The Conquest of Makkah

The Khuza'a and the Banu Bakr were two tribes living on the outskirts of Makkah. For about a hundred years they had fought on and off, much like the Aws and the Khazraj of Madinah before Islam. The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah allowed other tribes to join either the Muslims or the Quraysh. Many of the Khuza'a had become Muslim, so they joined the Muslims' side. The Banu Bakr, the only pagan tribe left near Makkah, joined the Quraysh. The treaty forced the old feud to pause, but the Banu Bakr still wanted revenge for their dead. In 8 AH their noblemen asked the Quraysh for permission to carry out just one raid. The Quraysh agreed, even though they knew it broke the treaty. Some of their leaders, including Suhayl ibn Amr and Safwan ibn Umayyah, even supplied weapons, most likely for a share of the plunder. One of them assured the raiders that if they attacked in the middle of the night, the Muslims would never find out. The Banu Bakr attacked the Khuza'a at night while they were camped at al-Watir, a small pond outside the boundary of the Haram, the sacred area around Makkah. They expected to take some camels and plunder and slip away. Instead someone raised the alarm, and a real fight broke out. More than twenty of the Khuza'a were killed, including women and children. One man of the Khuza'a fled into the Haram, where even the pagan Arabs held that fighting was forbidden. He turned to his pursuer and called on him to fear his God. The man from the Banu Bakr replied, "There is no God today," and killed him inside the Haram.

Placed here because: Ep. 76: "The Banu Bakr Violates the Term of the Treaty"; dated shortly before Ramadan 8 AH.

News of the massacre at al-Watir reached Amr ibn Salim al-Khuza'i, the chieftain of the Khuza'a. He set out at once for Madinah with a delegation of 40 men to ask the Prophet ﷺ for help. Before the Prophet ﷺ, Amr recited a moving poem about a page long, recorded by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham. In it he reminded the Prophet ﷺ that the two tribes shared an ancestress, a woman of the Khuza'a who had married Qusayy ibn Kilab, the Prophet ﷺ's forefather. He recalled the old alliance (Hilf) that the Prophet ﷺ's grandfather Abdul Muttalib had made with Amr's own grandfather. Under it the two tribes would stand as one against anyone who harmed the other, "as long as the generations proceed". He reminded him that the Khuza'a were on the Muslims' side in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. Only then did he describe how the Banu Bakr had attacked his people while they were bowing and prostrating in prayer. The Prophet ﷺ was moved, and he promised that they would be helped. Later, seeing a cloud on the horizon, he took it as a good sign of victory for the Khuza'a, who were also called the Banu Ka'b. Scholars differ over what happened next. Most hold that the Prophet ﷺ treated the Banu Bakr's attack as an automatic breach of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. On this view he began preparing to march on Makkah without negotiating any further with the Quraysh, which was his right since the Quraysh had knowingly broken the treaty. Another report, which Ibn Hajar and others grade as mursal sahih (sound, but with one link missing from its chain), says he first sent the Quraysh an ultimatum. They were to cut their ties with the Banu Bakr and pay the blood money for the twenty dead, which came to 2,000 camels, or face war. According to this report the Quraysh refused both demands. The blood money alone would have ruined them, and they said the Banu Bakr were the only tribe nearby still following their religion.

Placed here because: Ep. 76: the Khuza'a rider reminds the Prophet ﷺ of "the treaty of Abdul Muttalib with his own grandfather."

The Banu Bakr, allies of the Quraysh, had attacked the Khuza'a, who were allied to the Muslims, and the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was close to collapse. With the approval of the Quraysh, Abu Sufyan travelled alone to Madinah to try to renegotiate it. The reports differ on the order of his visits. Ibn Ishaq says he went first to the Prophet ﷺ, who gave him no response at all. Only then did he go to Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al-Khattab, and Ali ibn Abi Talib in turn. Ibn Sa'd says he visited Abu Bakr, Umar, and Ali first, and the Prophet ﷺ last. Sh. Yasir Qadhi leans toward Ibn Ishaq's version. Abu Bakr, his friend from before Islam, told him plainly that he could not help. Umar, his former business partner, refused even more bluntly. Ali was his third cousin and his closest relative in Madinah. Ali heard him out, but told him that once the Prophet ﷺ had decided a matter, they would not try to change it. Abu Sufyan then turned to Fatima, who was there with her little son Hasan. He asked her to have the boy seek protection for him. Fatima replied that her son was too young to grant protection, and that no one could give protection against the Prophet ﷺ. As a last resort, Ali advised Abu Sufyan to stand in the mosque and publicly ask for protection. Under Arab custom, any member of a tribe could grant protection, and Islam kept this rule for any Muslim, male or female, old or young. Abu Sufyan made the plea, but no one came forward, since the Prophet ﷺ himself had said nothing. Before leaving Madinah, Abu Sufyan visited his daughter Umm Habiba, a wife of the Prophet ﷺ. He had not seen her in over 13 years, since she emigrated to Abyssinia. When he went to sit down, she quickly folded away the bedding. She told him it was the bed of the Prophet ﷺ, and that he, as an idolater, would not sit on it. Abu Sufyan returned to Makkah empty-handed. When he told the Quraysh that he had begged for protection in the mosque, they told him he had been made a fool of.

Placed here because: A few weeks before the march; the Quraysh sent him once they realised what the raid had cost them.

As the Prophet ﷺ prepared to march on Makkah, one of the Companions, Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah RA, decided to warn the Quraysh. Hatib was not himself of the Quraysh, and his family had stayed behind in Makkah with no tribe to protect them. He wrote a letter to the Quraysh. Then he paid a freedwoman attached to the clan of Banu Hashim to carry it to them in secret. She folded the letter and hid it in the braids of her hair. Jibril AS told the Prophet ﷺ what had happened. The Prophet ﷺ sent Ali ibn Abi Talib RA and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam RA after her. He told them they would find her with a caravan at Rawdatu Khakh, a place just outside Madinah, and described what she would be riding. They found her exactly there. She denied having any letter. They searched her belongings, her camel and its saddle, and found nothing. Ali RA then swore by Allah that neither the Prophet ﷺ nor they themselves had been told a lie. He warned her that she must hand it over, or they would search her completely. Seeing that they meant it, she asked them to turn around out of modesty. Then she untied her hair and gave them the letter.

Placed here because: Told in Ep. 77 as the army prepares to leave; the rider was caught on the road south of Madinah.

The Muslim army set out from Madinah for the Conquest of Makkah. Barely two days into the march, at the valley of Juhfa, they met al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, travelling the other way. He had left Makkah with his family to make hijrah to Madinah, with no idea that the conquest was already under way.

Placed here because: Al-Abbas met the army at Juhfa, two days out from Madinah, and turned back with it.

The Muslim army's final camp before the Conquest of Makkah was at Marr al-Zahran, now known as Wadi Fatima. There the ten thousand men lit their campfires. Al-Abbas RA, the Prophet ﷺ's uncle and a new Muslim, feared that the Quraysh would be destroyed if Makkah were taken by force. He asked permission to go and persuade them to submit. The Prophet ﷺ gave him his own mule, Duldul, to ride. That night al-Abbas came across three leaders of the Quraysh and Khuza'a, who had been coming out each night to look for the Muslim army. Among them was Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the last senior chief left in Makkah. Al-Abbas told him to come along and promised to ask the Prophet ﷺ to forgive and protect him. He brought Abu Sufyan into the camp on the Prophet ﷺ's mule. Umar ibn al-Khattab RA saw them and followed them to the Prophet ﷺ's tent. He asked for Abu Sufyan to be executed, while al-Abbas insisted that Abu Sufyan was under his protection. The Prophet ﷺ told al-Abbas to keep Abu Sufyan in his tent overnight and bring him back in the morning. The next morning Abu Sufyan, after much hesitation, accepted Islam. The Prophet ﷺ then announced that whoever entered the Haram, stayed in his own house, or entered the house of Abu Sufyan would be safe. He also had al-Abbas show Abu Sufyan the army marching past, tribe by tribe, and Abu Sufyan was astonished at its size.

Placed here because: The night before the entry, at the last camp outside Makkah.

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah allowed either side to make alliances with outside tribes. Any tribe that joined a side was automatically covered by the terms agreed at Hudaybiyyah. The Khuza'a took the side of the Muslims. They were kin to the Prophet ﷺ through his great-great-great-grandmother, and they were bound to Banu Hashim by an old alliance made by Abdul Muttalib. The Banu Bakr took the side of the Quraysh. In the 8th year of the Hijrah, the Banu Bakr raided the Khuza'a by night at the pond of al-Watir, just outside the boundary of the Haram. The Banu Bakr had old blood feuds to settle. The Quraysh knew the raid would break the treaty, yet they approved it. Some of their leaders, such as Suhayl ibn Amr and Safwan ibn Umayyah, gave the Banu Bakr weapons, and some men of Quraysh are reported to have fought beside them in the dark. In his verses, Hassan ibn Thabit later laid the blame on these two men. The raid turned into a massacre. More than twenty people of Khuza'a were killed, including women and children. One man of Khuza'a fled into the Haram and called on his pursuer from Banu Bakr to fear his God. The pursuer answered, "There is no God today," and killed him inside the sanctuary. The chieftain of Khuza'a, Amr ibn Salim al-Khuza'i, went to Madinah. There he recited a poem that called on the old treaty and described the massacre in the same breath. The Prophet ﷺ was moved, and he promised, "You shall be helped, O Amr ibn Salim." The Quraysh sent Abu Sufyan ibn Harb to Madinah to negotiate the treaty again, but he found every door closed to him. Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab RA both refused to speak for him. Ali ibn Abi Talib RA and his infant son Hasan could offer him nothing. Even his own daughter, Umm Habiba RA, would not let him sit on the Prophet ﷺ's bedding. He went back to Makkah having achieved nothing. The Prophet ﷺ called for a full mobilization, but he did not say where the army was going. He told no one, not even Abu Bakr RA or Aisha RA. By some reports, he also sent a small decoy party of eight men north toward Batn Idam, to make it look as if Syria was the target. Then he told the people that he was going to Makkah. He prayed, "O Allah, take eyes and ears from the Quraysh so that we may take them by surprise in their land." It was at this point that Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah RA tried to warn the Quraysh. Hatib had fought at Badr. By the strongest opinion he was a mawla, a client member of a tribe, from Yemen, and his family in Makkah had no tribe to protect them. He paid a mawla woman of Banu Hashim to smuggle a warning letter to the Quraysh, hidden in the braids of her hair. News of this came to the Prophet ﷺ from heaven, and he told his men where to find her. Ali ibn Abi Talib RA and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam RA caught up with her caravan at Rawdatu Khakh, outside Madinah. At first she denied carrying anything. Ali swore that neither the Prophet ﷺ nor Jibril AS could have been mistaken, and he threatened to search her by force. At that, she asked them to turn around out of modesty. Then she untied her hair and handed over the letter. When Hatib was confronted, he confessed. He explained that his loyalty to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ had never wavered. He had acted only out of fear for his unprotected family, not out of love for the Quraysh. Umar ibn al-Khattab RA had asked at once to execute him. But the Prophet ﷺ declared, "Hatib has spoken the truth. Nobody should say anything about Hatib anymore except good." Umar asked a second time, saying that Hatib had betrayed Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ refused again. He reminded Umar that Hatib had fought at Badr, and told him that Allah may already have forgiven everyone who took part in Badr. Umar was moved to tears. After this, Allah revealed the opening of Surah al-Mumtahanah (Qur'an 60:1), which tells the believers not to take His enemies as allies. The army moved remarkably fast. It left Madinah on the 10th of Ramadan and reached the outskirts of Makkah on the 19th, a march of nine days. By then the force had grown to more than 10,000. Every man of the Muhajirun and the Ansar marched, and allied tribes such as the Muzayna and Banu Sulaym joined along the way. Barely six years earlier, only 300 Muslims had fought at Badr. When the army reached Qudaid, the Prophet ﷺ broke his Ramadan fast, and the army broke theirs with him. At the valley of Juhfa, the army met al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, the Prophet ﷺ's uncle. He was riding out of Makkah with his family to make his own Hijrah, and he did not know that the Conquest was already under way. By a weak report, the Prophet ﷺ called him the last of the Muhajirun. At Niq al-Uqab, between Makkah and Madinah, two of the Prophet ﷺ's first cousins came out to ask to see him. Both had long mocked and opposed him. One was the poet Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith ibn Abdul Muttalib RA. The other was Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah RA, the brother of Umm Salama RA. At first the Prophet ﷺ refused to see them. He said that one had wounded his pride and the other had insulted him in Makkah. Then Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, with his young son at his side, threatened to go and die in the desert rather than be turned away. Only then was the Prophet ﷺ moved to give way. Both men accepted Islam. The army's last camp was at Marr al-Zahran, later known as Wadi Fatima. There its campfires lit up the plain. Al-Abbas RA had just joined the army, and he was anxious to spare his people needless bloodshed. That night he went out, hoping to persuade the Quraysh to surrender peacefully. On the way he came across three leaders of Quraysh and Khuza'a who were out looking for news. They were Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, Hakim ibn Hizam and Budayl ibn Warqa'. Al-Abbas brought Abu Sufyan into the camp on the Prophet ﷺ's own white mule. On the way they passed Umar ibn al-Khattab RA, who wanted Abu Sufyan executed on the spot. The Prophet ﷺ had Abu Sufyan spend the night in al-Abbas's tent. The next morning, pressed by both men, Abu Sufyan reluctantly testified to the shahada. The Prophet ﷺ then declared that anyone who entered the Haram, stayed in their own home, or entered the house of Abu Sufyan would be safe. He also had al-Abbas show Abu Sufyan the army as it marched past, tribe by tribe. Abu Sufyan marveled at its size and said to al-Abbas, "The kingdom of your nephew has become great." Al-Abbas corrected him, "It is not a kingdom. It is prophethood." The final entry came on the morning of the 20th of Ramadan. The people of Makkah still did not know what was coming. The secret had been kept so completely, over a force of more than 10,000, that it was remembered as nothing short of a miracle. At Dhu Tuwa, the Prophet ﷺ divided the army. According to Ibn Ishaq, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam RA took the left and Sa'd ibn Ubadah RA led the Ansar. Khalid ibn al-Walid RA took the right, with Aslam, Sulaym, Ghifar, Muzayna, Juhayna and other Arab tribes. Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah RA led the troops ahead of the Prophet ﷺ. As Sa'd ibn Ubadah passed Abu Sufyan, he called out, "Today is the day of a great battle, and today the Ka'bah will be made lawful!" Abu Sufyan reported this to the Prophet ﷺ. According to al-Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ said that Sa'd was wrong. Today, he said, Allah would honour the Ka'bah, and today it would be covered. In Ibn Ishaq's account, the Prophet ﷺ had the banner taken from Sa'd and given to Ali RA. In al-Bukhari's account, Zubayr RA carried the Prophet ﷺ's own flag. Al-Abbas RA then sent Abu Sufyan back into the city to warn the Quraysh not to fight. Abu Sufyan ran through the streets calling, "Come to my house and you will be safe!" His wife, Hind bint Utbah, was still a pagan, and she was furious. She seized him by the moustache and called for him to be killed as a wretched protector of his people. But Abu Sufyan held his ground. When people pressed him on what one house could do for the whole city, he spelled out the full terms of safety. They would be safe in the Haram, in their own homes, or in his house. The army entered Makkah from the east and the west. The Prophet ﷺ ordered that no one be killed unless they attacked first. He named only a small number of people who were left out of this general amnesty. A handful of Quraysh made a brief, hopeless stand in the alleys of the city. They were led by Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal, Safwan ibn Umayyah and Suhayl ibn Amr. The books report that around 13 to 20 men of Quraysh were killed. Only two Muslims were killed, both in the flank of Khalid ibn al-Walid RA. The resistance soon collapsed. The Prophet ﷺ then entered the city on his camel, wearing armour. His head was bowed so low that it nearly touched the camel's back, and he was reciting Surah al-Fath (Qur'an 48:1). He rode to the Ka'bah and performed tawaf on his camel. There were more than 350 idols around it, and some say 360. As he passed each one, he pointed his staff at it, and it fell. All the while he was reciting, "Truth has come, and falsehood has departed" (Qur'an 17:81). He then had Uthman ibn Talha bring the key, and he cleared the idols and images out of the Ka'bah. One image showed Ibrahim AS with divination arrows. The Prophet ﷺ said, "May Allah curse them! By Allah, neither Ibrahim nor Isma'il practised divination by arrows." A report in Ibn Sa'd also mentions a picture of Mary and Jesus, but that report is very weak. The Prophet ﷺ is also reported to have prayed inside the Ka'bah, with Bilal RA beside him. Bilal RA said that he prayed two rak'ahs between the pillars, but Ibn Abbas RA reported that he did not pray inside. He once told Aisha RA that he would have rebuilt the Ka'bah on Ibrahim AS's original foundations, and lowered its door to the ground, if the Quraysh had not been so new to Islam. Even now, he chose not to force that renovation through. Speaking from the door of the Ka'bah, the Prophet ﷺ declared, "There is no God but Allah alone. He has fulfilled His promise, and He has aided His servant, and He has destroyed all the enemies by Himself." He abolished every claim of the Jahiliyyah, the age of ignorance before Islam, except two. These were the custodianship of the Ka'bah and the feeding of pilgrims. He also recited Qur'an 49:13, on the equality of all mankind before Allah. He asked the assembled Quraysh what they thought he would do with them. They answered, "Good. You are a noble brother, son of a noble brother." The Prophet ﷺ said, "Go your way, for you are the freed ones" (Ibn Ishaq). Some tellings add the words of Yusuf AS, "No blame on you today" (Qur'an 12:92). Ali ibn Abi Talib RA asked whether both the custodianship of the Ka'bah (sadana) and the feeding of pilgrims (siqaya) could be given to Banu Hashim. Instead, the Prophet ﷺ called for Uthman ibn Talha and said, "Here is your key; today is a day of good faith" (Ibn Ishaq). Other reports link this to Qur'an 4:58. The custodianship has stayed with Uthman's clan, the Banu Abd al-Dar, ever since. In the immediate aftermath of the conquest, by one report, the Prophet ﷺ allowed the Khuza'a to take revenge on the Banu Bakr until the time of Asr. After that he forbade any more bloodshed in the Haram. The next day, men of Khuza'a killed Ibn al-Athwa' of Hudhayl. The Prophet ﷺ told them to stop, and he paid the blood money himself. He ruled that from then on a victim's family could choose either retaliation or blood money. He stressed that Allah alone had allowed him to fight inside the sanctuary, and only for a short time. Unusually among the conquests of human history, no war booty, prisoners or land were taken. Almost no fighting took place at all. Out of the whole city, only a small number of people were denied the amnesty by name, and the lists differ. Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal fled to Yemen, meaning to sail for Abyssinia. He turned to Islam at the sea. In Ibn Ishaq's account this was because the ship's master demanded belief in one God, while other tellings say it happened during a storm. He came back under the protection that his wife, Umm Hakim, obtained for him. He later died a martyr fighting the Romans. Abdullah ibn Khatal had killed the Muslim freedman who served him, and he had turned murtad, leaving Islam. He clung to the curtain of the Ka'bah for protection, but he was executed. Miqyas ibn Subaba was executed for assassinating a sahabi in revenge for his brother's accidental death at al-Muraysi'. Abdullah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi al-Sarh had once been the Prophet ﷺ's scribe. He had turned murtad and slandered the revelation of the Qur'an. His foster brother, Uthman ibn Affan RA, pleaded for him, and he was pardoned. Ibn Khatal had two singing girls, Fartanah and her companion. One of them was killed, and the other fled and was later pardoned. Sarah had insulted the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah, and she too was later pardoned. Habbar ibn al-Aswad had caused the miscarriage of Zaynab bint Muhammad ﷺ. He later repented and was forgiven. Al-Huwayrith ibn Nuqaydh was one of those who had insulted the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah, and he was executed by Ali ibn Abi Talib RA. By another report, he had attacked Fatima and Umm Kulthum RA on their journey to Madinah. Wahshi, who had killed Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, fled to Ta'if and converted about a year later. In the end, four of those named were killed. They were Ibn Khatal, Miqyas, al-Huwayrith and one of the singing girls. After the khutbah, the Prophet ﷺ had Bilal ibn Rabah RA climb onto the Ka'bah and give the first adhan ever called in Makkah. Bilal was an Abyssinian former slave. Now he was raised, literally and symbolically, above the Quraysh who had once tortured him. As Bilal gave the adhan, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb was standing with two leading men of Quraysh, al-Harith ibn Hisham and Itab ibn Asid. Itab said that his late father had been spared the humiliation of seeing Bilal raised above them. Al-Harith said that if he thought this man was on the truth, he would follow him. Abu Sufyan, a new Muslim, would not say anything. He said that if he spoke, even the stones would tell the Prophet ﷺ. Later, as the Prophet ﷺ left the Haram, he repeated to each of the three, word for word, what they had said. Al-Harith accepted Islam on the spot, and Itab accepted it later. Al-Harith is the Companion who asked the Prophet ﷺ how revelation came to him. Al-Bukhari reports this without saying when it happened. By one report, al-Harith died a martyr at the Battle of Yarmouk in 15 AH. Water meant for him was passed on twice. He gave it to Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal RA, who passed it to Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'ah RA. All three died before it could be drunk. The Prophet ﷺ then sat at Mount Safa, where the public call to Islam had begun two decades earlier. There he took the bay'ah, the pledge of allegiance, from the men of Quraysh, fulfilling Qur'an 110:2. Mujashi' ibn Mas'ud RA brought his brother to pledge to make the Hijrah. The Prophet ﷺ said that there was no migration after the Conquest, but that he would take his pledge for Islam. In Ibn Abbas RA's report, he said, "There is no emigration after the Conquest, but jihad and intention." He then took the pledge of the women of Quraysh, following Qur'an 60:12. Umar ibn al-Khattab RA administered it in person, since the Prophet ﷺ never touched the hand of a woman who was not related to him. Hind bint Utbah came veiled, and at first she was not recognized. She argued with each condition in turn. She objected that women were being asked for more than men. She admitted that she had secretly taken some of Abu Sufyan's wealth, and he forgave her on the spot. She protested that a free woman would never commit zina. When the pledge forbade killing children, Hind retorted that the Muslims had killed the sons of Quraysh as grown men at Badr. Umar laughed uncontrollably at that reply. The Prophet ﷺ had recognized her when Abu Sufyan spoke, and he asked, "Then you are Hind bint Utbah?" She asked him to forgive what was past, and he went on with the pledge. Meanwhile, some of the Ansar worried among themselves. They feared that now the Prophet ﷺ had returned to his own people, he had grown soft toward them. Revelation came to him, and he told the Ansar, "I migrated towards Allah and towards you. I will live with you and will die with you." They wept (Muslim). The Prophet ﷺ stayed in Makkah for 19 days. During that time, several notable figures held out for a while before finally accepting Islam. By a weak report, a young man named Fudala ibn Umayr was enraged at the defeat. He hid a dagger, meaning to kill the Prophet ﷺ during tawaf. The Prophet ﷺ confronted him by name, and Fudala lied about what he intended. The Prophet ﷺ laughed, asked Allah's forgiveness, and placed a hand on his chest. Fudala later said that from then on no one was more beloved to him. He accepted Islam on the spot. Safwan ibn Umayyah had joined the hopeless resistance. He fled to Jeddah, intending to drown himself. Umayr ibn Wahb RA begged the Prophet ﷺ to grant Safwan protection. Then he caught up with Safwan, carrying the Prophet ﷺ's own turban as proof. He talked him out of boarding the ship and brought him back toward Makkah. Safwan asked for two months to decide, and he was given four. He accepted Islam later, after Hunayn. By some reports, this was after he had lent the Muslims armour and had been given a large share of the spoils of Hunayn. Suhayl ibn Amr had been the Quraysh's negotiator at Hudaybiyyah. By a report not found in Ibn Ishaq, he locked himself in his house in terror. He sent his Muslim son, Abdullah ibn Suhayl RA, to beg for protection on his behalf. The Prophet ﷺ granted it at once. He told the sahaba to receive Suhayl with respect, since "he is too intelligent to be ignorant of Islam". Suhayl accepted Islam about a month later, after Hunayn and the Siege of Ta'if. Abu Quhafa was the blind, elderly father of Abu Bakr RA, and he had long opposed Islam. His granddaughter, Asma bint Abi Bakr RA, led him by the hand to the Prophet ﷺ, who was sitting with Abu Bakr. The Prophet ﷺ asked Abu Bakr why he had not left the old man at home, so that he could go to him there. Abu Bakr answered that it was more fitting for his father to come. The Prophet ﷺ stroked Abu Quhafa's chest and invited him to Islam. He told them to change the whiteness of his hair, but to avoid black. Umm Hani' bint Abi Talib RA also embraced Islam during this time. She was a daughter of Abu Talib, a full sister of Ali ibn Abi Talib RA, and a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. She had kept her old faith right up until the Conquest. Two of her in-laws from Banu Makhzum fled to her, and Ali RA swore that he would kill them. She bolted her door on them and went to the Prophet ﷺ. She found him bathing, screened by his daughter Fatima RA. He welcomed her and said, "O Umm Hani', we grant protection to whomever you have granted protection." The right to grant protection belongs to any Muslim, man or woman. Umm Hani' RA also narrated that she saw the Prophet ﷺ pray eight rak'ahs of Salat al-Duha that morning. It is the only surviving report of how many rak'ahs he himself prayed of that prayer. One of the last holdouts was Abdullah ibn al-Zab'ari of Banu Sahm, the official poet of the Quraysh. For years he had traded stinging verses with Hassan ibn Thabit RA. At the Conquest he fled to Najran rather than face the Muslims. Then a single verse that Hassan RA aimed at him stung him, and he resolved to return and embrace Islam. In some tellings his cousin objected, and he answered him, "Why should I not convert? ... Should I not go back to my own kith and kin, my own cousin? He is the best of all mankind." By reports not found in Ibn Ishaq, the Prophet ﷺ saw him approaching the Ka'bah from a distance. He remarked to the sahaba, "That is Ibn al-Zab'ari; and I see from him the nur of Iman." Ibn al-Zab'ari then gave the shahada and made a moving declaration of repentance for his years of hostile poetry. The Prophet ﷺ told him, "Islam wipes away all that you have done in the past." He spent the rest of his life writing poetry in praise of Islam. By one report, the Prophet ﷺ gave him his cloak for it. The Prophet ﷺ no longer had a house of his own in Makkah. Abu Talib had died a mushrik. Under the ruling that a Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever, his house passed instead to his non-Muslim sons, Talib and Aqil, and Aqil later sold it. So the Prophet ﷺ set up a tent at al-Hujun for his 19 days in the city. Ali RA asked whether they would go back to their old family house, and the Prophet ﷺ replied, "And did Aqil leave any property for us to live in?" In al-Bukhari's report it was Usama ibn Zayd RA who asked where they would stay, and the reply is given as "Has Aqil left for us any house to lodge in?" He shortened his prayers throughout the stay. Ibn Abbas RA put the stay at nineteen days, and Ibn Ishaq at fifteen nights. During these 19 days, the Prophet ﷺ gave short sermons teaching the new Muslims the basics of the religion. He reaffirmed that Makkah would always be sacred. He declared, "Allah has made Makkah sacred the day that He created the heavens and the earth, and it shall remain sacred until the Day of Judgment ... Makkah was never halal before me, nor shall it be halal after me. And even for me, it was made halal just for an hour of the day." He forbade the sale of alcohol, carcasses, pigs and idols. This ended the Makkans' profitable trade in carving idols. It also established the fiqh principle that whatever is unlawful to use is also unlawful to sell. Scholars differ on when zawaj al-mut'ah was prohibited, but most place its final prohibition at the Conquest. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA fell ill in Makkah. In al-Bukhari's main report, this happened in the year of the Farewell Hajj. His only heir was one daughter, and he asked the Prophet ﷺ whether he could leave two-thirds of his wealth by will. The Prophet ﷺ said, "No, too much." Sa'd asked about half, and got the same answer. Then Sa'd proposed a third. This led to a ruling still followed in Islamic inheritance law. A bequest to anyone outside the Qur'anic heirs may not be more than one-third. A noblewoman of Banu Makhzum was caught stealing, and Usama ibn Zayd RA, who was beloved of the Prophet ﷺ, pleaded for her. The Prophet ﷺ became angry and answered, "Do you intercede in a case connected with Allah's prescribed punishments?" Then in a sermon he said that if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad ﷺ, were to steal, he would cut off her hand. The woman later visited Aisha RA regularly, and Aisha passed on her requests to the Prophet ﷺ. This shows that a punishment does not brand a person a criminal for life. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA and Abd ibn Zam'ah RA also had a dispute over a boy born to the slave-girl of Zam'ah. Sa'd claimed the boy for his brother Utbah. Abd ibn Zam'ah claimed him as his own brother, born on his father's bed. The Prophet ﷺ settled the case with his verdict, "The boy is for the bed, and the stone is for the adulterer" (al-Bukhari). The Prophet ﷺ also sent small expeditions to destroy the remaining centres of idol worship. He commanded every household to destroy its own idols. He sent Khalid ibn al-Walid RA to destroy the great idol al-Uzza, which is mentioned in Qur'an 53:19. By other reports, he sent another party to destroy Manat (Qur'an 53:20). At Nakhla, al-Uzza's guardian, a man of Sulaym, hung his sword on the idol and climbed the mountain. He called on al-Uzza to strike Khalid down. Khalid destroyed the idol and returned (Ibn Ishaq). This success was spoiled by a mistake of Khalid ibn al-Walid RA, who was a very recent convert and did not yet know fiqh well. He was sent to invite the Banu Jadhimah to Islam, a tribe that had killed his uncle in the Jahiliyyah. They took up their weapons, and he told them to lay them down, since everyone had accepted Islam. They did so, saying "Saba'na, saba'na", because they could not say "Aslamna". Khalid then had them tied up, and he killed a number of them (Ibn Ishaq; al-Bukhari). Abdullah ibn Umar RA and his companions refused Khalid's order to kill their captives. Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf RA told Khalid that he had committed a pagan act in Islam. The two men quarrelled, and Khalid insulted him. When the Prophet ﷺ heard the news, he stood facing the Ka'bah, raised his hands, and declared, "O Allah, I am free from what Khalid has done." He then sent Ali ibn Abi Talib RA with money to pay blood money and to apologize to the grieving families on his behalf. When he heard about the quarrel, the Prophet ﷺ said, "None should revile my Companions, for if one among you were to spend as much gold as Uhud, it would not amount to one mudd of one of them, or half of it" (Muslim). The 19 days secured only the area immediately around Makkah. Ta'if, the fortified city on a plateau that had once driven out and stoned the Prophet ﷺ, was still beyond the army's reach. It would be dealt with in the campaigns that followed.

Placed here because: Ep. 76: "The Prophet ﷺ left Madinah on the 10th of Ramadan of the 8th year of the Hijrah, and arrived on the outskirts of Makkah on the 19th of Ramadan."

After the Battle of Badr, Safwan ibn Umayyah had promised to pay his cousin's debts and support his family if the cousin, Umayr ibn Wahab, would go to Madinah and kill the Prophet ﷺ. Instead, Umayr accepted Islam there. Safwan vowed never to have anything to do with him again, and the two did not speak for years. At the Conquest of Makkah in 8 AH, Safwan was still a pagan. He was sure the Prophet ﷺ would never forgive him for the plot, so he fled the city. Umayr looked for him and learned that he had gone. He asked the Prophet ﷺ to grant Safwan aman, a guarantee of protection, and the Prophet ﷺ granted it. Umayr then found where Safwan was hiding and persuaded him to come back. Safwan returned and declared the shahada, the testimony of faith, before the Prophet ﷺ.

Placed here because: Within the days after the entry, before the army left for Hunayn; Safwan then rode with it as a pagan.

During his 19-day stay in Makkah after the Conquest, the Prophet ﷺ ordered every household to destroy its own idols. He also sent out small expeditions to destroy the remaining public centers of idol worship. He sent Khalid ibn al-Walid RA to destroy the great idol al-Uzza, which is mentioned in Qur'an 53:19, and sent a separate group to destroy Manat (Qur'an 53:20). When Khalid reached al-Uzza's temple, one of its custodians hung an axe around the idol's neck and cried, "O Uzza! You protect yourself! I have to flee!" The custodians all ran away. The idol did nothing, and Khalid destroyed it. Within a few days, all the idols in the area around the Hejaz had been destroyed.

Placed here because: Ep. 81: during the nineteen days "he sent a number of mini-expeditions around Makkah to invite the neighboring tribes to Islam and destroy the major centers of idolatry."

After the Conquest of Makkah, Khalid ibn al-Walid RA was sent out on several expeditions to invite the surrounding tribes to Islam. He was a very new Muslim at the time. One of the tribes on his list was Banu Jadhimah. Khalid had a personal history with this tribe, because before Islam they had killed his uncle. When Khalid arrived with an army behind him, some of the Banu Jadhimah assumed he had come for revenge. They drew their swords and attacked, and Khalid's men fought back. Other members of the tribe understood that Khalid had not come for revenge, and they announced that they had accepted Islam. But they did not use the usual phrase "Aslamna" (we have embraced Islam). Instead they said "Saba'na" (we have become Sabians), because the Arabs used to call the new religion Sabianism. The senior Companions understood what they meant, but Khalid did not. He kept fighting in the merciless way of the days before Islam, and many innocent people were killed. Khalid ordered the other Companions to join the attack, but some refused. Among them were Abdullah ibn Umar RA and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf RA. Khalid reminded Abd al-Rahman that he was his commander, but Abd al-Rahman would not move. Khalid then cursed him harshly.

Placed here because: ~ One of the same expeditions from Makkah (Ep. 81); its order relative to al-Uzza is not given.

On the march to Hunayn, the Muslims passed a magnificent, lush green tree called Dhat Anwat, "the Hanging Tree". Every year the pagan Quraysh held a festival there. They sacrificed animals at it and hung their weapons on it for good luck in battle. Abu Waqid al-Laythi RA had accepted Islam only about a week earlier. He asked the Prophet ﷺ, "O Messenger of Allah ﷺ! Why don't you make for us a hanging tree just as they have the Hanging Tree?" He wanted a good-luck charm of their own. The Prophet ﷺ replied, "Subhan'Allah! I swear by the One in whose Hands is my soul, you have said exactly like the Children of Israel said to Moses when they said, 'O Moses, make for us a god just as they have gods'" (Qur'an 7:138). Then he said, "Wallahi, this is the custom that you will follow the pathways of those before you."

Placed here because: On the march out of Makkah towards Hunayn.

After the Conquest of Makkah, the tribe of Thaqif decided to fight. Thaqif was the tribe of the city of Ta'if, whose idol was al-Lat. They understood that the conquest meant the end of idol worship in Arabia unless they acted. With the Quraysh now defeated, they also wanted to take control of the Ka'bah for themselves. Thaqif sent messengers to every pagan tribe in the region. More than 20,000 pagan fighters gathered under their banner, the largest gathering of pagan Arabs in Arabian history. The two largest groups were Thaqif and the Bedouin tribe of Hawazin, who together made up about 10,000. The Prophet ﷺ sent Abdullah ibn Abi Hadrat RA, a new convert, to scout the forces of Ta'if. He came back and reported that he had never seen such a large gathering. Umar ibn al-Khattab RA doubted the report. Abdullah rebuked him, reminding him that Umar had once disbelieved the Prophet ﷺ himself. The Prophet ﷺ then gathered about 12,000 men. Of these, 10,000 had come with him from Madinah. The other 2,000 were new converts from Makkah, and some of them were not yet even Muslim. One of these was Safwan ibn Umayyah RA. The Prophet ﷺ borrowed a hundred coats of mail, with their weapons, from Safwan, as a loan to be returned. The Muslims left Makkah on the 6th of Shawwal, 8 AH. According to Sahih al-Bukhari they had stayed there about 19 days, though other reports give shorter periods. They reached the valley of Hunayn on the 10th. They camped there rather than at Ta'if itself, because Thaqif had already gathered their forces in that area. On the pagan side, the young chieftain Malik ibn Awf al-Nasri had just been chosen as leader. An old, blind nobleman named Durayd ibn al-Sima gave him advice. He urged Malik to send the tribe's women, children and livestock back to safety, and not to bring them onto the battlefield. He warned that having them there would not help the men fight. Malik refused. He even threatened to kill himself rather than be overruled. So the families and flocks stayed on the field. Thaqif and Hawazin had set a trap. They placed a small decoy force at the mouth of the valley that the Muslims had to cross. The main part of their army, with hundreds of archers, hid in the mountains on both sides. As the Muslims advanced, the decoy force ran away and drew the Muslim army deep into the pass. Then the hidden archers above let fly volleys of arrows, and the main pagan army charged. Many in the Muslim army were inexperienced new converts without proper armour. They panicked and fled in every direction. The Prophet ﷺ was left almost alone on his mule. Among the small group who stayed near him was Umm Sulaym, a woman of the Ansar. She jumped down from her mount and drew a small dagger. She told the Companions she would use it on anyone who reached her. The Prophet ﷺ called out, "Come to me! I am the Messenger of Allah ﷺ! I am Muhammad ﷺ, the son of Abdullah!" He also declared, "I am the Prophet ﷺ, there is no lie about this! I am the son of Abdul Muttalib." In this way he called on both his prophethood and his family line. His uncle, al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, was known for his powerful voice. The Prophet ﷺ asked him to call the fleeing Muhajirun and Ansar back, by name and by tribe. Al-Abbas stood up on his mount and called on them to return. As they came back fighting, the Prophet ﷺ declared, "Now the real fight begins!" This is the first recorded use of that Arabic expression. Then he took a handful of dust and threw it towards Thaqif. He said, "May the faces be disfigured." After that the battle turned, and the Muslims surged forward. Allah then sent down His sakina, or tranquillity, upon the Prophet ﷺ and the believers. As Surah al-Tawbah 9:25-26 relates, He also sent unseen forces to help them. A number of people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, reported seeing these angels come down. One of them was Jubayr ibn Mut'im RA. He described a thick black cloud coming down from the sky and spreading out among the people like ants. In the middle of the chaos, there was another danger. Shayba ibn Uthman was a distant cousin of the Prophet ﷺ from the Banu Abd al-Dar, and he had only recently converted. His father, Uthman ibn Abi Talha, had been killed at Uhud fighting against the Muslims. Shayba rode at the Prophet ﷺ's unguarded back, meaning to avenge his father. A blinding light stopped him. The Prophet ﷺ turned, sensed what was happening, and made du'a for Shayba to be guided. Iman entered Shayba's heart at once. He turned and fought alongside the Muslims for the rest of the battle. Thaqif and Hawazin had relied completely on the ambush, and they had no backup plan. Once the Muslims regrouped and charged, the pagan coalition fled in every direction. The Prophet ﷺ ordered the Companions to chase them into the surrounding valleys and mountains before the scattered tribesmen could regroup. A long series of small expeditions followed. Several sahaba were wounded or killed in them. One of those killed was Abu Amir RA, the uncle of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari RA, who was fatally struck by a javelin. Afterwards, the Prophet ﷺ walked across the battlefield. He came upon the body of a woman who had been killed, and he said it was not right that she had been killed. He learned that Khalid ibn al-Walid RA had killed her. The Prophet ﷺ sent word to Khalid, forbidding him to kill any more women, children or other non-combatants. A second large part of the fleeing coalition regrouped at a place called Awtas. Another skirmish took place there. Some Muslims were killed or wounded before the Muslims won. Only four Muslims were killed in the Battle of Hunayn itself, though many were wounded. Famously, the wounded included all four of the future Khulafa al-Rashidun: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali RA. All four stood with the Prophet ﷺ, and all four were wounded that day.

Placed here because: Ep. 82: "he ﷺ left on the 6th of Shawwal, and arrived in Hunayn on the 10th."

After their defeat at Hunayn, the pagan tribes scattered in many directions. The tribe of Thaqif fled back to their fortified city of Ta'if. What was perhaps the second-largest group fled to a place called Awtas. Another battle was fought there, with some Muslim casualties, but the Muslims won.

Placed here because: The pursuit of the Hawazin who fled Hunayn.

After the Battle of Hunayn, the Prophet ﷺ left the spoils of war (ghanima) and the prisoners under guard at Ji'ranah. He then marched on Ta'if, where the defeated tribe of Thaqif had taken refuge behind the city's massive walls. Scholars of seerah usually treat Hunayn and Ta'if together, because they happened back to back against the same enemy. They were still two separate incidents, since Hunayn was a battle while Ta'if was a siege. The Muslims arrived in the last week of Shawwal, 8 AH. Ta'if was a green, well-watered city in the mountains, quite unlike the barren valley of Makkah. It had no Ka'bah, but its people had made it strong in other ways. Thaqif had surrounded it with massive walls. On top of the walls they had built devices for pouring burning oil and shooting arrows down on attackers. They had also stored enough supplies for nearly a year, because they expected a long siege. The Prophet ﷺ had foreseen this. While he was still in Makkah, even before Hunayn, he sent a few Companions to the tribe of Jurash, among them Urwah ibn Mas'ud and Ghaylan ibn Salama. Their task was to learn methods of siege warfare that the Muslims had never used before. They learned to build a catapult and a battering ram, and to form a testudo, in which soldiers advance toward a wall under a roof of large shields. They came back with this knowledge before the army reached Ta'if, and so for the first time Muslims built and used a catapult. The Muslims first camped near the city, but they were showered with arrows. The Prophet ﷺ moved them to another site, which later became the location of the first mosque in Ta'if. On one occasion the Muslims used the testudo to approach the walls. Burning oil poured from above still got through and burned many of them. When they ran out from under the shields, a fresh volley of arrows killed a number of them. The battering rams did not work, and the catapults did some damage but could not break open the gates. The Prophet ﷺ suggested leaving Ta'if for now and coming back another time. Some of the Companions did not want to go. They had just won at Makkah and Hunayn, and they did not want to leave when victory seemed so close. When the Prophet ﷺ saw that they wanted to stay, he let them stay. The city still held. After another deadly volley of arrows the Companions lost heart, and when the Prophet ﷺ told them a second time that they should move on, they quietly agreed. Before they left, the Companions asked him to make du'a (supplication) against Thaqif. Instead he prayed that Allah would guide them. The army then returned to Ji'ranah, where the spoils were waiting.

Placed here because: Ep. 83: "the Muslims arrived during the last week of Shawwal."

After the Siege of Ta'if, the Prophet ﷺ returned to Ji'ranah. The ghanima, the spoils of war, and the prisoners taken at Hunayn had been kept there under guard. He camped there for over a week. He was waiting for the tribe of Hawazin to come and accept Islam, so that their families and property could be returned to them. The same thing had happened before with the Banu al-Mustaliq. Nearly a month after Hunayn, the Hawazin still had not come, so the Prophet ﷺ began to distribute the ghanima. Spoils left behind by a fleeing enemy, rather than taken from the slain, are given out at the ruler's discretion. So the soldiers had no guaranteed share of them. One by one, the Prophet ﷺ gave the largest gifts that had ever been seen in Islam up to that point. Most went to leading men of the Quraysh who were new Muslims or not yet Muslim at all. These were the muallafati qulubuhum, "those whose hearts needed reconciling to Islam". Among those who received 100 camels each were four men. The first was Abu Sufyan ibn Harb RA. The second was Safwan ibn Umayyah RA, who was still not a Muslim and was moved to accept Islam by this generosity. The third was Uyaynah ibn Hisn of the Ghatafan tribe, and the fourth was al-Aqra' ibn Habis of the Tamim tribe. He also gave large gifts to Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan and to al-Harith ibn Hisham RA, the full brother of Abu Jahal. Perhaps 60 to 70 people received gifts in total. Smaller shares were also given to the Muhajirun. The Ansar received nothing from this particular large share. Some of the younger Ansar began to grumble. Their swords were still dripping with the enemy's blood, they said, and yet they had earned nothing, while the Quraysh went home with fortunes. Sa'd ibn Ubadah RA, the chief of the Ansar, told the Prophet ﷺ about this. The Prophet ﷺ gathered the Ansar alone in a tent. There he gave one of the most moving speeches of his life, in praise of them. He said, "I give to some people because I fear for their greed and desires; and I don't give to others because I trust what Allah has given in their hearts is more than what I can give them." Then he asked them a question. Others would go home with sheep and camels. Were they not content to go home with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself? The Ansar wept, and said that they were content with Islam and with him. As word of the Prophet ﷺ's generosity spread, Bedouins flocked in asking for money. One chieftain grabbed the Prophet ﷺ's collar and demanded a share. The Prophet ﷺ only smiled and told those handing out the wealth to give him some. On another occasion, Bedouins crowded around him begging, so closely that his garment caught on a thorn bush. When the money was gone, he told them that if he had as many camels as there were shrubs around them, he would give them all away. He would never be found to be miserly. It was also here that a man with a straggly beard accused the Prophet ﷺ of being unjust in the distribution. This was the beginning of what would become the mindset of the Khawarij. Umar ibn al-Khattab RA asked permission to execute him for it. The Prophet ﷺ refused, for the sake of the community's wellbeing. He foretold that from this man's kind would come people who recite the Qur'an without it going beyond their throats, and who leave Islam as an arrow passes through its target. Eventually the Hawazin came and accepted Islam. They hoped their property could still be returned. The Prophet ﷺ told them it was too late for their property. He let them choose between their property and their families, and they chose their families. The next day, after the Zuhr prayer, the Prophet ﷺ gave up his own tribe's share of the prisoners first. This led the other Quraysh leaders to follow his example and release their captives freely. A few Bedouin tribes who had newly become Muslim asked to be paid for their captives instead. The Prophet ﷺ promised to compensate them from future revenue. In this way, all of the Hawazin's families were restored to them, though not their property. Before leaving Ji'ranah for Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ entered ihram there and performed an Umrah. It was the third of the four Umrahs he performed in his lifetime. Among the Hawazin who came to Ji'ranah, the Prophet ﷺ asked in particular about their chieftain, Malik ibn Awf al-Nasri. Malik had fled into Ta'if with the Thaqif tribe rather than surrender. The Prophet ﷺ sent word to him with an offer. If Malik came to him as a Muslim, his family and property would be restored to him, along with a hundred camels besides. Malik was unwilling to live on without his tribe, his family and his wealth. So he accepted, came to the Prophet ﷺ and embraced Islam. He was made chieftain over his own people again. Malik then composed verses declaring that the Prophet ﷺ was a true prophet. The Tamimi chieftain al-Aqra' ibn Habis also reflected on how vast the Prophet ﷺ's generosity had been. He said, "I have just come from a man who doesn't care about poverty! Wallahi, this man is a prophet, for no king would do what he has done!"

Placed here because: Ep. 83: "The Muslims then returned to Ji'ranah where the ghanima was ... camped at Ji'ranah and waited for more than a week."

At the Battle of Hunayn, the Muslims fought and defeated several tribes. Among them was Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr, the desert tribe that had fostered the Prophet ﷺ when he was a baby. After the battle, the prisoners of war were led to Ji'ranah. One of the women began to shout, asking how they dared treat her this way when she was the sister of their own companion. She was Shayma, the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ's wet-nurse, Halimah al-Sa'diyah, and so his foster sister. She had helped care for him as a baby, some 56 years earlier. The astonished companions told the Prophet ﷺ, and he asked them to bring her to him.

Placed here because: ~ The Hawazin delegation and their captives came to Ji'ranah; the exact day within the stay is not given.

Ka'b ibn Zuhayr was the most renowned poet in the Arabian Peninsula. He had written satirical poetry against the Muslims, and it had become vulgar, even attacking Muslim women. After the Conquest of Makkah, his brother, who had become Muslim, wrote urging him to repent. Ka'b thought it over and decided that he did want to accept Islam. About two weeks after the Prophet ﷺ returned to Madinah from the conquest, Ka'b came to the city in secret. People there knew his name but not his face. He spent the night at the house of a relative and asked him to keep it quiet. After the Fajr prayer, Ka'b went up to the Prophet ﷺ without saying who he was. He put his hand in the Prophet ﷺ's hand and asked whether he would accept Ka'b ibn Zuhayr if he came seeking protection, repenting and accepting Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said yes. Ka'b then revealed that he was Ka'b ibn Zuhayr. One of the Ansar rose to strike him down, but the Prophet ﷺ stopped him, because Ka'b had come in repentance. Ka'b then asked to recite a poem, and the Prophet ﷺ allowed him. The classical books call it Banat Su'ad, and later scholars named it the Qasidat al-Burda, the Poem of the Cloak. It is the original poem of that name. It is different from the later and more famous Qasidat al-Burda of al-Busiri, a poet of the 7th century after the Hijrah who claimed to have seen the Prophet ﷺ in a dream.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 84 tells it after the return from Ta'if; he came to Madinah, so it belongs at the end of the campaign.