Al-Fath

In the sixth year of the Hijrah, the Prophet Muhammad left Madinah for Makkah along with his companions, so that he could perform the rite of pilgrimage there. He had reached Hudaybiyyah when the pagans of Makkah came forward and barred his way, saying that they would not allow him to enter Makkah. Mutual negotiations followed, as a result of which a peace treaty was drawn up and signed by both sides. This treaty was executed apparently on the unilateral terms and conditions dictated by the polytheists. As a consequence, the companions of the Prophet Muhammad were very disheartened: they considered it a degrading treaty. But on the way back from Hudaybiyyah, this verse was revealed, ‘We have granted you a clear victory.’ The reason for this was that according to this Treaty it was agreed that for ten years there would be no war between the Muslims and polytheists. The end of fighting was in fact synonymous to the opening of the door of dawah. After the Hijrah (migration to Madinah), due to incessant fighting, dawah activity had stopped. Now the truce had created an open atmosphere in which there could be a free exchange of thought between the opponents. In this way, this treaty changed the sphere of combat. Formerly, the competition between the two sides had been held on the battlefield where the Muslims’ antagonists had the upper hand. Now rivalry shifted to the field of intellect and in this, the theory of the one God clearly triumphed over polytheism. Here now was the ‘straight path’, i.e. the way which made the victory of the flag-bearers of monotheism an absolute certainty.

Here tranquillity (sakinah) means not becoming irritated despite provocation. At Hudaybiyyah the opponents of Islam tried to goad Muslims in different ways into taking such action as would provide them with sufficient justification for aggression. But the Muslims for their part tolerated every attempt at provocation. Right to the end, they were firm on the policy of overlooking and ignoring such attempts. Had God desired it, He could have subdued the forces of falsehood by means of His direct power and granted dominance to the Truth. Then, why is it that God created Hudaybiyyah Treaty-like conditions and made the Faithful undertake this journey? The purpose was to enhance the Faith by testing the Faithful. If a man curbs his urge to take revenge and enters into a treaty with an arrogant people simply because that is required by the task of disseminating the Truth, he does so by a conscientious decision. In so doing he makes his mind rule his heart. In this way, he increases his Faith-consciousness. He makes himself the recipient of such divine emotions as cannot be achieved in any other way. The advantage of this is that the people of Paradise and the people of Hell are separated in the process.

The real work of the Prophet is to be an exponent of the truth (‘shaahid’, as translated by Shah Waliullah). He should clearly show who will be entitled to God’s Grace and who will deserve punishment from God in the eternal life after death. The rising of such a ‘shaahid’ or witness of Truth poses the greatest trial for his addressees. They have to hear God’s voice in the voice of a human being. They have to see a representative of God in the shape of human being. While giving their hand into the hands of a man, they have to think that they are giving their hand into the hands of God. For those who prove to have this superior insight, God has great rewards in store, but to those who fail in this test, God will mete out the most severe punishment.

The Prophet Muhammad had a dream in Madinah that he was undertaking a journey to Makkah for the purpose of performing ‘umrah. In accordance with this, he left for Makkah along with his companions. But at that time, the conditions were very adverse. There was a great fear that there would be a clash with the Quraysh and that the Muslims would be killed in large numbers. As they approached Makkah, the Quraysh did indeed start pelting the Muslim group with stones and attempted to provoke them in different ways, so that they would become overwrought and start fighting, and the Quraysh would thus have an excuse to do battle with them. But the unilateral tolerance shown and the overlooking of these acts on the part of the Muslims deprived the Quraysh of the occasion to fight them. Many weak Muslims belonging to the areas surrounding Madinah did not join the pilgrims on their journey due to the fears mentioned above. When the Prophet had safely returned, these people came to him to profess their loyalty and started asking his pardon. But they were not pardoned, because their excuse was lame and false. Before God, a proper reason is acceptable at all times, while a false pretext is inevitably rejected outright. They had no real excuse for their non-participation in the journey along with God’s Prophet, except for their own feelings of uncertainty. They thought that they were protecting their interests by refusing to go on such a dangerous journey. They did not know that God is the Lord of all benefits and all harm. If God does not protect an individual, no protective armour can save him. Destruction will be the lot of such people in this world as well as in the Hereafter.

Before the Hudaybiyyah Treaty the Jews were very open in their hostility for the Muslims, because earlier they had had the full cooperation of Quraysh in this regard. The ‘no-war’ pact with the Quraysh at Hudaybiyyah cut off the Jews from the Quraysh and thereafter they were left on their own. For this reason, the morale of the Jews of Khybar, Tema, Fidak, etc. was lowered. So, three months after the signing of the treaty, when the Prophet besieged Khybar, the Jews of that place surrendered their arms without fighting and the Muslims acquired large amounts of booty on that occasion. People of weak faith who did not accompany the Prophet on his Hudaybiyyah journey, considering it risky, now wanted to take part in the campaign against the Jews and thus have a share in the spoils, but they were prohibited from doing so. It is the rule of God that it is the one who takes risks who should receive the benefit. If a man wants to achieve something without taking a risk, he wants, in fact, to change Divine Law. But it is not possible for anybody in this world to change God’s Law.

Those who had shown weakness on the occasion of Hudaybiyah were deprived of the reward resulting therefrom, but still the door was not closed to them, because the campaign to promote Monotheism was to face many difficult situations. They were told that if they proved that they were imbued with the spirit of sacrifice on future occasions, they would once again be entitled to the Grace of God. A test of this kind decides whether a man is a believer or a hypocrite. Only those who have some real difficulty are exempt from it. God pardons an error forced on a person because of circumstances which are beyond his control. But any other kind of shortcoming is not pardonable in the eyes of God.

During the Hudaybiyyah journey, on one occasion, a rumour started circulating that the Quraysh had killed ‘Uthman, who had gone to them as an envoy of the Prophet. This was an aggressive step. So, the Prophet sat under an acacia tree and took a pledge from the fourteen hundred companions that they would lay down their lives, but would not show their backs to the enemy. In the history of Islam, this pledge is known as the Pledge of Ridhwan. The place at which this pledge was taken was two hundred and fifty miles from Madinah and only twelve miles from Makkah, i.e. the Muslims were far away from the centre of their activities, while the Quraysh were very near home. The Muslims had set forth with the intention of performing the minor pilgrimage (‘umrah) as such they had only the basic equipments with them, while the Quraysh were well equipped for warfare. In such critical circumstances, it was the people’s emotions of sincerity which prompted them to support the Prophet, in the absence of any external pressure.

This refers to the unhappiness and uneasiness which had been created in the hearts of the companions over the outwardly one-sided Hudaybiyyah Treaty. However, they accepted this commandment of God with patience and in peace of mind. Within a few months, the benefits of this treaty, started becoming apparent. This treaty separated the Quraysh from their nexus with the Jews and in this way it became easy to subdue the latter. With the end of war-like conditions, the propagation of Islam increased manifold, so much so that the Quraysh themselves were subdued through the peaceful dawah process, for no ground was to be gained by fighting against them.

It was the law of God that when the Prophet’s initial addressees refused to answer his call, He destroyed them. On the occasion of Hudaybiyyah the Quraysh’s refusal had finally been made known. Under these circumstances, had things reached the stage of battle, the angels of God would have come down to strengthen the Muslims so that they might defeat their enemies. But, with regard to the polytheists, it was God’s intention that they should not be destroyed so that their extraordinary human talents could be utilized for the purposes of Islam. Therefore, Almighty God guided his Prophet towards the No-War Pact.

The chieftains of the Quraysh had made themselves liable to be punished and engaged in battle. But in view of a greater and more important consideration, they were not fought against and instead of that a truce was reached with them. At that time there were among the Quraysh people who had in their heart of hearts given up polytheism and had faith in the oneness of God, or there were people who, because of their piety and righteousness, were likely to embrace Islam as soon as conditions normalised. If Almighty God did not cause a battle to be fought between the two sides, it was so that the aforesaid people might become believers and play their Islamic role in the world and receive God’s rewards in the Hereafter. In the eyes of God, the importance of dawah work is greater than any other consideration.

From the heart of a man in which the fear of God is firmly embedded, the importance of everything other than God is driven out. He sets God above everything else in life. The occasion of Hudaybiyyah severely tested the companions, but they acquitted themselves well. On this occasion the opposite party had demonstrated brazen obstinacy and communal bias, but the companions simply reposed their trust in God. Their righteousness prevented them from obdurate retaliation and prejudice during this crucial trial period. Till the very end, they did not allow themselves to be provoked.

The Hudaybiyyah journey was undertaken as a result of a dream the Prophet Muhammad had. In his dream in Madinah, he had reached Makkah and was performing ‘umrah. People took this dream as a good tiding and left Madinah for Makkah. But the Quraysh obstructed their path at Hudaybiyyah and ultimately he had to return without performing ‘umrah. For this reason certain people thought that the Prophet’s dream had not been true. But this surmise proved incorrect, because the dream did not specify that ‘umrah would take place the same year, and according to the terms of the treaty itself, ‘umrah was performed peacefully and properly the very next year in Dhu’l-Qa‘dah in the seventh year of hijrah. That year the postponement of ‘umrah was agreed upon in the interests of something of greater importance, i.e. it facilitated the drawing up of a ten-year no-war pact with the Quraysh. When this was executed, it resulted in a proper atmosphere being created for dawah work. This in itself was a victory, because as a consequence, the door was opened for a final and total victory over the flag-bearers of polytheism.

The Prophet Muhammad had to play dual roles: one was that of a prophet (who strives to spread the message of God) and the other was that of the final Prophet, i.e. no other prophet was to appear after him. In his former capacity he had to do the same work as other prophets, namely to declare the oneness of God, to warn and to give good news about the Hereafter. The latter role was different in that it required him to create those historical conditions which would be conducive to and a guarantee of the protection of both the Book of God and the prophetic traditions. No situation should occur which would necessitate the appointment of another prophet. It was thus a requirement of this second role that his dawah work should not end with a simple ‘declaration’ but should reach the stage of ‘revolution’—revolution in the sense that change should be brought about in the history of the world. Those conditions should come to an end under which, time and again, God’s guidance had been obliterated or distorted, thereby necessitating the selection of a new prophet to restore the divine guidance to its original form.

The Prophet Muhammad had to perform a historic role which is referred to in the Quran as making religion predominant. For this he needed a group of men of high calibre. Such men were available to him thanks to Ishmael, their progenitor, having been settled in the Arabian desert two thousand five hundred years before. With such ancestry it was the most vibrant group of history. When their full potential was tapped, thanks to Quranic instruction, the Arabs turned into a nation of heroes. The importance of this group was so great in the eyes of God that He informed the prophets about them in advance. In the Torah their individual qualities were mentioned while, in the Bible, their collective qualities were emphasized. The quality of the individuals in this group was made manifest in their unyielding behaviour towards the aggressors. Their behaviour was governed by principles and not by their desires or emotions. Their temperament was such that they bowed down before God and were engrossed in prayers to and praise of God.