I. The Battle of Hunayn

1. Defeat and Victory:

After a stay in Makkah for two weeks, the Prophet marched with his army against the tribe of Hawazin. On the way, the army came on a great green tree called Thatu `Anwat, to which some pagan Arabs used to go every year, and hang their weapons on it. They sacrificed beside it and devoted themselves to staying beside it the whole day. Some of the new converts to Islam said to the Prophet as they passed by the tree, "Make us a tree to hang things on such as they have." But the Prophet was angry and replied, "Allahu Akbar! By Him Who holds myself in His hand, you have said what the people of Musa (Moses) said to him."

"so they came upon some people devoted to some of their idols and they said, O (musa) make a god for us as they have gods.' He (Musa) said `Surely you are an ignorant <sup>1</sup> people." (`Al`A'raf- 138).

When the Muslim army approached the valley of Hunayn, they descended down the valley in the morning twilight. ² The enemy had reached it before the Muslims and had hidden themselves in its by-paths ³ and narrow places in which they entrenched ⁴ fully equipped and fully prepared. Their attack on the Muslim army was so sudden that many men, largely new converts, fled. ⁵ The Prophet withdrew to the right and made a firm stand with some of the Emigrants and the Ansar. The Prophet called on the fleeing people to return, saying, "Where are you going men? Come to me. I am the Prophet of Allah. I am Muhammad the son of `Abdullah."

Al-'Abbas was with the Prophet, holding the bridle ⁶of the Prophet's mule ⁷ and was asked by the Prophet to shout for the fleeing men; and he cried, in a powerful voice, "O, Companions of the Tree! O Companions of the Acacia!" and they answered, "Here we are!" This was a turning-point in the battle; and the enemy began to flee for life with the Muslims in pursuit. The leader of Hawazin fought bravely, but was forced to escape with his men; and the women and children who had been behind the lines were taken captives. These were later returned to Hawazin.

Then the Muslim army marched to Ta'if, where the tribe of Thaqif lived, and they besieged it for about three weeks. It was a fortified ⁸ city and the inhabitants refused to surrender. When the Prophet asked for Abu Bakr's opinion, it was given in these words, "I do not think you will gain from them this day what you desire." Thus the Prophet gave orders to raise the siege and to withdraw away from the city. Some Muslims asked the Prophet to curse ⁹ the inhabitants; but he raised his hands in prayer and said, "O Allah, guide Thaqif and bring them to us."

About the initial defeat and the eventual ¹⁰ victory, Al-Qur'an came down speaking of the favors of Allah on the believers:

"Allah has granted you victory on many fields and on the day of Hunayn, when you exulted ¹¹ in your numbers they availed you nothing, and the earth, for all its breadth' ¹² was straitened for you, and you turned back in flight." (At-Tawbah-25).

"Then Allah sent down His serenity upon His Messenger and upon the believers and sent down hosts that you did not see, and tormented those who disbelieved; such is the recompense of the disbelievers." (At-Tawbah-26).

"Then Allah grants repentance afterwards upon whom He decides, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (At-Tawbah-27).

2. The Spoils:

When the Prophet had returned the captives of Hawazin, he rode away, with some new Muslim converts following him. Some of them were so keen on having a share of the spoils that they forced the Prophet back against a tree, and a part of his mantle ¹³ was torn, and he addressed them aloud, "Give me my mantle back, men, for by Allah if I had as many sheep as the trees of Tihamah I would distribute them among you; you have not found me miserly ¹⁴ or cowardly ¹⁵ or false."

Then the Prophet gave gifts to those new converts, notably ¹⁶ to some heads of Quraysh and of the Bedoum tribes, to win them and through them their followers. Among these chiefs were Abu Sufyan and Suhayl Ibn `Amr; and the Ansar got nothing. So some of the Ansar took the matter to heart, and one of them said, "By Allah, the Prophet has met his own people." Sa'd Ibn `Ubadah went to the Prophet and told him what had happened. The Prophet asked him, "Where do you stand in the matter, Sa'd?" Sa'd said, "I stand with my people." "Then Sa'd was told to gather the Ansar in one of the enclosures that had been used to shelter the captives; and some of the Emigrants also attended that meeting, with Sa'd's permission. When the Prophet went to them, he praised and thanked Allah and addressed them thus: "O men of Ansar, what is this I hear of you? Do you think ill of me in your hearts? Did I not come to you while you were erring, ¹⁷ and Allah guided you; poor and Allah enriched you; enemies and Allah reconciled ¹⁸ your hearts?" They answered, "Yes indeed, Allah and His Messenger are most bountiful ¹⁹ and most gracious." The Prophet continued, "Will you not answer me, O Ansar?" "How should we answer?" They said, "Bounty and grace belong to Allah and His Messenger." "If you wished," the Prophet answered for them,'' you might say to me, and say truthfully, and be believed: `You came to us discredited ²⁰ and we believed you; deserted and we helped you; a fugitive and we took you in; poor and we comforted you.' O Ansar, are you disturbed in mind because of the good things of this life by which I reconcile men's hearts that they may become Muslims, when you yourselves I have entrusted to your Islam? Are you not satisfied that men should take away flocks and herds ²¹ and that you take with you the Messenger of Allah to your homes? By Him in whose Hand is the self of Muhammad, but for the migration I should be one of the Ansar myself. If all men went one way and the Ansar another I should indeed take the way of the Ansar. May Allah have mercy on the Ansar, on their children, and on their children's children!"

At this the people wept until the tears ran down their beards as they said, "We are satisfied with the Messenger of Allah as our patron ²² and our lot."

Then the Prophet led the Muslims in performing the `Umrah (the Lesser Pilgrimage), in Thilqa'dah; and he returned to Al-Madinah, leaving Mu'ath Ibn Jabal in Makkah to instruct ²³ the people in religion.

2. The March to Tabuk:

After staying in Al-Madinah for about eight months, the Prophet ordered the Muslims to prepare for the battle against the Byzantines in Syria. This time the plans for the battle were not kept secret as usual, but orders were sent to all the allied tribes to send arms and armies. Then the army of 30,000 moved towards the north until it reached Tabuk. The season was hot and there was drought ²⁴ that year. Many of the Companions gave freely to prepare for the expedition; among these was `Uthman who provided for the equipment of ten thousand men.

The army stayed in Tabuk for about twenty days, but there was no fighting. Then the Prophet concluded treaties of peace with some of the rulers in the area, and returned to Al-Madinah.

This expedition, in which there was no fighting, saw some incidents of varying types, demonstrating the influence brief exercises on believers.

(a) A Late-Comer:

One of those was a Companion, named Abu Khaythamah. He had been poor, but now he was strong and wealthy; and he did not prepare himself in time to go with the Prophet and the Muslim army.

One day he went to the hut ²⁵ of one of his two wives, and thought of what comfort he was enjoying, and also thought of the Prophet and the Muslim army on the way to Tabuk. So he said to himself, "The Prophet is out in the sun and the wind and the heat and Abu Khaythamah is in a cool shade, food prepared for him, resting in his property with a fair woman. This is not just. By Allah I will not stay into any of my two huts, but join the Prophet." So he ordered his wives to prepare food for him, went to his camel and saddled it, and was on his way to the Prophet. He joined the Prophet and the Muslim army in Tabuk. When Abu Khaythamah approached the army, the Prophet ²⁶ said, as it were in prayer, "Be Abu Kahythamah!" Then when he rode up and greeted the Prophet, he said, "Alas for you Abu Khaythamah;" but when told what happened, the Prophet asked for the blessings of Allah upon him.

(b) A Solitary Believer:

On the way to Tabuk, one of the Prophet's Companions called Aba Tharr had dropped behind, because his camel had delayed him. As it walked slowly, he loaded his belongings on its back, and went off walking beside it in the track of the Prophet and his army. At one of the halting-places, ²⁷ the Prophet and the army stopped. Then a man told the Prophet that he could see a man walking alone at a distance. The Prophet said that he hoped it was Abu Tharr; and when the people carefully looked, they said it was really Abu Tharr. The Prophet said, "May Allah have mercy on Abu Tharr. He walks alone and he will die alone and be resurrected ²⁸ alone."

Abu Tharr died at the time of `Uthman after being exiled to a lonely place near Al-Madinah. Before his death, he instructed his wife and his servant to wash him after his death, shroud him and leave him in the desert. They did what he had told them, and a caravan was passing by, and they saw his bier ²⁹ on the top of the road, with his servant beside it. The servant told the caravan that it was Abu Tharr's body, and they helped his servant in Abi Tharr's burial service in the desert.

(c) The Three Forgiven:

Among those who stayed behind when the Muslim army went to Tabuk were three men, whom the Prophet asked his Companions not to speak to after he and the army had returned from Tabuk. One of these three was Ka'b Ibn Malik. He speaks about his absence from that expedition in this way, "The Prophet went on that expedition in violent heat and faced a long journey and a powerful enemy. He told Muslims what they had to do so that they would make adequate ³⁰ provision, and told them the direction he intended to take. The Prophet and Muslims made their preparations, and I would go to get ready with them and come back not having done what was necessary, saying to myself, `I can do that when I want to, until the men had acted with energy and in the morning they and the Prophet had gone on the march. Day after day passed and still I thought of going and overtaking them; but I did not.

When I heard that the Prophet was on his way back from Tabuk, I was deeply sorry; and I knew I could escape the Prophet's anger only by telling the truth. In the morning the Prophet entered Al-Madinah and went into the mosque. After performing two rak'as, he sat down to await the men. Those who had stayed behind came and began to make excuses with oaths - there were about eighty of them - and the Prophet accepted their public declarations and oaths and asked Divine forgiveness for them, referring their secret thoughts to Allah. Last of all I came and saluted ³¹ him and he smiled as one who is angry. When I sat before him he asked me what had kept me back, and if I had not bought my mount. I said, `O Messenger of Allah, were I sitting with anyone else in the world I should count on escaping his anger by an excuse, for I am astute ³² in argument.' Indeed I have no excuse. I was never stronger and richer than when I stayed behind." The Prophet said, "So far as that goes you have told the truth, but get up until Allah decides about you." The Prophet forbade anyone to speak to us three out of those who had stayed behind; and we endured this for fifty nights. One morning I walked in the market when a Syrian merchant came to me with a letter from the King of Ghassan, which he had written on a piece of silk. It read as follows: "We hear that your master has treated you badly. You should not be left for humiliation and misery, so come to us and we will provide for you." When I read it I thought that this too was part of the ordeal ³³ My situation was such that a polytheist hoped to win me over; so I took the letter to the oven and burnt it.

Then the Prophet sent a messenger to me and told me that the Prophet had ordered that I should separate myself from my wife. I asked whether this meant that I was to divorce her; but he said `No.' I was to separate myself and not to approach her. I told my wife to rejoin her family until such time as Allah should give a decision in the matter."

In the morning of the fiftieth night the Prophet announced Allah's forgiveness of Ka'b and his two friends at a time when "The earth, spacious as it is, closed in on us and I was straitened ³⁴ in deep distress." When Ka'b went to the Prophet, the Prophet said to him, "Rejoice in the best day that has come upon you since your mother bore you." Ka'b answered, "Is this from you, O Messenger of Allah or from Allah?" "No, it is from Allah," the Prophet answered. Then Ka'b told the Prophet that he would give away part of his property as an act of penitence.

This incident is told in Al-Qur'an in this verse:

"And (Allah has accepted the repentance) of the three who were left behind when the earth, spacious as it is, was straitened for them, and when they were themselves straitened, and they thought that there was no refuge from Allah except in Him; then He guided them to repentance so that they might repent. Surely Allah is the Most-Relenting, the Ever-Merciful." (At-Tawbah-118).

1. The Death of lbn `Ubbay:

About two months after the return from Tabuk, Ibn `Ubbay, one of the chief hypocrites, died and the Prophet led the funeral prayer for him, and prayed beside his grave when he had been buried. Not long afterwards this verse was revealed:

"And never pray the funeral prayer over one of them who dies, nor stand beside his grave, for surely they have disbelieved in Allah and His messenger, and they died while they were ungodly." (At-Tawbah-84).

2. Muslims and Christians:

After Tabuk many deputations came to the Prophet to declare their acceptance of Islam. One of these deputations was from the Christians of Najran, who came to make a pact with the Prophet. They were sixty in number and were received by the Prophet in the Mosque. When the time for their prayer came he allowed them to pray there, which they did, facing the east. During the stay of the Najran delegation in Al Madinah, these verses were revealed:

"The similitude of `Isa (Jesus) with Allah is like the similitude of Adam. He created him of dust and then said to him, "Be," and he is." (Al-`Imran-59).

"This is the truth from your Lord, so do not be of the wranglers." (Al-'Imran-60).

"So whosoever argues with you after the knowledge that has come to you, say: Come, and let us call our children and your children, our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves. Then we will imprecate, putting the curse of Allah on the liars." (Al-'Imran-61).

"Say: O People of the Book (Scripture): Come to an even word between us and yourselves: that we do not worship anything but Allah, and we do not associate anything with Him, nor do we take some of us lords besides Allah. Thus if they turn their backs (against this) then say. Bear witness that we are Muslims." (Al-'Imran-64).

The first two verses (60 and 61) declare in an unequivocal ³⁵ manner the Muslim stand on `Isa (Jesus) as one of the creatures of Allah; his creation is no more miraculous <sup>36</sup> than that of Adam, the difference being in the fact that Adam had no father or mother, whereas `Isa- had a mother. The Prophet is here advised not to wrangle ³⁷about this question; and even if Muslims argue with the People of the Book, it should be with fairness

.

"And do not dispute with the People of the Book but in a fair way, except those of them who have been unjust to you." (Al-'Ankabut-46) .i.e. you are not bound to dispute fairly with those who have inflicted injustice on you.

The next part of the verse has shown that those who refused to imprecate ³⁸ should not claim ³⁹ to be on the side of truthful belief, because they have been led to error through a series of historical errors. The last part of the verse reiterates ⁴⁰ the basic belief in Islam as well as in all Revealed religions since the time of Adam and Nuh (Noah): monotheism clear, unequivocal, and undefiled: the Oneness of Allah.