Muhammad

by Karen Armstrong

  Muslims were not supposed to be men of war; they were characterized by the spirit of hilm, a peace and forbearance that allied them with the Jews and Christians, the People of the Book. Instead of posturing aggressively as the Quraysh had done at Hudaybiyyah, the true followers of Allah prostrated themselves humbly before God in prayer:

  Thou seest them bowing, prostrating, seeking bounty from God and good pleasure. Their mark is on their faces, the trace of prostration. That is their likeness in the Torah, and their likeness in the Gospel.

  It was not violence and self-assertion, but the spirit of mercy, courtesy and tranquillity that would cause the ummah to grow, “as a seed that puts forth its shoot and strengthens it and it grows stout and raises straight upon its stalk, pleasing the owners.”32 The war was over; it was now time for a holy peace.

  In fact the struggle would continue, but the sources agree that Hudaybiyyah was a watershed. “No previous victory (fatah) was greater than this,” Ibn Ishaq believed. The root meaning of FTH was “opening;” the truce had looked unpromising at first, but it opened new doors for Islam. Hitherto nobody had been able to sit down and discuss the new religion in a rational manner, because of the constant fighting and escalating hatred. But now “when there was an armistice and men met in safety and consulted together, none talked about Islam intelligently without entering it.” Indeed, between 628 and 630, “double as many or more than double as many entered Islam as ever before.”33 The short lyrical surah An-Nasr (“Help”) may have been composed at this time:

  When the help of God arrived

  and the opening (fatah)

  and you saw people joining the religion of God in waves

  Recite the praise of your Lord

  and say God forgive

  He is the always forgiving.34

  There was to be no triumphalism, no cry for vengeance. The new era must be characterized by gratitude, forgiveness, and an acknowledgement of the Muslims’ own culpability.

  Hudaybiyyah may have improved the position of Islam in the peninsula as a whole, but, like other recent advances, it did little for Muhammad’s standing in Medina. Many of the pilgrims— Helpers and Emigrants alike—continued to feel cheated and resentful. How, the Emigrants asked, were they supposed to earn a living if they could no longer attack the Meccan caravans? Muhammad knew that he could not allow this discontent to fester; somehow he had to find a way of compensating them without damaging the truce, so after Hudaybiyyah, he directed the Muslims’ attention to the north, away from Mecca. Khaybar—the new home of the exiled Jewish tribe of Nadir—was still a danger. The leaders of the settlement continued to stir up hostility to Muhammad among the northern tribes, so shortly after his return from Hudaybiyyah, he set off to besiege the city with an army of six hundred men. When the Quraysh heard the news, they were jubilant, certain that the Muslims would be defeated. Surrounded, like Medina, with plains of volcanic rock and defended by seven large fortresses, Khaybar was thought to be impregnable. But the Muslims were able to benefit from the internal strife that signalled the decline of the tribal spirit in Khaybar, as it had in Medina. Each of the tribes of Khaybar was autonomous, and they found it impossible to cooperate effectively during the siege. To add to their troubles, the tribes of Ghatafan, whose support they had been expecting, failed to show up, so after a month the Jewish elders asked for peace and became vassals of Medina. To seal the agreement, Muhammad took the daughter of his old enemy Huyay, chief of Nadir, as his wife. The beautiful seventeen-year-old Safiyyah was happy to enter Islam, and Muhammad gave stern orders that there were to be no unkind remarks about her father, who had died during the siege. He told Safiyyah that if any of his other wives taunted her about her Jewish ancestry, she should reply: “My father is Aaron and my uncle is Moses.”35 The marriage expressed the attitude of reconciliation and forgiveness that he was trying to promote; it was time to lay aside the hatred and bloodshed of the past.

  On his return from Khaybar, Muhammad enjoyed a joyful family reunion. After Hudaybiyyah, he had sent a message to the Muslim exiles still resident in Abyssinia, inviting them to return now that the situation in Arabia had improved, and when he returned home, his cousin Ja‘far, Abu Talib’s son, whom he had not seen for thirteen years, was waiting for him in Medina. He also greeted yet another new wife. Earlier that year, he had learned that his cousin ‘Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh had died in Abyssinia, and decided to marry his wife Ramlah, usually known by her kunya, Umm Habibah. The ceremony was performed by proxy before the Negus, and an apartment had already been prepared for her in the mosque. This was another shrewd political move, because Umm Habibah was the daughter of Abu Sufyan.

  The rest of the year was spent in routine raiding, some of which was undertaken at the request of his new Jewish allies in the north. Then in March 629, the month of the hajj, it was time for Muhammad to lead another pilgrimage to the Kabah. This time 2,600 pilgrims accompanied him, and as they approached the sanctuary, the Quraysh evacuated the city, as they had agreed. The Qurayshan elders watched the arrival of Muhammad from the top of a nearby mountain. The sound of the Muslims loudly announcing their presence with the traditional cry: “Here I am, O Allah! Here I am!” must have echoed through the valleys and empty streets of the city like a cruel taunt. But they must also have been impressed by the discipline of the Muslims. There were no scenes of unbridled joy or unseemly celebrations; no jeering at the Quraysh. Instead, the huge crowd of pilgrims filed slowly and solemnly into the city, led by Muhammad, who as usual was mounted on Qaswa’. When he reached the Kabah, he dismounted and kissed the Black Stone, embracing it, and then proceeded to make the circumambulations, followed by the entire pilgrim body. It was a strange homecoming. The Emigrants must have felt highly emotional about their return, and yet, although the city was a ghost town, they were not free to do as they pleased. It had been settled at Hudaybiyyah that this year the Muslims could only make the Lesser Pilgrimage, the umrah, which did not include a visit to Mount ‘Arafat and the valley of Mina.

  In temporary exile from their city, the Quraysh had to watch—no doubt appalled—as Bilal, a former slave, climbed onto the roof of the Kabah and summoned the Muslims to prayer. Three times a day, his huge voice reverberated through the valley, urging all within earshot to come to salat with the cry “Allahu Akhbar,” reminding them that Allah was “greater” than all the idols in the Haram, who could do nothing to prevent this ritual humiliation. It was an immense triumph for Muhammad, and many of the younger Quraysh became even more convinced that the old religion was doomed.

  On his last evening in the city, Muhammad enjoyed another family reunion when his uncle ‘Abbas, who still adhered to the old religion, was allowed to enter the city to visit his nephew and offer him the hand of his sister Maymunah, who had been recently widowed. Muhammad accepted, doubtless hoping to entice ‘Abbas himself into Islam, and mischievously sent word to the Quraysh to invite them to the wedding. This was pushing things too far, and Suhayl came down to inform Muhammad that his three days were up and he should leave immediately. Sa‘d ibn ‘Ubadah, a chief of Khazraj who was with the Prophet at the time, was furious at this apparent discourtesy, but Muhammad quickly silenced him: “O Sa‘d, no ill words to those who have come to visit us in our camp.”36 To the astonishment of the Quraysh, the entire pilgrim throng left the city that night in good order. There were no loud protests, no attempt to repossess their old homes. In their peaceful withdrawal, the Muslims showed the confidence of those who expected a speedy return.

  The story of this strange pilgrimage spread rapidly, and more and more of the Bedouin came to Medina to become Muhammad’s confederates. Of even greater significance was the steady stream of the younger generation of the Quraysh who converted to Islam. At Hudaybiyyah, Muhammad had promised to return new converts to Mecca, but he had been able to find a loophole that enabled him to overcome this condition on a technicality. First, the treaty had said nothing about the handing back of women converts, so shortly after Hudaybiyya
h, Muhammad had received ‘Uthman’s half-sister into the ummah and allowed her to remain. He did, however, return Abu Basir, an impetuous young man, and dispatched him to Mecca with a Qurayshan envoy. But during the journey, Abu Basir killed his escort, and when Muhammad sent him away again, set up camp on the Red Sea coast near the trade route, where he was joined by seventy other young Meccan malcontents. These would-be Muslims became highwaymen, attacking every single Meccan caravan that came within their range, and the Quraysh discovered that the economic blockade had been partially reinstated. Eventually they were forced to beg Muhammad to admit the young men into Medina and to make them abide by the treaty.

  So the ban on accepting converts became a dead letter, and in 629 a steady stream of new Muslims arrived in Medina. They included the young warriors ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and Khalid ibn al-Walid, who had been convinced by Muhammad’s success. “The way has become clear,” Khalid said, “the man is certainly a prophet.”37 He was afraid of reprisals, since he and ‘Amr had both killed many Muslims at the battles of Uhud and the Trench, but Muhammad assured them that the act of islam wiped out old debts and represented an entirely new start.

  In this year of political triumph, Muhammad had a private joy. None of the women he had married in Medina had borne him any children, but the governor of Alexandria in Egypt had sent him a beautiful, curly-haired slave girl as a gift. Maryam was a Christian and did not wish to convert to Islam, but she became Muhammad’s saraya, a wife who retained the status of a slave but whose children would be free. Muhammad grew very fond of her, and was overjoyed when at the end of 629 she became pregnant. He named their son Ibrahim, and loved carrying him around Medina, inviting all passers-by to praise the baby’s beautiful complexion and his likeness to himself. However, sorrow came along with joy. Muhammad’s daughter Zaynab had died shortly after he made the Lesser Pilgrimage, and later that year he lost two members of his family in a disastrous expedition to the Syrian border. We know very little about this ill-fated campaign. Muhammad may have wanted to bring the Christian Arab tribes there into the ummah as confederates, on the same basis as the Jewish tribes of Khaybar. At all events, he dispatched Zayd and his cousin Ja‘far to the north at the head of an army of three thousand men. At the village of Mu’tah near the Dead Sea the Muslims were attacked by a detachment of Byzantines. Zayd, Ja‘far, and ten other Muslims were killed and Khalid, who had also accompanied the expedition, decided to bring the troops home.

  When Muhammad heard the news, he went directly to Ja‘far’s house, distraught to think that he had brought his dear cousin home to his death. Asma’, Ja‘far’s wife, was baking bread, and as soon as she saw the expression on Muhammad’s face, she knew that something terrible had happened. Muhammad asked to see their two sons, knelt down beside the little boys, hugged them close and wept. Immediately Asma’ began to lament in the traditional Arab way, the women hurried to her, and Muhammad asked them to make sure to bring the family food during the next few days. As he walked through the streets to the mosque, Zayd’s little girl ran out of their house and threw herself into his arms. Muhammad picked her up and stood there in the street, rocking her and weeping convulsively.

  The defeat at Mu’tah had further jeopardized Muhammad’s position in Medina. When Khalid brought the army home, he and his men were booed and hissed, and Muhammad had to take Khalid under his personal protection. But in November 629, the situation in Arabia changed dramatically: the Quraysh broke the treaty of Hudaybiyyah. Aided and abetted by some of the Quraysh, the tribe of Bakr, one of their Bedouin allies, made a surprise attack on the tribe of Khuza’ah, which had joined Muhammad’s confederacy. Khuza’ah promptly asked Muhammad for help and the Quraysh woke up to the fact that they had given Muhammad a perfect excuse to attack Mecca. Safwan and ‘Ikrimah remained defiant, but Suhayl was beginning to have second thoughts. Abu Sufyan, however, went further and arrived in Medina on a peace initiative.

  At this point, Abu Sufyan had no desire to convert to Islam, but he had realized for some time that the tide had turned in favor of Muhammad and that the Quraysh must try to get the best deal they could. In Medina he visited his daughter Umm Habibah, and sat in conference with some of Muhammad’s closest companions, trying to find a way of distancing himself from the dispute. Then he returned to Mecca, where he tried to prepare his fellow-tribesmen to accept the inevitable. After his departure, Muhammad began to plan a new campaign.

  On 10 Ramadan ( January 630), Muhammad set out at the head of the largest force ever to leave Medina. Nearly all the men in the ummah had volunteered and along the road their Bedouin allies joined forces with the Muslims, bringing the numbers up to ten thousand men. For security reasons, the destination of the expedition remained secret, but there was naturally a good deal of excited speculation. Certainly Mecca was a possibility, but Muhammad could just as easily have been heading for Ta’if, which was still implacably hostile to Islam, so the southern tribe of Hawazin started to assemble a massive army there. In Mecca, the Qurayshan leaders feared the worst. ‘Abbas, Abu Sufyan, and Budayl, chief of Khuza’ah, all made their way under cover of night to the Muslim camp. There Muhammad received them and asked Abu Sufyan if he was ready to accept Islam. Abu Sufyan replied that even though he now believed that Allah was the only God—the idols had proved to be useless—he still had doubts about Muhammad’s prophethood. But he was shocked and impressed when he watched all the members of the massive army prostrating themselves in the direction of Mecca during the morning prayer, and when he saw the various tribes marching past on their way to the city, he knew that the Quraysh must surrender.

  He hurried back to Mecca and summoned the people by crying at the top of his voice: “O Quraysh, this is Muhammad who has come to you with a force you cannot resist!” He then offered them an option that had been suggested to him by ‘Ali during his visit to Medina. Anybody who wanted to surrender should put himself under his personal protection: Muhammad had agreed to honor this. They should either take sanctuary in his home or remain in their own houses. Hind, his wife, was beside herself with rage; seizing him by his moustaches, she yelled to the townspeople: “Kill this fat greasy bladder of lard! What a rotten protector of his people!” But Abu Sufyan begged them not to listen. He described what he had seen in the Muslim camp. The time for such defiance was over. His grim sobriety impressed most of the Quraysh. Pragmatic to the last, they barricaded themselves into their houses as a token of surrender.

  A few wanted to fight, however. ‘Ikrimah, Safwan, and Suhayl gathered a small force and tried to attack Khalid’s section of the army as it approached the city, but they were quickly beaten. Safwan and ‘Ikrimah fled, thinking their lives were at stake; Suhayl laid down his arms, and retired to his home. The rest of the Muslim army entered Mecca without striking a single blow. Muhammad had his red tent pitched near the Kabah and there he joined Umm Salamah and Maymunah, the two Qurayshi wives who had accompanied him, together with ‘Ali and Fatima. Shortly after they had settled, ‘Ali’s sister Umm Hani’ arrived to plead for the lives of two of her relatives who had taken part in the fighting. Even though ‘Ali and Fatima wanted them executed, Muhammad immediately promised that they would be safe. He had no desire for bloody reprisals. Nobody was made to accept Islam nor do they seem to have felt any pressure to do so. Reconciliation was still Muhammad’s objective.

  After he had slept for a while, he rose, and performed the morning prayer. Then, mounted on Qaswa’, he rode round the Kabah seven times, crying “Allahu Akhbar!” The shout was taken up by the troops and soon the words rang through the entire city, signalling the final victory of Islam. Next Muhammad turned his attention to the idols of the Haram; crowded onto their roofs and balconies, the Quraysh watched him smash each stone effigy while he recited the verse: “The truth has come, and falsehood has vanished away; surely falsehood is certain to vanish.”38 Inside the Kabah, the walls had been decorated with pictures of the pagan deities, and Muhammad ordered them all to be obliterated, though, it is
said, he allowed frescoes of Jesus and Mary to remain.

  By this time, some of the Quraysh had ventured forth from their houses and made their way to the Kabah, waiting for Muhammad to leave the shrine. He stood in front of the house of Allah and begged them to lay aside the arrogance and self-sufficiency of jahiliyyah, which had created only conflict and injustice. “O Quraysh,” he cried, “Behold God has removed from you the arrogance of jahiliyyah with its boast of ancestral glories. Man is simply a God-conscious believer or an unfortunate sinner. All people are children of Adam, and Adam was created out of dust.”39 Finally Muhammad quoted the words that God had spoken to the whole of humanity:

  Behold, we have created you all out of a male or a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of him. Behold God is all-knowing, all-aware.40

  The true karim was no longer an aggressive chauvinist, but was filled with reverent fear. The purpose of the tribe and the nation was no longer to exalt its superiority; they must not seek to dominate, exploit, convert, conquer, or destroy other peoples, but get to know them. The experience of living in a group, coexisting with people—some of whom, despite their kinship, would inevitably be uncongenial—should prepare the tribesman or the patriot for the encounter with foreigners. It should lead to an appreciation of the unity of the human race. Muhammad had managed to redefine the concept of nobility in Arabia, replacing it with a more universal, compassionate, and self-effacing ideal.

  But were the Quraysh ready for this? Muhammad issued a general amnesty. Only about ten people were put on the Black List; they included ‘Ikrimah (but not Safwan, for some reason), and those who had spread anti-Muslim propaganda or injured the Prophet’s family. Some of these miscreants asked for pardon, however, and they seem to have been spared. After his speech beside the Kabah, Muhammad withdrew to Mount Safa and invited the people of Mecca to swear fealty. One by one, the Quraysh filed up to Muhammad, who sat flanked by ‘Umar and Abu Bakr. One of the women who came before him was Hind, Abu Sufyan’s wife, who was on the Black List for her mutilation of Hamzah’s body after the battle of Uhud. She remained defiant. “Forgive me what is past,” she said, with no hint of apology, “and God will forgive you!” Muhammad asked her if she would undertake not to commit adultery, theft, or infanticide. Would she promise not to kill her children? To this Hind replied: “I brought them up when they were little, but you killed them on the day of Badr when they were grown up.” Muhammad tacitly conceded the point.41 Hind decided to convert to Islam, telling Muhammad that he could not continue to proceed against her now that she was a professing Muslim. The Prophet smiled and told her that of course she was free. Soon, Hind would see her husband and sons given important office in the ummah as a reward for Abu Sufyan’s cooperation.