God helped you at the Battle of Badr
when you were but a weak force;
be mindful, then, of God,
that you might be thankful.
Remember when you said
to the believers, “Is it not enough
that your Lord reinforced you with
three thousand descending angels?
Yes—if you remain patient
and mindful of God, even if
the enemy falls upon you suddenly,
your Lord will reinforce you with
five thousand assigned angels.”
God made it only a message
of hope for you, to reassure
your hearts—there is no help
except from God,
the Almighty, the Wise—
SURA AL ʿIMRAN, 3:123–26
The Battle of Badr struck fear into the hearts of the Meccans, but it also made some even more firmly resolved to defeat the upstart Muslims. Among the Meccan opponents was Hind ibn ʿUtba, the wife of the mighty Meccan warrior Abu Sufyan. Having lost both her uncle and her father at Badr, she incited her husband, even though he was both Muhammad’s cousin and his foster brother, to plan for the next encounter. By 625 he had assembled a large army of three thousand men, both foot soldiers and cavalry, which marched toward Medina. The Muslims, a force of only seven hundred men, countered by moving out of the city proper to engage their rivals on the slopes of a nearby mountain, Uhud.
Despite the superior numbers of the Meccans, it went well for the Muslims until some of Muhammad’s followers broke ranks too early. Muhammad had placed fifty archers on a hill to protect the rear of his army but forty of them, perhaps anticipating another victory such as Badr and eager for spoils, rushed down the hill. The Meccans counterattacked, and Khalid ibn al-Walid, one of the brilliant Meccan nobles, led his squadron to the unprotected rear of the Muslim formation. Catching them unawares, he began a great slaughter. The Prophet’s uncle Hamza was felled by a skilled Meccan javelin thrower paid by Hind, and Muhammad himself, though protected by twenty of his closest followers, was knocked off his horse. One of his teeth was broken, his face gashed, a lip bruised. Daring to hope that Muhammad might die from his wounds, Abu Sufyan began to taunt the defeated Muslim troops. Muhammad sent his trusted lieutenant, ʿUmar, to give him the riposte: “God is most high, most glorious,” shouted ʿUmar. “We are by no means equal: our dead are in paradise, yours are in hell; and by God, you have not killed the Prophet. He hears us even as we speak!”
Not only was Muhammad listening, but he also had resolved to learn the deeper lesson behind this bitter defeat. The defeat of Uhud became as important for Islam as the victory of Badr. It reinforced Muhammad’s resolve to secure the loyalty of all his followers—both the Muslims and the non-Muslims bound to him by treaty. There followed some difficult, often bloody purges of tribes near Medina, then a major battle in 627—the Battle of the Trench. A mighty army composed of ten thousand men, four thousand from the Quraysh themselves and the rest from various tribes, was led again by Abu Sufyan, the architect of Uhud. Abu Sufyan had hoped to invade Medina, to defeat and destroy the Muslim upstarts once and for all. The Muslims dug a trench around the city, to which the Meccans laid siege. Three thousand Muslims were encamped outside the city with the trench between them and their foes. Even after several days the Quraysh were unable to cross the trench and hostilities were restricted to a mutual discharge of arrows. The weather was cold and wet and the invading armies were rapidly running out of supplies. Their horses and camels were dying. Then a fierce sandstorm raged over the plain and blew away the tents of the Quraysh. Abu Sufyan told his men to go home, and the allied tribes also deserted their camps. Through this act of God, the Muslims had gained an important victory, which meant their survival.
The Treaty of Hudaybiyya
Inspired by a dream in the year 628, Muhammad instructed his followers to set out for a pilgrimage to the Kaʿba in Mecca, a rectangular shrine regarded as the holiest place on earth by Muslims. They believe the Kaʿba to have been built by Abraham. It was to this place that Abraham sent his concubine Hagar and her son, Ishmael. It was here that, with divine guidance, he had made provision for a branch of his family. The central role of this shrine is voiced by Abraham in the Quran:
Our Lord, I have settled some
of my offspring in an arid valley,
near your sacred house, so that
they might be steadfast in prayer, our Lord.
So, turn people’s hearts toward them,
and sustain them with fruit, so that
they might be grateful.
SURA IBRAHIM, 14:37
After the time of Abraham, however, the shrine had become the site of idols that represented local gods and tribal deities. Some believed that these idols possessed a power rivaling the God of Abraham. Others frowned on this polytheism, including local Jews and Christians, as well as some Arabs who traced their views to an ancient Arab prophet, Salih, who had also followed the monotheism of Moses and Jesus. But by the time of Muhammad, idolatry prevailed, and the Quraysh had become guardians of the sanctuary and overseers of the annual pilgrimage that people made from various parts of Arabia and beyond. It was an integral part of Muhammad’s mission to rid the Kaʿba of these idols and to reaffirm belief in the one God, Allah.
Muhammad set out with about fourteen hundred followers, each wearing two white cloths, the traditional garb of pilgrims, accompanied by animals garlanded for sacrifice. News of his plans evoked a dilemma among the Quraysh; as guardians of the shrine, they would be violating their own tribal customs if they were to prevent pilgrims from approaching the holy site; yet allowing them entry would represent a moral triumph for Muhammad. They sent the fierce warrior Khalid ibn al-Walid with two hundred horsemen to bar the pilgrims’ approach. The Muslims managed to avoid him and made camp at Hudaybiyya en route to Mecca. Eventually, the Quraysh sent Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, an unremittent opponent of the new religion, to negotiate a pact with the Prophet.
The result was the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, which stated that the Muslims would be allowed to perform the pilgrimage only in the following year and, in an important provision, declared a ten-year period of peace, as well as the freedom of people to align themselves with either side. Although some of the Muslims were frustrated at having to postpone their pilgrimage, a revelation from the Quran spoke of the treaty as “a clear victory” (Sura 48:1). It was indeed a victory since it enabled many people to come to the Prophet to declare their faith; over the next two years the Muslim community more than doubled. During this time, the Prophet sent letters inviting a number of rulers to embrace Islam: Heraclius in Byzantium, Khosrow of Persia, Muqawqis in Egypt, and the Negus of Abyssinia. Only the last of these accepted his invitation. Many of the Prophet’s former opponents, including Khalid ibn Walid, also embraced Islam and were forgiven for all they had previously wrought against Muhammad.
The Peaceful Entry into Mecca
Their treaty with the Quraysh allowed the Muslims to focus on other dangers. In 629, Muhammad led his forces against the strongholds of Khaybar, a town to the north occupied by a group of Jews who had betrayed their agreement with him. After several days, all the fortresses of the town had been overcome or had surrendered. Muhammad agreed to let the Jews remain on the terms that they themselves had proposed—namely, that they would pay him a yearly rent of half their harvest. In 630 the Treaty of Hudaybiyya was violated by the Meccans, with momentous consequences. The Quraysh helped one of their allied clans in a night raid against a clan allied with the Muslims. Fearing the repercussions of this, the Meccans sent Abu Sufyan to pacify the Prophet, but to no avail. The Prophet prepared a campaign to take Mecca and sent messengers to allied tribes for help. They responded enthusiastically and the Muslim army, composed of Bedouins, immigrants, and helpers, numbered nearly ten thousand men. They encamped on the outskirts of Mecca and the sight of their many thousand campfires that night confirmed the fears of the Quraysh. They once again sent Abu Sufyan, with two other men, to the Prophet, and by the morning all three had declared their faith in the one God and His Prophet. Abu Sufyan returned to tell his fellow Meccans that Muhammad was about to enter the city with an irresistible force. But he also conveyed Muhammad’s message that anyone in his house was safe, and that anyone who stayed at home or in the mosque would not be harmed.
It was January in the year 630. The sight of the returning Muslim Meccans and their allies melted the hearts of many who had been their bitter enemies. Tribe after tribe entered the city, each with its banners and pennants, followed by the Prophet’s squadron of immigrants and helpers, fully armed so that only their eyes were visible. They entered the city peacefully from four directions, with no bloodshed beyond a small skirmish started by the Quraysh. The Prophet had forbidden any fighting. After his ritual purification with water, Muhammad prayed and then rode to the southeast corner of the Kaʿba to touch the
