān, so they released him and followed that by sending Suhayl ibn ʿAmr to negotiate an agreement. Suhayl behaved in a haughty manner, trying to impose harsh conditions. However, the Prophet was very easy in his approach, agreeing to all conditions demanded by the Quraysh. His attitude immensely surprised his Companions, particularly because he did not consult any of them, which was contrary to his usual practice. The reason was that he acted on God’s instructions. The terms of the agreement were:
• Both parties have agreed to a complete truce for a period of ten years, during which all people will enjoy peace and security and will not attack one another.
• Moreover, if anyone from the Quraysh joins Muhammad without permission from his guardian or chief, he shall be returned to the Quraysh.
• If anyone from those in the camp of Muhammad joins the Quraysh, they are not required to return him.
• Both sides agree that they harbour good intentions towards each other.
• No theft or treachery shall be condoned.
• Whoever wishes to enter into an alliance with Muhammad may do so, and whoever wants to enter into an alliance with the Quraysh may do so.
• It is further agreed that you, Muhammad, shall return home this year without entering Makkah. At the end of one year, we shall evacuate Makkah for you so that you may enter it with your followers to stay for three days only. You shall carry only the armament necessary for a traveller – namely, your swords in their sheaths. You shall not carry any other arms.
When these terms were agreed upon, two things occurred that were to have important effects. Firstly, the tribe of Bakr declared its alliance with the Quraysh, and the tribe of Khuzāʿah declared its alliance with the Prophet. The second was the arrival of Abū Jandal, Suhayl’s own son, who was a Muslim and jailed by his father. He had managed to escape from jail and hoped to join the Muslims. Suhayl demanded his immediate return. The Prophet appealed to Suhayl to grant Abū Jandal his freedom, but Suhayl refused. The Prophet explained to Abū Jandal that honouring their commitments was characteristic of the Muslims in all situations. Hence, he was handed back to his father. The Muslims returned to Madinah without completing their rituals. They were highly disturbed, but the Prophet reassured them that the results would soon be in their favour.
The Ḥudaybiyah peace agreement was concluded in the final few weeks of the sixth year of the Prophet’s Hijrah (his immigration to Madinah), 628 CE. This was a turning point in the fortunes of the Islamic message and the Muslim state. However, in order to take events in their chronological order, we need to speak first of the Battle of Khaybar. Khaybar is a city to the north west of Madinah, and it was inhabited by an entirely Jewish population. This city was constructed as a series of forts, and was surrounded by a large area of farmland, with a variety of crops and plenty of date trees. When the Jewish tribes of Madinah were evacuated after they had violated their covenant with the Muslim state, many of them moved to Khaybar, while some went to Syria and other places. In Khaybar, the Jews were agitating for revenge against the Muslims, particularly after the evacuation of the Qurayẓah tribe, as this left only a few small tribes of Jews in Madinah. They felt that had the allied forces been more determined, they would have achieved the victory they aimed for, and put an end to Islam. The Jews of Khaybar therefore renewed their alliance with the Ghaṭafān tribe, who was party to the original alliance. When the Prophet received intelligence of the new grouping he sent a delegation to Khaybar to persuade the Jews that they would be ill advised to try to take on the Muslim state. However, the mission was unsuccessful. Therefore, the Prophet ordered his 1400 Companions who were with him at al-Ḥudaybiyah to mobilize. He aimed for Khaybar, taking precautions not to alert the Jews there.
The Jews were surprised to see the Muslim army at their doorstep. They went into their forts, which were well supplied. The Prophet tried to avoid fighting, but the Jews were unwilling to come to an agreement and a battle ensued. This was a difficult situation, as the Muslims had to besiege one fort and take it before they moved to the next. The victory was total, and eventually the Jews surrendered, agreeing to evacuate the city and go elsewhere. However, after a few days they came up with an offer to remain and attend to the farms, taking half their produce, while the Muslims took the other half. The Prophet agreed to this, on condition that the Muslims could evacuate them whenever they wished. The Prophet then made similar agreements with several other Jewish communities in northern Arabia. These agreements were entered into peacefully, with no fighting. The Prophet never wanted to fight anyone; although when war was the other party’s intention, he never shrank from engagement.
When the Battle of Khaybar was over, the Prophet received his cousin, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, who had just returned from Abyssinia with the last of those Muslims who had travelled there fifteen years earlier. They returned after the Prophet sent a letter to Negus to repatriate them after their mission was over. They brought with them a large delegation of Abyssinian Muslims.
With the neutralization of the major threats, the Prophet could now press ahead with his main task. He was God’s Messenger to all mankind, and it was part of his mission to make the Divine message known to all nations. After the events of Khaybar, he felt he should attend to this task. He chose a number of his Companions who combined the right temperament with courage, wisdom and resourcefulness. He sent them with messages to the heads of neighbouring states, including the Emperors of Persia and Byzantium as well as the rulers of Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Abyssinia. He called on these leaders to accept Islam and to allow their people to listen to the Divine message. The two most hostile responses were from the governor of Syria, who killed the Prophet’s emissary, and the Persian Emperor, who tore up the Prophet’s letter and sent a warrant for his arrest. The Byzantine Emperor sent a friendly response, and the Egyptian ruler sent a gift with his friendly response. Both recognized that a final message from God was promised, but they feared that they would lose their power if they were to accept Islam. Only the Negus of Abyssinia and the ruler of Bahrain accepted Islam. These letters might have not produced an immediate favourable result, but they certainly made Islam known in vast areas of the old world: across Asia, Europe and Africa, the three continents known at the time. Moreover, these letters were a prelude to what the future would bring. Islam moved into vast areas of all these countries, but this had to wait until the Prophet’s successors started to mount their campaigns.
The seventh year of the Islamic calendar also witnessed a great deal of activity in the advocacy of Islam among the Arabian tribes. The Prophet’s Companions could now move in peace to visit tribes across Arabia. Muslim historians tell us that in the two years that followed the peace agreement of al-Ḥudaybiyah, almost everyone with a clear mind who was approached with the Islamic message gave a positive response. This was manifested in the fact that the number of people who went with the Prophet when he concluded the Ḥudaybiyah peace agreement and then on the Khaybar campaign were only 1400; whereas two years later, an army of 10,000 traversed the desert with him.
Another significant development which started a short while after the Ḥudaybiyah agreement, but had progressive consequences, was the arrival in Madinah of Abū Buṣayr, an ordinary tribesman from the Quraysh. He declared himself a Muslim and wanted to join the Muslim community. However, his clan sent a messenger for his extradition, as the agreement allowed. The Prophet had no option but to honour the agreement. Abū Buṣayr went back with the man (and his servant) who the Quraysh had sent to ask for the extradition. On the way, he managed to get hold of his captor’s sword and kill him. Abū Buṣayr did not harm the servant, but the servant fled to Madinah and reported what happened to the Prophet. As Abū Buṣayr could neither join the Muslim community nor return to Makkah, he fled into the desert, but stayed close to the route of the Quraysh’s trade caravans. He began to raid these caravans and cause them problems. Soon after, he was joined by a number of Muslims who fled Makkah. These formed a brigade that attacked the trade caravans, to the great dismay of the Quraysh. Within a short period, the chiefs of the Quraysh appealed to the Prophet to take them. They thus abandoned the condition in the peace agreement that required the Prophet to hand back any Muslim who came from Makkah to join him.
In the tenth month of that year, the Prophet and his Companions were due to visit Makkah for the mini-pilgrimage, as agreed with the Quraysh in the Ḥudaybiyah peace treaty. The Prophet and his Companions went ahead, taking with them their sacrificial animals. However, they took some armaments as a precaution. According to the agreement, they should have no arms other than their individual swords, however the Prophet feared a situation of treachery. He therefore took other armaments, keeping them at some distance from Makkah with a contingent of 200 of his Companions. These delayed their worship at the Kaʿbah until the others completed their worship and came over to relieve them. When the Prophet entered Makkah with his Companions and began his worship, the people of Makkah were in different minds. The chiefs, who were hardened against Islam, withdrew to some mountain areas in order not to witness what was happening. The majority of the population, however, were keen to see the Muslims. They were profoundly impressed by what they saw. They found that despite their different tribes and clans, the Muslims were a closely-knit unit. Moreover, their love of the Prophet was apparent and highly impressive. Every single Muslim was always ready to do as the Prophet bid and would do this with pleasure. When the Muslims talked to the people of Makkah, they were very friendly. They would tell them about the changes that Islam had brought into their lives. Moreover, many of the Muhājirūn met their families and talked to them, encouraging them to look at Islam in an objective light. The chiefs of Makkah felt that the Muslims’ visit threatened to remove the barriers that they had assiduously tried to maintain in order to keep their people from embracing Islam. Therefore, when the agreed three days of the visit were over, they asked the Prophet to leave with his Companions. He requested them to reconsider, offering to give the people of Makkah a banquet, but they rejected his offer out of hand and asked him to leave. As always, the Prophet did not go back on a promise. Therefore, he ordered his Companions to depart.
That which the chiefs of Makkah feared most thus actually started to happen: many people of all classes of the Makkan society began to have second thoughts about Islam. These people felt that the concept of God, the Creator of the universe who has no partners, was superior to that of their own beliefs. Within a few weeks of the Prophet’s visit, three of the young chiefs of Makkah were on their way to Madinah where they met the Prophet to declare themselves Muslims. These were Khālid ibn al-Walīd, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah.
When the ruler of Syria, an Arab of the tribe of Ghassān but appointed by the Byzantine Emperor, killed the Prophet’s emissary, his action constituted a huge affront to the Prophet and the Muslim state, and he could not be allowed to get away with it. Therefore, in the fifth month of year eight after the Hijrah, the Prophet sent a force of 3000 of his Companions to fight the ruler of Syria. He appointed three of his closest Companions (two from the Muhājirūn and one from the Anṣār) as commanders, with one to take over from the other should he be killed. The Prophet instructed them not to kill any elderly person, woman, child or monk, and not to cut a tree or kill an animal except for food. The army marched on its mission. When the Ghassānī ruler received intelligence of the approaching army, he raised a large army of 100,000 people. The Emperor further sent him a large number of reinforcements.
When the two forces met close to Mu’tah, a town in southern Jordan, the Muslim army was heavily outnumbered, and there was no way it could score a victory. Indeed, the three commanders were killed, one after the other, as the enemy concentrated its attack on the centre of the army. After the third commander was killed, the Muslims chose a new commander as instructed by the Prophet. Their choice was Khālid ibn al-Walīd who only recently embraced Islam, but was a talented military commander. Khālid realized that should the battle carry on to a decisive end, a large number of Muslims might be killed, and a victory was beyond them. Therefore, he came up with an ingenious plan. During the night after the first day’s fighting, he switched the positions of his units and gave the enemy an impression that the Muslims were reinforced with new units. When the two armies re-engaged, the central units of his army slowly retreated while the other units continued to fight fiercely. He managed to switch the pressure on his units so that they could retreat slowly. The enemy thought that the Muslims were trying to drag them towards the desert where they were not used to fight. Therefore, they decided not to fall for the trick and did not pursue the retreating Muslim army. Thus Khālid was able to save most of his soldiers. The Prophet commended this action.
The Ḥudaybiyah peace treaty allowed any Arabian tribe to be in alliance with either party to the treaty. The tribe of Bakr joined the Quraysh in alliance, while Khuzāʿah allied itself with the Prophet. These two tribes had old feuds dating back to pre-Islamic days and Bakr continued to nurse old wounds from the killing a few of their men by the Khuzāʿah. Now they sought to take revenge. A force from Bakr, supported by a number of the Quraysh nobility, launched a night raid against Khuzāʿah and killed twenty of their people. In response, the Khuzāʿah sent a delegation to Madinah, reporting the attack to the Prophet and appealing to him for support. The Prophet considered this attack a flagrant breach of the treaty and pledged his support.
In Makkah, the Quraysh recognized that their action was totally unwarranted and that they needed to take speedy action in order to avoid retaliatory action by the Muslims. Therefore, their leader, Abū Sufyān, travelled to Madinah on a mission of appeasement. However, the Prophet did not accept his apology and the leading Companions of the Prophet told Abū Sufyān frankly that they would only do what the Prophet bid them, and would not take action on their own initiative in such a matter of state. Thus he went back home having totally failed to achieve his purpose.
The Prophet then ordered mobilization, but he ensured that the Quraysh remained unaware of his plans. He sent a request to all tribes that had recently become Muslim to join his army, and they all sent strong contingents. The Muslim army was the largest ever, close to 10,000. This army moved quietly, without being detected, until it reached a place called Marr al-Ẓahrān, which is close to Makkah. The Prophet’s tactic now was to psychologically overwhelm the Quraysh. He therefore ordered that his army light as many fires as possible during the night. As a result, when Abū Sufyān and a couple of the elders of Makkah went out looking for news they saw the fires and were perturbed. Soon they met al-ʿAbbās, the Prophet’s uncle, who had been looking for someone to carry a message to the Quraysh. He wanted them to come over and negotiate peace with the Prophet. Al-ʿAbbās took Abū Sufyān to the Prophet. After a hard discussion, Abū Sufyān declared himself a Muslim. The Prophet offered for the people of Makkah to stay indoors, or in the mosque, or in Abū Sufyān’s home, so that they would not be harmed.
The Prophet separated his army into four divisions as it moved into Makkah, which allowed them to enter the city from four directions. His commanders were under strict orders not to fight anyone unless they were attacked. The Muslim army moved in and Makkah surrendered. There was very little fighting against the division commanded by Khālid ibn al-Walīd. The Prophet, accompanied by many of his Companions, performed the circumambulation (ṭawāf), around the Kaʿbah, which is a form of Islamic worship. He had a stick in his hand. All around the Kaʿbah, the Quraysh had their idols which they worshipped. The Prophet pushed these with his stick. When he pushed an idol in the back, it fell on its face, and when it touched one in the front, it fell on its back. He then had all the idols and all the symbols of idolatry removed from the Kaʿbah, claiming the shrine for Islam forever.
Two days later, he addressed the people of Makkah. He asked them: “What do you think I will do with you?” They said: “All goodness. You are a noble brother and your father was a noble brother” He responded: “You may all go as you please. You are all pardoned.”3 Before entering Makkah, the Prophet had named around twenty people who were to be killed wherever they were found. In the event, those of them who came to him personally, or escorted by a Muslim, to seek pardon were also pardoned. Only four of them were killed. Obviously, these were among the most hardened enemies of Islam.
The people of Makkah began to see Islam and the Muslims in a fresh light. Their pagan beliefs stood no comparison with Islam, and those with Muslim relatives discussed the changes that Islam brought about in their lives and soon felt that the only right course of action was to follow their lead. People came to the Prophet individually or in groups to declare their acceptance of Islam. Although not everyone in Makkah had a complete change of heart, as days went on, the change was taking hold of them and Makkah was fast becoming Muslim.
The fall of Makkah to Islam, however, did not mean that all danger from the pagan Arabs was over. A number of major tribes maintained the worship of idols and were ready to attack the Muslim state. When he was still in Makkah, the Prophet learned that the Hawāzin, a very large Arab tribe, was raising an army to fight him, with the support of the Thaqīf, another major tribe who lived in the city of Taif. As the Prophet had his army intact, he moved to meet the Hawāzin. His army swelled by another 2000 from Makkah, most of whom had converted to Islam only after Makkah had fallen to Islam. Some were still pagans, but they joined in, feeling that the Muslims would score an easy victory and would give them a share of the spoils of war.
The two sides met at the valley of Ḥunayn, but the Hawāzin were more familiar with the area and they arrived at the valley where they took their positions before the Muslims had arrived. The valley had a narrow entrance and the Muslim army had to pass through it. The Hawāzin stationed a large number of their best marksmen at a high level near the front and the back of the entrance, and as the front unit of the Muslim army moved through the entrance, which was in the still-dark hours before dawn, the marksmen started showering them with arrows, killing a good number of them. Soon confusion arose in the Muslim army and some of the units began to retreat, clashing with the advancing units. This was a terrible situation: however the Prophet remained steadfast, with only a small number of his Companions. One of these was his uncle, al-ʿAbbās, who had a loud voice. The Prophet told him to call on the Anṣār and on the Muhājirūn. As they heard the call, they immediately responded, moving towards the voice. Soon, a small unit had gathered around the Prophet, with more men coming forward. They were able to withstand the Hawāzin onslaught and then to advance, forcing the Hawāzin on the retreat. Although the Muslim army had suffered an initial setback, the Prophet had managed to turn things around and cause confusion among the Hawāzin. The Hawāzin commander, Mālik ibn ʿAwf, committed a blunder in his preparations for the battle: despite advice to the contrary, he ordered his people to bring their women, children, and animals with them, as he assumed the people would fight much harder in order to defend their folk and property. When the Hawāzin’s defeat became irreversible, their fighters fled, leaving their women, children, cattle and property, which became spoils of war to be taken by the Muslims.
The Prophet then laid siege to Taif, where the other major tribe of Thaqīf lived. They were in collaboration with Hawāzin, so it was necessary to deal with them. However, the siege did not lead to any decisive outcome. Realizing that the people of Taif could stand a very long siege, as their supplies and water resources were to their rear, the Prophet thought it better to leave without forcing a showdown. He hoped that the people of Taif would have a better view once they had considered their options. Therefore, he ordered his army to depart.
People in the Muslim camp, particularly those who were newcomers to Islam, wanted the Prophet to divide the spoils of war that had been gained at Ḥunayn without delay. The Islamic rule assigns eighty percent of the spoils of war to be shared out by the army and twenty percent go to the state to look after orphans and people in need. The Prophet, however, wanted to delay such division, particularly in respect of the prisoners of war, who included the Hawāzin women and children. According to the universal rules of the day, these could become slaves, and the Prophet did not want that situation to occur. Eventually, the elders of Hawāzin came and appealed to him, pressing their old relation with him. The tribe of Saʿd ibn Bakr (to whom Ḥalīmah, his wet nurse, belonged) was a branch of Hawāzin. They said that had they suffered a defeat at the hands of the Persian or the Byzantine Emperors and they had such a relationship with them, they would have hoped for their kind treatment. The Prophet told them to choose either their women and children or their property. They chose their women and children. The Prophet ensured that all their womenfolk and children were freed and given back to them. The Muslims kept the cattle and the money, which were divided among the soldiers. Out of the one-fifth share of the state, the Prophet gave very generous gifts to some of the chiefs of Makkah and other tribes. He wanted to bring them wholeheartedly into the camp of Islam.
No such gifts were given to anyone of the Muhājirūn or the Anṣār, and the latter felt uneasy about this. Their chief, Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, raised the matter with the Prophet. The Prophet appealed to their faith and sense of sacrifice. He then put the issue in the correct perspective: that which he had gifted was a “mere trifling of worldly luxury.” They had their faith. The contrast could not be more marked: others went back home with sheep and cattle, while the Anṣār took God’s Messenger. He finished his words by saying: “If the whole world went one way and the Anṣār went another way, I would go with the Ansar. May God have mercy on the Anṣār, their children and grandchildren.”4 That was enough to make them very happy. They said: “We are happy to have God’s Messenger as our lot.” All this was in line with their initial agreement with the Prophet, when they pledged their support to him eight years earlier at ʿAqabah in Mina, promising to protect and defend him as they would protect and defend their women and children. At the time, they asked him: “What do we get in return for honouring our pledges?” He replied: “Paradise.” He had promised them no reward in this world.
Having appointed a twenty-year-old man, named ʿAttāb ibn Usayd, as governor of Makkah, the Prophet returned with his Companions to Madinah early in the ninth year after the Hijrah which is equivalent to 630 CE. Back in Madinah, delegations from various tribes began to arrive. Some came to pledge their loyalty, while others wanted to learn about Islam and go back to their people to consider their options. During the summer of that year, the Prophet told his Companions to get ready to march for a campaign against the Byzantine Empire. He had received information, provided by traders from Syria, that the Byzantines were preparing to invade Arabia. For the first time ever, the Prophet mentioned clearly and openly where the army would be heading to and named the enemy it would be fighting. Normally the Prophet left such matters ambiguous. The reason for his open indication was that for a long time the Arabs had held the Byzantines in awe. They never dared to stand in clear opposition to them. Besides, the time in mid-summer made such a long distance travel in a desert area very difficult. The Muslims were still poor, despite all the gains they had made, because their land did not have enough resources to make theirs an affluent society. Announcing a very difficult mission was certain to make any hypocrite try to find excuses, even very absurd ones, to avoid being involved. Thus, declaring the intended objective in advance made it a test for everyone. Only people with strong faith were expected to join. The Prophet also called on all Muslims to come forward with generous donations to the war effort. Many, particularly those among the earliest to accept Islam, donated generously. Several of them brought half of their properties. The largest donation was given by ʿUthmān: he provided 300 fully-equipped camels.
The army that went with the Prophet on this expedition was estimated to number 30,000, which was the largest army that had ever marched in the Arabian Peninsula. The Muslims of Madinah were reinforced by large numbers of the Muslims from Makkah and from all tribes that had accepted Islam. That in itself indicated that the Arabs were now a nation, rather than a host of independent and warring tribes. The going was certainly hard. By the time the army arrived in Tabūk (which is today in Saudi Arabia, not far from its borders with Jordan), they had endured much hardship. However, there was no trace of any Byzantine army in the area, or even further afield. Making sure that there was nothing to cause the Muslim state any worry, the Prophet sent detachments of his army to certain places in the area, calling on them to accept Islam. He made peace arrangements with several of them. This expedition achieved some important goals: it exposed the hypocrites that continued to plague the society of Madinah; it also ensured that the northern parts of Arabia felt that their best course was to live in peace with the Muslim state; and it strengthened the bonds within the Muslim community, as those who had plenty were ready to help their brethren who were poor.
When the Prophet and his Companions returned to Madinah, they felt their state was much more peaceful. Although it had started as a city-state, it now commanded a large area of Arabia. Delegations from tribes in remote areas continued to arrive in Madinah to declare their belief in Islam. The Prophet was very hospitable to these delegations, ensuring that they listened to the Qur’ān and learnt about Islam. He gave a generous gift to everyone in every delegation. One of these delegations came from the tribe of Thaqīf, who had a change of heart and mind. They wanted to live in peace with Islam, but they hoped that they would be given some concessions with regard to the Islamic way of life. Their six-man delegation assured the Prophet that they would become Muslims if he would agree to these concessions. They requested that they be allowed to retain their famous idol, al-Lāt. They also asked him to cancel the prohibition of adultery, alcoholic drinks and usury. The Prophet told them that they could expect no concession on any item. These were God’s prohibitions, and no one could alter them. The only concession he gave them was that they would not be required to destroy al-Lāt with their own hands. He would send some of his Companions to do that. Thaqif eventually accepted his terms and embraced Islam. The Prophet sent several of his Companions, who destroyed al-Lat, as he previously destroyed all other idols.
When the pilgrimage season at the end of the ninth year after the Hijrah approached, the Prophet appointed his Companion, Abū Bakr, to lead the pilgrimage. Abū Bakr travelled to Makkah with a good number of Muslims. Shortly after his departure, God revealed Sūrah 9 of the Qur’ān, which opens with an announcement addressed to the remaining unbelievers in Arabia. Since the announcement gave notice to all Arabs, it had to be made, as the sūrah states in its opening, on the grand day of pilgrimage. Therefore, the Prophet sent his cousin, ʿAlī, to make the announcement: according to the Arabian tradition, it had to be made on his behalf by a member of his own family. The opening of the sūrah is as follows:
Disavowal by God and His Messenger [is hereby announced] to those of the idolaters with whom you have made a treaty. [Announce to them:] You may go freely in the land for four months, but you must realize that you can never escape God’s judgement, and that God shall bring disgrace upon the unbelievers. And a proclamation from God and His Messenger is hereby made to all mankind on this day of the greater pilgrimage: God is free from obligation to the idolaters, and so is His Messenger. If you repent, it shall be for your own good; and if you turn away, then know that you can never escape God’s judgement. Give the unbelievers the news of grievous suffering, except for those idolaters with whom you have made a treaty and who have honoured their obligations [under the treaty] in every detail, and have not aided anyone against you. To these fulfil your obligations until their treaties have run their term. God loves those who are righteous. When these months of grace are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive, besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every conceivable place. Yet if they should repent, take to prayer and pay the zakāt, let them go their way. For God is Much-forgiving, Merciful. (9: 1-5)
This announcement meant that the Muslims were bound by the treaties they made with believers to the end of the terms specified by those treaties, provided that the other party had honoured their obligations under their treaty in full. Those who had not honoured their treaties in full were given notice of cancellation. Likewise, those who had treaties that did not specify a date of termination were also given notice of termination of the treaties. In both these last cases, the notice allowed them a period of grace of four months. They had to make their choice during those four months: either they would accept Islam and live as Muslims or they must leave the Arabian Peninsula. In effect, the announcement claimed Arabia as a land of Islam where no pagans could live.
ʿAlī and Abū Bakr made the announcement on the day of attendance at ʿArafāt, where all pilgrims gather. They then made it again on the following day, which was the day of sacrifice. Again all pilgrims would be there. Furthermore, Abū Bakr sent callers to the camps of all tribes to make the announcement. Thus, all pilgrims were aware of it, which meant that all tribes heard of it as soon as their pilgrims returned home. Another announcement made clear that this was the last year that idolaters were allowed to offer the pilgrimage. No one was ever to be allowed to go around the Kaʿbah naked, as the Quraysh imposed on visitors from outside Makkah. This was a distortion of the worship rituals established by the Prophet Abraham when he built the Kaʿbah.
This announcement was made at the end of year 9 AH (631 CE). The following year is known in Islamic history as the Year of Delegations: delegations of Arabian tribes continued to come to Madinah where they pledged their loyalty to the Prophet as Muslims. They came from every corner of the Peninsula, including Yemen, Oman and the eastern and central parts. This ensured that the whole of the Arabian Peninsula accepted Islam as its faith. This was a remarkable achievement for the Prophet, as it had taken only twenty-two lunar years for Islam to be the only religion of all Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula. Of course, there were other religions in Arabia. The Jews continued to live in Khaybar and other northern towns. There were Christians as well in Najrān in the south-west. The announcement did not apply to these: it applied only to the Arab idolaters. It was important that idolatry should disappear from Arabia.
As the tenth year after the Hijrah was coming to an end, the pilgrimage season was again approaching. The pilgrimage is one of the five main duties of Islamic worship: it is required of every Muslim, man or woman, at least once in a lifetime, provided that they have the means to offer it. So far, the Prophet could not offer the pilgrimage, because the Quraysh denied Muslims access to the Ḥaram area. The Prophet could have offered the pilgrimage a year earlier, but he did not wish to see idolaters performing their worship in the nude. Now that this was no longer the case, the Prophet announced his intention to offer the pilgrimage in the coming season. He sent messages making his intention clear to people all over Arabia. Therefore, pilgrims from all areas around Madinah and to the north came over to join him on his pilgrimage journey. As he proceeded, a large number of people went with him. Estimates of those pilgrims starting with the Prophet from Madinah vary between 90,000 and 130,000 people. A similar number awaited him in Makkah, where people from southern areas joined the population of Makkah.
The pilgrimage involves a series of rituals and duties of worship to be offered at particular places in Makkah and in the area close to it. The Prophet told people to follow his guidance in offering their duties. Throughout the journey the Prophet clearly had an important objective besides showing the people how their rituals should be offered: he wanted to make the pilgrimage easy for all. With such a large crowd moving from one place to another and attending to worship duties within a short span of time, a strict order and a rigid pattern would cause substantial inconvenience and hardship. Therefore, the Prophet provided maximum leeway in every respect, while making sure that the duties and rituals were offered correctly and within time.
The Prophet delivered a speech in which he outlined the main principles of Islam. He abrogated all usurious transactions that were made by anyone prior to their adoption of Islam, starting with those of his own uncle, al-ʿAbbās. He also waived all revenge for any killing that took place prior to Islam, starting with the killing of one of his own cousins. Thus, he provided a model for all Muslims to follow.
In his speech he outlined five basic principles of the Islamic programme of action. The first two principles operate on the level of the individual. The first indicate that Islam severs all ties that a Muslim has with Jāhiliyyah (its idols, practices, financial dealings, usury transactions and so on), because the adoption of the religion of Islam means a start of a new life for a Muslim which is completely divorced from the erroneous ways of the past. The second requires every Muslim to guard against all forms of sin. The Prophet also made it clear that, by sin, he did not mean the sinking back into idolatrous worship: he meant lesser sins that lead people away from the path of Islam. The other three principles provide the basis on which Islamic society is founded. One is the tie of Islamic brotherhood, which moulds the proper relationship between all Muslims. It is this brotherhood that makes every Muslim a patron and ally of every other Muslim. Next is the providing of support for the weak, so that their weakness does not make the whole society vulnerable. It is noteworthy that the Prophet repeatedly stressed the importance of being kind to women, since they were the weaker element in society. The last principle is the co-operation between Islamic government and the members of Islamic society to achieve the proper implementation of Islamic law, which works toward the removal of all evil from society and its replacement with what is good.
The Prophet repeatedly asked his audience whether he had delivered God’s message to them. Every time they replied that he did. He asked God to be his witness. This was an emotional gesture that showed his heartfelt wish that his tireless efforts had enabled him to fulfil his task as God’s Messenger and deliver God’s message to its intended addressees: namely, all mankind.
With the completion of the pilgrimage, the Prophet had indeed completed his mission, advocating God’s message and calling on people to accept the faith of Islam based on self-surrender to God. He had shown them how to offer all their duties. He had shown them the way to conduct their lives in accordance with Islam, to earn God’s pleasure and to be sure of receiving His reward, which is admittance into heaven in the life to come. During the pilgrimage, a Qur’ānic verse was revealed to him: “This day I have perfected your religion for you and have bestowed on you the full measure of My blessings and have chosen Islam as a religion for you.” (5: 3)
The Prophet then returned to Madinah, and less than three months later, he passed away, having fulfilled his mission and given humanity a faith that ensures its happiness whenever it is implemented in any society.
May God grant him the full reward for the inestimable goodness that he brought into human life.
1 Ibn Hishām, Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, vol. 1, p. 343.
2 Ibn Hishām, Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, vol. 2, p. 28. Also, Al-Haythamī, Majmaʿ al-Zawā’id, vol. 6, p. 35.
3 Ibn Hishām, Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, vol. 4, p. 32.
4 Ibn Hishām, Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, vol. 4, p. 146.
