English Translation

Abd al-Razzaq narrated to us, from Ma'mar, who said: al-Zuhri informed me, from Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, from al-Miswar ibn Makhramah and Marwan ibn al-Hakam, each of them confirming the other's account. They said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, set out at the time of Hudaybiyyah with some ten-odd hundred of his companions, until, when they were at Dhul-Hulayfah, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, garlanded the sacrificial animals and marked them, and entered the state of ihram for Umrah. He sent ahead of him a scout of his from Khuza'ah to bring him news about Quraysh. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, journeyed on until, when he was at Ghadir al-Ashtat near Usfan, his Khuza'i scout came to him and said, "I have left Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy and Amir ibn Lu'ayy having gathered the Ahabish for you, and they have gathered great numbers for you; they mean to fight you and to bar you from the House." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Advise me. What do you think — should we turn aside toward the families of these people who have helped them, and strike at them? Then if they hold back, they will hold back bereaved and despoiled; and if they flee" — Yahya ibn Sa'id said, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubarak: "grieving" — "or if they submit, it will be a neck that Allah has cut off. Or do you think we should make for the House, and whoever bars us from it, we fight him?" Abu Bakr said, "Allah and His Messenger know best, O Prophet of Allah. We have come only intending Umrah, and we have not come to fight anyone; but whoever comes between us and the House, we will fight him." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Then set out." Al-Zuhri said: Abu Hurayrah used to say, "I never saw anyone consult his companions more than the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did." Al-Zuhri said, in the account of al-Miswar ibn Makhramah and Marwan ibn al-Hakam: So they set out, until, when they were partway along the road, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Khalid ibn al-Walid is at al-Ghamim with cavalry of Quraysh, as an advance guard, so take the right-hand route." By Allah, Khalid was not aware of them until he was upon the dust-cloud of the army, whereupon he galloped off to warn Quraysh. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, continued on until, when he reached the mountain pass by which one descends upon them, his mount knelt down — Yahya ibn Sa'id said, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubarak: "his she-camel knelt down with him" — and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Up, up!" but she persisted. They said, "Al-Qaswa has balked." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Al-Qaswa has not balked — that is not her nature — but she has been held back by the One who held back the elephant." Then he said, "By the One in whose hand is my soul, they will not ask me for any request in which they exalt the sacred things of Allah, except that I will grant it to them." Then he urged her on, and she sprang up with him. He said: So he turned aside from that place until he came down at the far end of al-Hudaybiyyah, at a shallow pool with little water, from which the people could only draw a scanty trickle. It was not long before the people had exhausted it, and the thirst was complained of to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. So he drew an arrow from his quiver and ordered them to place it in the pool. He said: By Allah, it did not cease gushing up for them with abundant water until they went away satisfied. He said: While they were in that state, Budayl ibn Warqa' al-Khuza'i came, with a group of his people — they were a store of sincere counsel for the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, among the people of Tihamah — and he said, "I have left Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy and Amir ibn Lu'ayy encamped at the watering places of al-Hudaybiyyah, with them milk-camels and their young, and they mean to fight you and bar you from the House." The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "We have not come to fight anyone; rather we have come intending Umrah. Indeed, Quraysh have been worn down and harmed by war. If they wish, I will grant them a period of truce, during which they leave me and the rest of the people alone; then if I prevail — if they wish to enter into what the people have entered into, they may do so, and otherwise they will have had a respite. But if they refuse, then, by the One in whose hand is my soul, I will indeed fight them for this cause of mine until my neck is severed, or until Allah executes His command." Yahya said, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubarak: "until my neck is severed." He said, "So if they wish, we will grant them a period of truce." Budayl said, "I will convey to them what you say." So he set off until he came to Quraysh and said, "We have come to you from this man, and we heard him say something; if you wish, we will lay it before you." The foolish ones among them said, "We have no need for you to tell us anything about him." But the one among them possessed of sound judgment said, "Give us what you heard him say." He said, "I heard him say such-and-such," and he related to them what the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had said. Then Urwah ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi stood up and said, "O my people, am I not as a father to you?" They said, "Yes indeed." He said, "And am I not as a son to you?" They said, "Yes indeed." He said, "Do you then suspect me?" They said, "No." He said, "Do you not know that I called the people of Ukaz to your aid, and when they were slow to respond to me, I came to you with my own family and those who obeyed me?" They said, "Yes indeed." He said, "This man has offered you a fair proposal of guidance, so accept it, and let me go to him." They said, "Go to him." So he went to him. He began speaking with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, saying to him something similar to what he had said to Budayl. Then Urwah said at that point, "O Muhammad, tell me — if you were to destroy your own people utterly, have you heard of any Arab before you who annihilated his own people? And if the other happens, then by Allah, I see faces around you, and I see riffraff of people whose nature is such that they would flee and abandon you." Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, said to him, "Go suck the udhra of al-Lat! Shall we flee from him and abandon him?" He said, "Who is this?" They said, "Abu Bakr." He said, "Were it not for a favor of yours upon me which I have not yet repaid, I would answer you." He went on speaking with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and every time he spoke to him he would take hold of his beard, while al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah stood at the head of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with a sword in hand and a helmet upon him; and every time Urwah reached his hand out toward the beard of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, al-Mughirah struck his hand with the flat of the sword and said, "Keep your hand away from the beard of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him." So Urwah raised his hand and said, "Who is this?" They said, "al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah." He said, "You treacherous one! Am I not still striving to atone for your treachery?" For al-Mughirah had once accompanied some people in the time of Jahiliyyah, then killed them and took their wealth, and afterward came and embraced Islam; and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had said, "As for the Islam, I accept it; but as for the wealth, I want no part of it." Then Urwah began to observe the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, closely with his eyes. He said: By Allah, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did not expectorate but that it fell into the palm of one of his companions, who would rub it over his face and skin; and when he commanded them, they hastened to carry out his command; and when he performed ablution, they nearly fought one another over his water; and when they spoke, they lowered their voices in his presence; and they would not look intently at him, out of reverence for him. So he returned to his companions and said, "O my people, by Allah, I have been an envoy to kings — I have been an envoy to Caesar, and Chosroes, and the Negus — and by Allah, I have never seen a king whose companions revere him as the companions of Muhammad revere Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. By Allah, he does not expectorate but that it falls into the palm of one of them, who rubs it over his face and skin; and when he commands them, they hasten to carry out his command; and when he performs ablution, they nearly fight over his water; and when they speak, they lower their voices in his presence; and they do not look intently at him, out of reverence for him. And indeed he has offered you a fair proposal of guidance, so accept it." Then a man from Banu Kinanah stood up and said, "Let me go to him." They said, "Go to him." When he came in sight of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and his companions, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "This is so-and-so, and he belongs to a people who venerate the sacrificial animals, so send the animals out to him." So they were sent out to him, and the people came to meet him reciting the talbiyah. When he saw that, he said, "Glory be to Allah! It is not fitting that these people should be barred from the House." He said: When he returned to his companions, he said, "I saw the sacrificial animals garlanded and marked, and I do not think it right that they be barred from the House." Then a man among them called Mikraz ibn Hafs stood up and said, "Let me go to him." They said, "Go to him." When he came in sight of them, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "This is Mikraz, and he is a treacherous man." He began speaking with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and while he was speaking with him, Suhayl ibn Amr arrived. Ma'mar said: Ayyub informed me, from Ikrimah, that when Suhayl arrived, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Your affair has become easy [sahula]." Al-Zuhri said in his account: Suhayl ibn Amr came and said, "Come, let us write a document between us and you." So he called the scribe, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Write: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful." Suhayl said, "As for 'the Most Gracious,' by Allah I do not know what it is" — Ibn al-Mubarak's version has: "what it means" — "but write: 'In Your name, O Allah,' as you used to write." The Muslims said, "By Allah, we will write nothing but 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.'" The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Write: 'In Your name, O Allah.'" Then he said, "This is what Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, has agreed upon..." Suhayl said, "By Allah, if we knew that you were the Messenger of Allah, we would not have barred you from the House, nor fought you; but write: 'Muhammad ibn Abdullah.'" The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "By Allah, I am indeed the Messenger of Allah, even though you disbelieve me. Write: 'Muhammad ibn Abdullah.'" Al-Zuhri said: That was on account of his saying, "They will not ask me for any request in which they exalt the sacred things of Allah, except that I will grant it to them." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "On condition that you allow us access to the House, that we may circumambulate it." Suhayl said, "By Allah, the Arabs shall not say that we were taken by force; but you may have it from next year." So it was written. Then Suhayl said, "And that no man shall come to you from us — even if he is of your religion — without your returning him to us." The Muslims said, "Glory be to Allah! How can he be returned to the polytheists when he has come as a Muslim?" While they were in that state, Abu Jandal ibn Suhayl ibn Amr arrived, dragging his feet — Yahya, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubarak, has: "shuffling" — in his shackles, having come out from the lower part of Mecca, until he threw himself down among the Muslims. Suhayl said, "O Muhammad, this is the very first thing I make terms with you upon: that you return him to me." The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "We have not yet concluded the document." He said, "By Allah, then we will never make peace with you on anything at all." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Then grant him to me." He said, "I will not grant him to you." He said, "Yes, do it." He said, "I will not do it." Mikraz said, "Yes, we have granted him to you." Abu Jandal said, "O company of Muslims, am I to be returned to the polytheists when I have come as a Muslim? Do you not see what I have suffered?" — for he had been severely tortured for the sake of Allah. Umar, may Allah, Most High, be pleased with him, said: I went to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, "Are you not the Prophet of Allah, truly?" He said, "Yes indeed." I said, "Are we not upon the truth, and our enemy upon falsehood?" He said, "Yes indeed." I said, "Then why should we give in what is demeaning in regard to our religion?" He said, "I am the Messenger of Allah, and I do not disobey Him, and He is my Helper." I said, "Did you not used to tell us that we would come to the House and circumambulate it?" He said, "Yes indeed. But did I tell you that you would come to it this year?" I said, "No." He said, "Then you shall indeed come to it and circumambulate it." He said: Then I went to Abu Bakr, may Allah, Most High, be pleased with him, and said, "O Abu Bakr, is this not truly the Prophet of Allah?" He said, "Yes indeed." I said, "Are we not upon the truth, and our enemy upon falsehood?" He said, "Yes indeed." I said, "Then why should we give in what is demeaning in regard to our religion?" He said, "O man, he is indeed the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and he does not disobey his Lord, Mighty and Majestic, and He is his Helper, so hold fast" — Yahya ibn Sa'id said: "to his stirrup," and another version said: "keep circumambulating by his stirrup until you die, for by Allah, he is indeed upon the truth." I said, "Did he not used to tell us that we would come to the House and circumambulate it?" He said, "Yes indeed. But did he tell you that he would come to it this year?" I said, "No." He said, "Then you shall indeed come to it and circumambulate it." Al-Zuhri said: Umar said, "So I performed deeds of atonement on account of that." He said: When he had finished settling the document, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to his companions, "Get up and sacrifice, then shave your heads." He said: By Allah, not one man among them got up, even though he said it three times. When none of them got up, he went in to Umm Salamah and mentioned to her what he had met with from the people. Umm Salamah said, "O Messenger of Allah, would you like that to be remedied? Go out, and do not speak a word to any of them until you have sacrificed your animal and called your barber to shave you." So he got up and went out, and did not speak to anyone among them until he had done that: he sacrificed his sacrificial animal and called his barber. When they saw that, they got up and sacrificed their animals, and began shaving one another, until they nearly killed one another out of grief. Then some believing women came to him, and Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed: "O you who believe, when believing women come to you as emigrants..." up to "...the ties of marriage with disbelieving women." He said: Umar divorced, that day, two wives he had had in the time of associating partners with Allah; one of them was married by Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, and the other by Safwan ibn Umayyah. Then he returned to Medina, and Abu Basir, a man of Quraysh who was a Muslim, came to him — Yahya, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubarak, said: "Abu Basir ibn Usayd al-Thaqafi came to him as a Muslim emigrant" — so they hired al-Akhnas ibn Shariq, a disbelieving man of Banu Amir ibn Lu'ayy, along with a freedman of his, and wrote with the two of them to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, asking him to fulfill the obligation. So they sent two men after him, who said, "[Honor] the pledge which you have made to us," and he handed him over to the two men. They set out with him until they reached Dhul-Hulayfah, where they stopped to eat some dates they had. Abu Basir said to one of the two men, "By Allah, I see this sword of yours, so-and-so, is a fine one." The other drew it out and said, "Yes indeed, by Allah, it is fine; I have tested it time and again." Abu Basir said, "Show it to me, let me look at it." So he let him have it, and Abu Basir struck him with it until he lay cold, dead. The other fled until he reached Medina, entering the mosque at a run. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "This man has seen something terrifying." When he reached the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he said, "By Allah, my companion has been killed, and I too am about to be killed." Then Abu Basir came and said, "O Prophet of Allah, by Allah, Allah has fulfilled your obligation. You returned me to them, then Allah delivered me from them." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Woe to his mother, what a kindler of war he would be, if only he had other men with him!" When Abu Basir heard that, he understood that he would send him back to them, so he set out until he reached the seacoast. He said: And Abu Jandal ibn Suhayl escaped and joined Abu Basir; and thereafter no man came out from Quraysh who had embraced Islam but that he joined Abu Basir, until a whole band had gathered around them. He said: By Allah, they did not hear of any caravan of Quraysh setting out for Syria but that they waylaid it, killing them and seizing their goods. So Quraysh sent to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, imploring him by Allah and by ties of kinship to send for them, so that whoever came to him would be safe. So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, sent for them, and Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed: "And He it is who restrained their hands from you, and your hands from them..." up to "...the fierce partisanship of the Age of Ignorance." And their fierce partisanship was that they did not acknowledge that he was the Prophet of Allah, and did not acknowledge "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful," and they barred him from the House. Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan narrated to us, he said: Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak narrated to us: Ma'mar narrated to us, from al-Zuhri, from Urwah, from al-Miswar ibn Makhramah and Marwan ibn al-Hakam, who said: "The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, set out at the time of Hudaybiyyah with some ten-odd hundred," and he related the hadith. He said: And from this point it is joined to the account of al-Zuhri, from al-Qasim ibn Muhammad, who said: Abu Basir said to the man from Banu Amir, who had his sword with him, "I see this sword of yours, O brother of Banu Amir, is a fine one." He said, "Yes indeed." He said, "Show it to me, let me look at it." So he gave it to him, and Abu Basir drew it out and struck the man from Banu Amir with it until he killed him, and the freedman fled, running headlong toward the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. He entered, so they claim, upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, while he was in the mosque, the pebbles rattling from the intensity of his running. When the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, saw him, he said, "This man has seen something terrifying," and he related something similar to the account of Abd al-Razzaq. He said: When the disbelievers of Quraysh saw that, a group of them rode out to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, "This truce term of yours avails us nothing at all — we are being killed and our wealth is being plundered! We ask you to admit into your treaty of peace those of us who have embraced Islam, and to protect them, and to restrain them from fighting us." So the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did that, and Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed: "And He it is who restrained their hands from you, and your hands from them," and he recited it up to "the fierce partisanship of the Age of Ignorance."