The Road to Hudaybiyyah

In Jumada al-Awwal of 6 AH, the Prophet ﷺ sent Zayd ibn Harithah RA with 170 men to al-'Is, north of Madinah. Their task was to intercept a caravan of the Quraysh returning from Syria. They captured the whole caravan, with its camels, its goods and its men. One of the prisoners was Abu al-As ibn al-Rabi', the Prophet ﷺ's son-in-law and the husband of his daughter Zaynab. Abu al-As had already been taken prisoner once before, at Badr. The next morning, as the Prophet ﷺ began the Fajr prayer, Zaynab called out from the women's section. She announced that she had given Abu al-As her protection, and asked the Muslims to give him theirs as well. After the prayer, the Prophet ﷺ told the people that he had known nothing of this beforehand. He then declared that any Muslim, even the least of them, can grant protection, and that the Muslims would protect whomever Zaynab had protected. The Prophet ﷺ then spoke to the men who had captured Abu al-As's part of the caravan. He told them they could return it to him if they wished, and that this would be more beloved to him, but that keeping it was their right. The Ansar who held it agreed to give it back. First, though, they urged Abu al-As to accept Islam, saying he could then keep the wealth and stay in Madinah. Abu al-As refused. He said it would be wrong to change his faith and betray a trust for the sake of money. They gave the wealth back to him anyway. The wealth was not his own but the investments of the people of Makkah. Abu al-As took it back to Makkah and returned every last part of it to its owners. Once all his obligations were settled, he declared the shahada in front of the Quraysh, so that no one could say he had become Muslim for money or to save his life. He then returned to Madinah as a Muslim and was reunited with Zaynab.

Placed here because: Jumada al-Awwal 6 AH (lecture 62).

The Prophet ﷺ led 300 sahaba out from Madinah against the Banu Lahyan. This was the tribe that, two years earlier, had tricked a group of sahaba into coming to them and then massacred them at al-Raji. As was his tactic, the Prophet ﷺ did not at first say where they were going. But the Banu Lahyan were warned in advance and fled. When the Muslims reached their camp it was empty, and no battle took place. The Banu Lahyan had asked the Quraysh for help, and the Quraysh sent a small force under Khalid ibn al-Walid. It camped facing the Muslims, within sight of them. When the time for Zuhr came, the Muslims prayed in congregation and set aside their weapons and armor. A man in Khalid's camp said that this would be the perfect moment to attack. Khalid replied that another such chance would come at Asr. Before Asr came, Allah revealed a verse of Surah al-Nisa that set out Salat al-Khawf, the prayer of fear. It tells the Muslims to pray in groups taking turns, keeping their weapons with them, when they face an enemy.

Placed here because: ~ 6 AH, no month given (lecture 62).

Sallam ibn Abi al-Huqayq was a wealthy leader of Khaybar. He was the main funder of the Battle of Khandaq, and he had paid for the mercenaries of the Ghatafan tribe who fought in it. Some time earlier, men of the Aws had killed Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf. Men of the Khazraj felt that the Aws had outdone them, and they wanted to show the same devotion. They asked the Prophet ﷺ for permission to kill Sallam. He gave it, on condition that no women or children be harmed. Five men of the Khazraj set out, led by Abdullah ibn Atik RA, who spoke the language of Khaybar well. Just before sunset, as the city gates were being closed, Abdullah slipped inside. After nightfall he opened the gate and let the others in. The five made their way to Sallam's house and killed him. His wife screamed to raise the alarm. One of the men was about to strike her, but he remembered the Prophet ﷺ's order and spared her. As they fled, Abdullah ibn Atik slipped and sprained or broke his foot, and the others carried him out. They escaped with no other injury. When they returned, the Prophet ﷺ rubbed his hand over Abdullah's foot, and it was healed.

Placed here because: ~ "We don't know the exact date ... most likely around this time in 6 AH" (lecture 62).

Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, by then the senior leader of the Quraysh, offered a reward to anyone who killed the Prophet ﷺ. A Bedouin took up the offer. Abu Sufyan gave him a camel, food, and weapons and sent him to Madinah, where the man pretended that he wanted to accept Islam. When he entered the mosque, the Prophet ﷺ said, "This is a man who has treachery written on him." The companions seized him, and a dagger fell from his belt. The Prophet ﷺ told him, "If you are truthful to me, I shall let you go." The man confessed everything. The Prophet ﷺ kept his promise and let him go, and the Bedouin then accepted Islam.

Placed here because: ~ Undated; narrated between Thumamah and Sallam in lecture 62.

Sometime before the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the Prophet ﷺ sent 300 men under Abu Ubaydah Amir ibn al-Jarrah RA to intercept a caravan of the Quraysh, most likely on its way to Syria. The Quraysh escaped them. As the Muslims gave chase, their supplies ran dangerously low. Abu Ubaydah collected all the food in the army and rationed it, until each man was getting a single date a day. When even that ran out, the companions were forced to eat khabat, the dried, withered leaves of thorn bushes. The expedition is named after these leaves. Eventually they reached the shore at Yanbu, not far from Madinah, and found an enormous whale washed up on the beach. Thirteen or fourteen of the companions could sit together in the socket of its eye. They set one of its bones upright, and Abu Ubaydah rode his largest camel underneath it without lowering his head. The army camped there for a month, living off the whale. They returned to Madinah with the leftover meat and asked the Prophet ﷺ whether it had been allowed to eat an animal they had found already dead. He asked whether any of the meat was left, had it brought to him, and ate from it himself.

Placed here because: ~ "Sometime before the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah" (lecture 62).

Most likely in Shawwal of 6 AH, Muhammad ibn Maslamah RA led 30 companions against the tribe of Banu Bakr ibn Kilab at al-Qurta'. It was a sariyya, an expedition that the Prophet ﷺ sent out without going himself. The expedition succeeded. On the way back, the companions came across a small, unguarded convoy. Something about it seemed strange, so they brought its members to the Prophet ﷺ as prisoners, without knowing whom they had caught. The Prophet ﷺ recognised one of them at once. He was Thumamah ibn Uthal, chieftain of the Banu Hanifa, one of the largest tribes in Arabia. His captivity and conversion to Islam became a well-known story of its own.

Placed here because: Shawwal 6 AH (lecture 62), the month before the departure for Umrah.

In Shawwal of 6 AH, a small expedition (sariyya) of 30 Companions under Muhammad ibn Maslamah RA was sent to al-Qurta' against the tribe of Banu Bakr ibn Kilab. On the way back, they came across a small convoy that seemed suspicious and brought its men back as prisoners. They did not realise who they had captured. One of them was Thumamah ibn Uthal, the chieftain of the Banu Hanifa, one of the largest tribes in Arabia. Thumamah had openly sided with the pagans and had publicly threatened to kill the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ had earlier prayed to Allah to give him control over Thumamah, and he recognised him at once. He ordered that Thumamah be treated with honour. Thumamah was kept tied up in the Prophet ﷺ's masjid for three days and was sent the Prophet ﷺ's own food. Each morning the Prophet ﷺ asked him what he had to say, and each time Thumamah gave the same dignified answer. On the third day the Prophet ﷺ had him released. Thumamah went out, bathed, and soon came back to declare his shahada, the testimony of faith. Thumamah then went on to Makkah to perform the umrah he had been travelling to make, and he openly announced his new faith there. When the Quraysh confronted him, he swore that no grain would reach them from his lands until they followed Islam. He then cut off the grain supply from the Najd, in central Arabia, to the Quraysh. In the end Abu Sufyan wrote to the Prophet ﷺ, appealing to him as a relative. The Prophet ﷺ then wrote to Thumamah asking him to let the supply resume.

Placed here because: "On the way back" from al-Qurta' (lecture 62).

In the 6th year of the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ saw a dream. In it he was doing tawaf around the Ka'bah in a state of ihram, with his head shaved, performing the rites of Umrah. He understood it as Allah's command to go to Makkah for Umrah. He announced his intention to the Muhajirun, the Ansar and the Muslim tribes around Madinah, and invited everyone who was able to join him. The Muhajirun, who had not seen Makkah for six years, prepared eagerly. The Bedouin tribes around Madinah mostly refused to come, fearing a clash with the Quraysh. In the end about 1,400 Muslims set out with the Prophet ﷺ. The sources differ on whether they were armed. One way to reconcile the reports is that they carried weapons in their baggage as a precaution but did not wear them, since this is not allowed in ihram. The Prophet ﷺ deliberately waited to leave until the 1st of Dhu al-Qa'dah, the start of the Sacred Months, to show the Quraysh that he came in peace. At Dhu al-Hulayfah, the place where pilgrims from Madinah enter ihram, he prayed two rak'at and put on his ihram. There he also marked his camels as sacrificial offerings, a practice going back to Ibrahim AS. One report says there were 70 of them. From there he sent Busr ibn Sufyan al-Khuza'i ahead to Makkah to find out what the Quraysh were planning.

Placed here because: 1 Dhu al-Qa'dah 6 AH: "all of the historians unanimously agree" (lecture 63).

The Muslims were travelling in ihram for Umrah when news came of a group of riders near Ghayqah. The Prophet ﷺ sent a small party to find out who they were, and it turned out to be a false alarm. On the way back, the party saw a herd of zebras (one report says gazelles). Abu Qatada al-Ansari, who was in charge of the sacrificial animals, was not in ihram, for a reason the sources do not give. Everyone else was, and hunting is forbidden in ihram. None of the others even told Abu Qatada about the zebras. When he saw them himself, he asked his companions to hand him his bow and arrows, but they refused because they were in ihram. So he got down from his horse, fetched his own bow and arrows, and rode after the herd. He caught one zebra and slaughtered it. He brought the meat back, but the others would not touch it. When they reached the camp, they asked the Prophet ﷺ whether it was allowed. The Prophet ﷺ asked them, "Did any of you motion to him where the zebras were?" They said no. He asked, "Did any of you help him in hunting the zebras?" They said no. So he ﷺ said, "In that case, eat from it. And if you have any extra meat, bring it to me as well."

Placed here because: On the march, near Ghayqah, before the column reached Asfan (lecture 63).

In Dhu al-Qa'dah of 6 AH, the Prophet ﷺ set out from Madinah with about 1,400 companions toward Makkah, intending to perform Umrah. On the way, he heard that a group of riders had been seen near Ghayqah. Thinking they might be from the Quraysh, he sent a small party to find out, but it proved to be a false alarm. When the Muslims reached Asfan, about midway between Madinah and Makkah, a scout returned with news. He was Busr ibn Sufyan al-Khuza'i, whom the Prophet ﷺ had sent ahead to Makkah posing as an ordinary pilgrim. He reported that the Quraysh had armed themselves and put on their leopard skins, a sign of war. They had even brought their women with them, as they had at Uhud. They had also sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to camp at Ghumaym, a plain outside Makkah, to block the Muslims' path. The Prophet ﷺ halted the caravan, camped in a shaded spot and addressed the companions. He first gave his own view, that they should attack the surrounding tribes who had sent men to join the Quraysh. Then he asked what they thought. Abu Bakr RA said that they had left home intending only to visit the House of Allah, not to fight. He advised that they continue toward Makkah, and fight only if they were attacked. The Prophet ﷺ liked this advice and accepted it, and the caravan moved on.

Placed here because: Busr's report reached the Prophet ﷺ at Asfan (lecture 63).

Khalid ibn al-Walid's force was blocking the main road, so the Muslims needed another way to Makkah. The Prophet ﷺ asked whether anyone knew how to reach the other route. One of the sahaba (companions) came forward and said he knew the way, and the Prophet ﷺ made him the guide. The new path ran through a valley full of thorns and volcanic rock. It cut the companions' feet until they bled. The Prophet ﷺ encouraged them by comparing the valley to the gate that the Children of Israel were commanded to enter in humility. He announced that everyone who passed through it would have all his sins forgiven, except for "the man with the red camel." The companions looked for this man. At the back of the caravan they found a Bedouin calling out that he had lost his red camel. They urged him to come to the Prophet ﷺ so that he too might be forgiven. He replied that finding his camel mattered more to him than having his sins forgiven. His answer showed the hypocrisy in his heart. The Muslims spent the whole day crossing the valley. As night began to fall, they reached the plain of Hudaybiyyah.

Placed here because: After Asfan; the column reached Hudaybiyyah at nightfall (lecture 63).

In the 6th year of the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ had a dream. He saw himself doing tawaf around the Ka'bah in ihram, with his head shaved, completing the full rites of an Umrah. He understood the dream as Allah's command to go to Makkah. He announced his plan to the Muhajirun, the Ansar and the tribes around Madinah. Around 1,400 people set out with him. Most of them were Muhajirun who had not seen Makkah for six years. The Bedouin tribes around Madinah mostly refused to come, preferring to stay with their wealth and families. The Qur'an later exposed this hesitation as an excuse rather than a genuine reason (Qur'an 48:11-12). He set out in Dhu al-Qa'dah. This was one of the sacred months, in which fighting was traditionally forbidden even before Islam, in the Jahiliyyah. Travelling in this month was a deliberate signal that he came in peace. At the miqat of Dhu al-Hulayfah, he prayed two rak'ahs and entered ihram. He also dedicated seventy sacrificial camels, garlanded to mark them as offerings. Even pagan Arabs respected such animals as a sign of piety, as events would later prove. From there, he sent a single scout ahead to see how the Quraysh would react. The scout was Busr ibn Sufyan al-Khuza'i. He came from Khuza'a, a neutral tribe, and the Quraysh did not know him. At Asfan, roughly halfway to Makkah, Busr came back with his report. He said that the Quraysh had armed for war and brought their women with them, as they had at Uhud. They had also sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to block the road at Ghumaym. The Prophet ﷺ was grieved that his own people would rather fight than simply let him pass. He said, "Woe to the Quraysh, war has consumed them." He vowed that he would keep fighting with whatever Allah had sent him "until Allah grants victory or this neck of mine is cut off". At the same time, he made it clear that he did not want war or bloodshed. He asked the sahaba for their advice. Abu Bakr RA advised them to stick to their original purpose. They had come to visit the House of Allah, he said, and should not fight anyone unless they were attacked. The Prophet ﷺ agreed. He set aside his own first inclination, which had been to strike first at the tribes that were backing the Quraysh. Because Khalid was blocking the main road, one of the sahaba guided the army along another route. It ran through a valley of thorns and volcanic rock, and their feet were left bleeding. The Prophet ﷺ compared this passage to the gate that the Israelites had been commanded to enter humbly, in return for forgiveness (Qur'an 2:58). He promised that Allah would forgive everyone who passed through it, except for one man. That man had spent the whole way distracted by a camel he had lost. He replied that finding his camel mattered more to him than forgiveness. His answer showed that he was a hypocrite, marching in a caravan that was otherwise entirely sincere. As night fell, the army came out of the valley and reached the plain of Hudaybiyyah. There, the Prophet ﷺ's camel, Qaswa', suddenly knelt down and would not get up. The sahaba complained that she had turned stubborn. The Prophet ﷺ told them that this was not in her nature. "The One who stopped the Elephant has also stopped her," he said. He made camp where she had stopped. The well at the camp had almost run dry. The Prophet ﷺ rinsed his mouth with its water and returned the water to the well. After a while, the well gave enough water for the whole camp and their animals to drink their fill. This is reported by al-Bara' RA in al-Bukhari. Another report in al-Bukhari says that he sent an arrow down into the well. The Prophet ﷺ expected the terms to be hard. He told the sahaba in advance that he would accept any condition the Quraysh proposed, as long as it did not compromise the sanctity of Allah's symbols. Quraysh scouts soon found the camp, and Khalid's force pulled back toward Makkah. At one point, eighty armed men from Makkah tried to make a surprise raid on the camp from the hills of Tan'im. Ibn Ishaq's report gives their number as forty or fifty. Muslim scouts spotted them first, and they were surrounded and captured. Not a drop of blood was spilled on either side. According to Qur'an 48:24, it was Allah who held back the hands of both sides. Afterwards the Prophet ﷺ forgave all of them and sent them home. The negotiations began with Budayl ibn Warqa' of Khuza'a, a neutral tribe that was sympathetic to the Muslims. Budayl carried the Prophet ﷺ's message back to the Quraysh. The message was that he had come only to honour the House of Allah. He was willing to agree a truce with the Quraysh, and otherwise he was ready to fight. The more hot-headed Quraysh refused even to hear the message. The Quraysh as a whole still would not move. They did not want the Arabs to say that Muhammad ﷺ had got the better of them. Next, Urwah ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi volunteered to go. He was a leader of Thaqif with close ties to the Quraysh. He met the Prophet ﷺ in person and accused him of breaking family ties and threatening the sanctity of the Haram. As he spoke, Urwah kept taking hold of the Prophet ﷺ's beard, a customary gesture between equals. Each time, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba RA, who was guarding the Prophet ﷺ, struck his hand away with the hilt of his sword. Al-Mughira was Urwah's own grand-nephew. Urwah then mocked the loyalty of the Prophet ﷺ's followers, calling them a rootless "hodgepodge". Abu Bakr RA answered him with a curse so sharp that Urwah said he would have replied in kind, if he had not owed Abu Bakr a personal favour. Urwah went back to the Quraysh visibly shaken. He had watched the sahaba compete to catch the Prophet ﷺ's spit and the water he washed with, and lower their voices in his presence. He told the Quraysh that he had visited the courts of Caesar, Kisra and the Najashi. He had never seen a king honoured the way this man was honoured by his own people. He urged the Quraysh to accept the Prophet ﷺ's offer. The Prophet ﷺ then sent Khirash ibn Umayyah of Khuza'a to the Quraysh. As a gesture of goodwill, he sent him riding one of his own well-known camels. The Quraysh responded by hamstringing the camel. They were about to kill Khirash when the Ahabish protected him and let him go (Ibn Ishaq). The Quraysh's own next envoy was al-Hulays ibn Alqama al-Kinani. He came from a tribe that held sacrificial animals sacred. The Prophet ﷺ knew this, so he had the sahaba parade their garlanded camels and sheep in front of him. Al-Hulays never even entered the Muslim camp, because the sight alone was enough for him. He went back to the Quraysh and declared that it was forbidden to keep pilgrims and their offerings away from the House of Allah. The Quraysh mocked him as an ignorant Bedouin. In response, he swore that his own tribal confederation, the Ahabish, would no longer support them. The neutral envoys had now all been tried, so the Prophet ﷺ decided to send a Muslim of standing. Umar ibn al-Khattab RA was famous for his fearlessness, but he asked to be excused. He was not afraid for himself. His hostility toward the Quraysh was well known, and he had no kin in Makkah to protect him. He was therefore likely to be killed before any negotiation could take place. Umar RA suggested Uthman ibn Affan RA instead. Uthman was an Umayyad, related to Abu Sufyan, and this gave him a standing the Quraysh would respect. Uthman entered Makkah under the protection of his cousin Aban ibn Sa'id. He met Abu Sufyan and the leaders of the Quraysh and delivered his message. They told Uthman that he himself could go round the Ka'bah. He refused to do so before the Prophet ﷺ had done it, and so they held him (Ibn Ishaq). Uthman was away longer than expected, and a rumour spread through the camp that he had been killed. The Prophet ﷺ was not willing to leave this unanswered. Beneath a tree at Hudaybiyyah, he called the sahaba to make a fresh pledge of allegiance. In it they committed themselves to fight the Quraysh rather than retreat. The Qur'an later honoured this oath as the moment when "Allah's Hand was over their hands" (Qur'an 48:10). It also recorded Allah's pleasure with those who made it (Qur'an 48:18). Every man present made the pledge except one hypocrite, who hid behind his camel. Uthman was away in Makkah, so the Prophet ﷺ pledged on his behalf. He raised his right hand and said, "This is the hand of Uthman." Then he struck it on his other hand and said, "This is for Uthman" (al-Bukhari). News of the pledge reached Makkah. It seems to have pushed the Quraysh to negotiate seriously at last. Uthman came back to the camp. It is related that the sahaba asked him whether he had managed to do tawaf while he was in the city. He told them that he would never do it before the Prophet ﷺ, even if he had stayed in Makkah for a year. The Quraysh first sent Mikraz ibn Hafs, but he offered nothing workable. Then they sent their most capable negotiator, Suhayl ibn Amr. Suhayl was a senior speaker of the Quraysh. After Badr he had been held as a prisoner in the home of one of the sahaba. Years earlier, Umar RA had wanted to silence him, but the Prophet ﷺ refused to allow it. He told Umar that a day might come when Suhayl would say something that pleased him. When the Prophet ﷺ saw Suhayl approaching, he said to the sahaba, "Suhayl has come; things have been made easy for you." He was reading a good omen in the meaning of Suhayl's name. Suhayl came with a grievance of his own. One of his sons, Abdullah, had already gone over to Madinah years earlier. He had slipped away from the Quraysh's own ranks at Badr. His younger son, Abu Jandal RA, had become a Muslim. Suhayl had kept him in chains and tortured him, and he was still a prisoner back in Makkah. The Prophet ﷺ called for Ali ibn Abi Talib RA to write the treaty. Ali began with "In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful." Suhayl objected that he did not recognise "al-Rahman". He insisted on the old pagan formula, "Bismika Allahumma", instead. The Prophet ﷺ agreed, rather than let the wording block the treaty. Ali then wrote, "This is what Muhammad ﷺ, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, has agreed with Suhayl ibn Amr." Suhayl objected again. He said that if the Quraysh had believed in that title, they would never have opposed him in the first place. He demanded "Muhammad ibn Abdillah" instead. The Prophet ﷺ told him, "I am the Messenger of Allah ﷺ even if you deny it." Even so, he agreed to the change. Ali RA refused to strike out the words "Messenger of Allah ﷺ" with his own hand. The Prophet ﷺ could not write, so he asked Ali RA to point to the words, and he erased them himself. Suhayl then set out his central condition. Any man of the Quraysh who came over to the Muslims would be sent back, even if he came as a Muslim. But no Muslim would ever be handed over in the other direction. The sahaba objected loudly. Most of them had fled Makkah themselves to find exactly this protection. Reversing it now would shut the door on every future refugee. Before the clause had even been fully written, Abu Jandal RA broke free of his chains. He stumbled into the camp crying out for help, with the marks of torture visible on his body. Suhayl pointed to him as the first person the clause would apply to. The Prophet ﷺ pointed out that the treaty had not yet been written, and asked Suhayl to let him keep Abu Jandal. Suhayl refused outright. Mikraz ibn Hafs said, "We allow you to keep him," but Suhayl would not give way (al-Bukhari). Other reports say that Mikraz took Abu Jandal under his protection so that he would not be tortured again. The Prophet ﷺ told Abu Jandal to be patient, because Allah would make a way out for him. Umar RA was standing near Abu Jandal. Rather than see him sent back, Umar gestured toward his own sword. But Suhayl was still Abu Jandal's father, and Abu Jandal did not take the sword. He was led back to Makkah in chains. After that, the remaining terms were agreed. There would be no Umrah that year, only the next year. There would be a ten-year truce, with no fighting on either side. Both sides were free to make alliances with other tribes, and those tribes would be bound by the same terms. And any Muslim who went back over to the Quraysh would not be returned, unlike in the other direction. Ibn Ishaq names the witnesses as Abu Bakr RA, Umar RA, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf RA, Abdullah ibn Suhayl RA, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA, Mahmud ibn Maslamah RA and Mikraz, who was then still a polytheist. Ali RA was the one who wrote the document. As Suhayl left, satisfied, Umar RA confronted the Prophet ﷺ directly. He was voicing what many of the sahaba felt. He asked whether the Prophet ﷺ was not the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He asked whether the Muslims were not on the truth and their enemies on falsehood. If so, he asked, how could they accept such humiliating terms? The Prophet ﷺ replied, "I am the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I will not disobey Allah, and He will help me." Umar RA then asked whether the Prophet ﷺ had not told them that they would go round the House of Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Indeed, I told you. But did I say we will do it this year?" Umar RA admitted that he had not. The Prophet ﷺ told him, "You will do it next year." Umar RA was still not satisfied, so he put the same questions to Abu Bakr RA. Abu Bakr rebuked him sharply. He told Umar to hold fast to the Prophet ﷺ's stirrup rather than question him. Umar RA later said that, because of what he had said that day, he kept on giving charity, fasting, praying and freeing slaves (Ibn Ishaq). It is also reported that, when he was khalifa, he admitted that no other leader could have made him accept such a condition. Once the treaty was written, the Prophet ﷺ told the sahaba to get up, slaughter their sacrificial animals and shave their heads. He said it three times, but not a single person moved. They were too crushed by what had just happened (al-Bukhari). The Prophet ﷺ went back to his tent. He told Umm Salama RA that he had given them a command and no one had obeyed. She advised him to go out and shave his own head first, without saying another word. Once they saw him do it, she said, they would follow. He did exactly that. The sahaba were freed from their paralysis and rushed to shave each other's heads. He made du'a for those who had shaved their heads rather than only trimming their hair. He repeated this du'a three times. On the fourth time, he finally included those who had only trimmed. The sacrificial animals were slaughtered there. Among them was a camel that had belonged to Abu Jahal and had been captured at Badr. It had a silver ring in its nose, and the sight of it enraged the polytheists (Ibn Ishaq). On the march home, Umar RA was still troubled by what had passed between him and the Prophet ﷺ. He rode up hoping to make peace. His greetings went unanswered, and he feared the worst. Then a rider came to call him back. He found the Prophet ﷺ's face lit up with joy as he recited Surah al-Fath, which had been revealed on the way back. It begins, "Indeed, We have granted you a clear triumph" (Qur'an 48:1). Umar RA asked in disbelief whether this really counted as a triumph. The Prophet ﷺ confirmed that it did. Umar RA is said to have ridden the whole length of the column, announcing the victory. The Prophet ﷺ said that this surah was dearer to him than everything the sun shines upon (al-Bukhari). Not long after the return to Madinah, the treaty faced its first real test. Abu Basir was a convert from Thaqif, allied to Banu Zuhrah, and he fled to Madinah. The Prophet ﷺ did not turn him away when he arrived. But then two men of the Quraysh came to invoke the treaty's return clause. The Prophet ﷺ honoured the treaty and sent Abu Basir back with them. On the road, Abu Basir killed one of his two escorts with the man's own sword. The other escort fled back to Madinah in terror. Then Abu Basir himself came back. He insisted that the Prophet ﷺ had fulfilled his obligation, and that it was Allah who had set him free. The Prophet ﷺ did not directly help him any further. Instead, he remarked to the people near him, "What a great warrior he is. If only he had someone else to help him." Abu Basir understood the hint. He left and set up camp at al-'Is, by the sea, on the road the Quraysh used to travel to Syria (Ibn Ishaq). Abu Jandal RA heard where Abu Basir had gone. He escaped from Makkah a second time and joined him. Word spread among the Muslims of Makkah who were still being persecuted. Eventually some seventy to eighty of them gathered there. They supported themselves by raiding Quraysh caravans. Under the treaty, the Muslims had no authority to stop them, and no obligation to. In time, the raids became so costly that the Quraysh themselves appealed to the Prophet ﷺ. Invoking their ties of kinship, they asked him to take the whole band into Madinah and put an end to the raids. He did so. A later report, though, says that Abu Basir died before he reached the city. Another test came with Umm Kulthum bint Uqbah. She was the daughter of Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt, the man who had once thrown animal entrails on the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah. She became a Muslim and fled to Madinah. The treaty's return clause spoke only of men. Allah revealed Qur'an 60:10, which exempted believing women from the clause entirely. So she stayed in Madinah. She is reported to have later married Zayd ibn Harithah RA. One night during the march home, everyone was exhausted. The Prophet ﷺ asked Bilal RA to stay awake and wake the camp for Fajr. Bilal fell asleep too, and the whole camp, including the Prophet ﷺ, slept past sunrise. Sahih Muslim places a night like this on the return from Khaybar instead. The Prophet ﷺ did not pray on the spot. He moved the camp on and led the late prayer at a new place, saying that Shaytan had a hand in that particular ground.

Placed here because: Dhu al-Qa'dah 6 AH (lectures 63 to 67).

Soon after the Muslims returned from Hudaybiyyah, a man named Abu Basir left Makkah and came to Madinah. He was of Thaqif, an ally of Banu Zuhrah, and he was the first person to make hijrah after the treaty was signed. One clause of the treaty said that any man who came to the Muslims from Makkah had to be returned. The Prophet ﷺ did not send Abu Basir away on his own initiative. But after two or three days, two men of the Quraysh came from Makkah to take him back. The Prophet ﷺ called Abu Basir and said to him, "These two men have come to take you, and you came knowing the treaty that we signed, and I will not be treacherous. So return to your people." Abu Basir asked whether he was really being sent back after Allah had saved him. He was told that Allah would make a way out for him. On the road, Abu Basir chatted with the two men and praised one man's sword. He asked to see it, and the man handed it over. Abu Basir killed him with it. The second man ran all the way back to Madinah and begged the Prophet ﷺ for protection. Abu Basir arrived soon after. He told the Prophet ﷺ that he had fulfilled his duty under the treaty, but Allah had let him escape. The Prophet ﷺ did not answer him directly. Abu Basir understood that the treaty did not allow him to stay in Madinah, and he left. He could not go back to Makkah either. So he set up a small camp on his own near what is now Jeddah, and sent word of where he was. Abu Jandal ibn Suhayl RA, another Muslim who had been sent back to Makkah under the treaty, heard about it. He escaped again and joined him. News then spread among the Muslims still trapped in Makkah, and others came. First there were 10, then 15, then 60, and eventually about 80 people at the camp.

Placed here because: After the treaty was signed (lecture 66).