Military Expeditions led by the Prophet (pbuh) (Al-Maghaazi)

Jābir informed him that he had campaigned with the Messenger of Allah in the direction of Najd. When the Messenger of Allah turned back, Jābir went back with him. They were caught by midday in a valley full of thorn trees. The Messenger of Allah dismounted, and the people spread out among the thorn trees to seek shade. The Messenger of Allah settled beneath a samura tree and hung his sword on it. Jābir said: We slept for a while. Then the Messenger of Allah called us, and we came to him. There was a Bedouin sitting beside him. The Messenger of Allah said, “This man drew my sword while I was asleep. I woke up with it unsheathed in his hand. He said to me, ‘Who will protect you from me?’ I said, ‘Allah.’ Here he is, sitting there.” Then the Messenger of Allah did not punish him.

Abān reported from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Abū Salama, from Jābir, who said: We were with the Prophet at Dhāt al-Riqāʿ. Whenever we came to a shady tree, we left it for the Prophet. A man from among the polytheists came while the Prophet’s sword was hanging on a tree and drew it. He said, “Are you afraid of me?” The Prophet replied, “No.” He asked, “Then who will protect you from me?” He answered, “Allah.” The Prophet’s Companions threatened the man. The prayer was then called, and the Prophet prayed two units with one group. They withdrew, and he prayed two units with the other group. Thus the Prophet prayed four units, while the people prayed two. Musaddad reported from Abū ʿAwāna, from Abū Bishr, that the man was named Ghawrath ibn al-Ḥārith, and that the fighting took place during the campaign against Muḥārib Khaṣafa.

Abū al-Zubayr reported from Jābir: “We were with the Prophet at Nakhl, and he performed the prayer of fear.” Abū Hurayra said: “I prayed the prayer of fear with the Prophet during the campaign of Najd.” Abū Hurayra had only come to the Prophet during the days of Khaybar.

Ibn Muḥayriz said: I entered the mosque, saw Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, sat with him, and asked him about coitus interruptus. Abū Saʿīd said: We went out with the Messenger of Allah on the campaign of Banū al-Muṣṭaliq and captured some Arab women. We desired women, and celibacy had become difficult for us. We wanted to practice coitus interruptus and intended to do so, saying, “Shall we practice withdrawal while the Messenger of Allah is among us, before asking him?” So we asked him about it. He said, “It will not harm you if you do not do it. Every living soul that is destined to exist until the Day of Resurrection will surely come into existence.”

We campaigned with the Messenger of Allah in the direction of Najd. When midday overtook him in a valley full of thorn trees, he dismounted beneath a tree, took shade there, and hung his sword on it. The people dispersed among the trees for shade. While we were in that state, the Messenger of Allah called us, and we came. A Bedouin was sitting before him. He said, “This man came to me while I was asleep and drew my sword. I woke up with him standing over me, the sword unsheathed in his hand. He said, ‘Who will protect you from me?’ I said, ‘Allah.’ He sheathed it, then sat down. Here he is.” The Messenger of Allah did not punish him.

I saw the Prophet praying voluntarily on his riding animal during the campaign of Anmār, facing east.

Al-Zuhrī said: ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, ʿAlqama ibn Waqqāṣ, and ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtba ibn Masʿūd related to me from ʿĀʾisha, the Prophet’s wife, about what the people of the slander said. Each related part of her account; some retained more detail than others, and their reports corroborate one another. ʿĀʾisha said: Whenever the Messenger of Allah intended to travel, he drew lots among his wives and took whichever wife’s lot came out. He drew lots for a campaign, and my lot came out. I went with him after the command of veiling had been revealed, carried in my howdah. On the return to Medina, departure was announced at night. I walked beyond the army to relieve myself. Returning, I felt for my necklace of Zafar beads and found it had broken. I went back to search for it, delaying me. The men who carried my howdah lifted it onto my camel, thinking I was inside. Women then were light, eating little, so they did not notice the howdah was light. I was a young girl. After the army departed, I found my necklace and returned to their empty campsite. Thinking they would notice I was missing and come back, I sat where I had been and fell asleep. Ṣafwān ibn al-Muʿaṭṭal al-Sulamī, then al-Dhakwānī, had been following behind the army. In the morning he saw someone asleep and recognized me, having seen me before veiling was prescribed. I awoke when he said, “We belong to Allah and to Him we return.” I covered my face with my outer garment. By Allah, we exchanged no words; I heard only that formula from him. He made his camel kneel, and I mounted. He led it until we reached the army in the heat of midday, while they had halted. ʿĀʾisha said: Because of me, those destined to perish perished. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl took the leading role in the slander. ʿUrwa was told it was discussed in his presence and that he accepted and sought to hear more. ʿUrwa said that among those named were Ḥassān ibn Thābit, Misṭaḥ ibn Uthātha, and Ḥamna bint Jaḥsh, with others he did not know; they were a group, as Allah says. The one said to have borne the greatest part was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy. ʿĀʾisha disliked anyone cursing Ḥassān in her presence and recalled his verse: “My father, his father, and my honor are a shield for Muḥammad’s honor against you.” We reached Medina, where I fell ill for a month. People discussed the slander, but I knew nothing of it. During my illness, I wondered why the Messenger of Allah no longer showed me his former kindness; he would enter, greet me, ask, “How is that one of you?” and leave. When I began to recover, I went with Umm Misṭaḥ to al-Manāṣiʿ, our place to relieve ourselves. At that time we went out at night in the open country, following the old Arab custom and disliking latrines beside our homes. Umm Misṭaḥ was the daughter of Abū Ruhm ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn ʿAbd Manāf; her mother, daughter of Ṣakhr ibn ʿĀmir, was Abū Bakr’s maternal aunt. Her son was Misṭaḥ ibn Uthātha ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-Muṭṭalib. On the way home Umm Misṭaḥ tripped on her cloak and said, “May Misṭaḥ perish!” I objected: “How dreadful! Are you cursing a man who witnessed Badr?” She said, “Have you not heard what he said?” and told me what people were saying. My illness worsened. I asked the Messenger of Allah permission to visit my parents so I could confirm the report; he allowed me. My mother told me to take it lightly, saying co-wives often speak against a beautiful woman loved by her husband. I exclaimed, “Glory be to Allah! Have people really been talking about this?” I wept all night and could neither stop my tears nor sleep. While revelation was delayed, the Messenger of Allah consulted ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Usāma ibn Zayd about separating from his household. Usāma advised him according to what he knew of my innocence, saying, “Your family—we know nothing but good of them.” ʿAlī said, “Allah has not restricted you; there are many women besides her. Ask the servant girl; she will tell you the truth.” The Prophet summoned Barīra and asked if she had seen anything suspicious. Barīra swore she had seen nothing blameworthy, except that I was young and sometimes slept while the household dough was rising, allowing a domestic animal to eat it. That day the Messenger of Allah stood on the pulpit and sought redress against ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy: “O Muslims, who will deal with a man whose harm to my family has reached me? By Allah, I know nothing but good of my family. They have also spoken about a man of whom I know nothing but good, who never entered my family’s home except when I was with him.” Saʿd ibn Muʿādh of Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal said, “I will deal with him for you. If he is from al-Aws, I will strike his neck; if he is from our brothers, the Khazraj, command us and we will obey.” Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda, chief of the Khazraj, stood. Though previously righteous, zeal overcame him. He said to Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, “By Allah, you lie. You will not kill him and cannot; if he were of your clan, you would not want him killed.” Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr, Saʿd’s cousin, replied, “By Allah, you lie. We will kill him, for you are a hypocrite arguing for hypocrites.” Al-Aws and al-Khazraj rose up and nearly fought. The Messenger of Allah kept calming them until they fell silent, and then he too was silent. I wept all that day and could not sleep. The next morning my parents were with me; I had cried for two nights and a day, until I thought the crying would split my liver. A woman of the Anṣār came and wept with me. Then the Messenger of Allah came in, greeted us, and sat down. He had not sat with me since the accusation began, and a month had passed without revelation about my case. After praising Allah, he said, “ʿĀʾisha, this and that has reached me about you. If you are innocent, Allah will declare you innocent. If you have committed a sin, seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him; when a servant admits a sin and repents, Allah accepts his repentance.” When he finished, my tears dried completely. I asked my father to answer for me, but he said he did not know what to say. My mother said the same. I said: “I was a young girl who knew little of the Qur’an. You have heard this talk until it settled in your hearts and you believed it. If I say I am innocent, you will not believe me; if I admit something, though Allah knows I am innocent of it, you will believe me. I find no example for us except Joseph’s father, who said: ‘So patience is most fitting, and Allah is the One whose help is sought against what you describe.’” I lay down, knowing Allah knew I was innocent and would declare me so. Yet I had not thought revelation would be sent about me and recited; I considered my situation too insignificant for Allah to speak of it. I hoped only that the Messenger of Allah might see a dream that would establish my innocence. The Messenger of Allah had not moved from his seat, and no one had left the household, when revelation came. The distress that accompanied revelation came over him, and sweat like pearls ran from him despite the cold, from the weight of the words. When it lifted, he was smiling. His first words were, “ʿĀʾisha, Allah has declared you innocent.” My mother told me to get up and go to him; I said, “By Allah, I will rise only to praise Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.” Allah revealed the ten verses beginning, “Indeed, those who brought the slander…,” declaring my innocence. Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, who supported Misṭaḥ ibn Uthātha because he was his relative and poor, said, “By Allah, after what he said about ʿĀʾisha, I will never spend anything on Misṭaḥ again.” Allah then revealed, “Let not those of virtue among you swear…” through “Forgiving, Merciful.” Abū Bakr said, “Indeed, by Allah, I love that Allah should forgive me,” and resumed his support, saying, “By Allah, I will never withdraw it from him.” The Messenger of Allah also asked Zaynab bint Jaḥsh what she knew or had seen. She said, “I guard my hearing and sight. By Allah, I know nothing but good.” ʿĀʾisha said Zaynab had been the wife who most closely rivaled her, but Allah protected her through piety. Zaynab’s sister Ḥamna began to speak against her and perished among those who perished. Ibn Shihāb said this was what reached him from the account of those transmitters. ʿUrwa related that ʿĀʾisha said: The man accused alongside me would say, “Glory be to Allah! By Him in whose hand is my soul, I have never uncovered a woman’s covering.” He was later killed in the cause of Allah.

Hishām ibn Yūsuf dictated from memory to me: Maʿmar related to us, from al-Zuhrī, who said: Al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik asked me, “Did you hear that ʿAlī was among those who accused ʿĀʾisha?” I said, “No. But two men from your people, Abū Salama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith, told me that ʿĀʾisha said to them, ‘ʿAlī was clear of accusation concerning her.’” They questioned him again, but he did not retract it, saying, “He was certainly clear of it.” The same wording was in the old copy.

Masrūq ibn al-Ajdaʿ said: Umm Rūmān, the mother of ʿĀʾisha, told me: I was sitting with ʿĀʾisha when a woman from the Anṣār came in and said, “May Allah do such-and-such to so-and-so!” Umm Rūmān asked, “What is the matter?” The woman said, “My son is among those who repeated the story.” Umm Rūmān asked, “What story?” The woman told her. ʿĀʾisha asked, “Did the Messenger of Allah hear it?” She said, “Yes.” ʿĀʾisha asked, “And Abū Bakr?” She said, “Yes.” ʿĀʾisha collapsed unconscious. When she came to, she had a fever with chills. I covered her with her clothes. The Prophet came and asked, “What is the matter with her?” I said, “She has developed a fever with chills.” He said, “Perhaps it is because of something that has been said.” ʿĀʾisha sat up and said, “By Allah, if I swear, you will not believe me; and if I speak, you will not excuse me. My situation and yours are like Joseph and his sons; Allah is the One whose help is sought against what you describe.” The Prophet left without saying anything. Then Allah revealed her exoneration. She said, “Praise belongs to Allah, not to anyone else and not to you.”

ʿĀʾisha used to recite, “When you received it with your tongues,” and would say, “Al-walq means falsehood.” Ibn Abī Mulayka said: She knew this better than others because it was revealed concerning her.

I went to curse Ḥassān in ʿĀʾisha’s presence, but she said, “Do not curse him; he used to defend the Messenger of Allah.” ʿĀʾisha said: The Prophet was asked permission to satirize the polytheists. He said, “What about my lineage?” The reply was, “I shall draw you out from among them as a hair is drawn from dough.” Muḥammad added: ʿUthmān ibn Farqad related to us; he heard Hishām, from his father, say, “I insulted Ḥassān, who was among those who spoke much against her.”

We entered upon ʿĀʾisha while Ḥassān ibn Thābit was reciting poetry to her, including these lines praising a woman: “Chaste and dignified, no suspicion is attached to her; yet she rises hungry from the flesh of heedless women.” ʿĀʾisha said to him, “But you are not like that.” Masrūq said: I asked her, “Why do you let him enter upon you when Allah Most High has said, ‘The one among them who took the greatest part in it will have a tremendous punishment’?” She replied, “What punishment is harsher than blindness?” She said of him, “He used to defend—or satirize on behalf of—the Messenger of Allah.”

We went out with the Messenger of Allah in the year of al-Ḥudaybiya. Rain fell on us one night. The Messenger of Allah led us in the dawn prayer, then turned to us and asked, “Do you know what your Lord said?” We replied, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “Allah said: This morning some of My servants believe in Me and some disbelieve in Me. As for the one who says, ‘We were given rain by Allah’s mercy, provision, and bounty,’ that one believes in Me and disbelieves in the stars. But the one who says, ‘We were given rain by such-and-such a star,’ believes in the star and disbelieves in Me.”

The Messenger of Allah performed four ʿumras, all in Dhū al-Qaʿda except the one he performed with his ḥajj: an ʿumra from al-Ḥudaybiya in Dhū al-Qaʿda; an ʿumra the following year in Dhū al-Qaʿda; an ʿumra from al-Jiʿrāna in Dhū al-Qaʿda, when he distributed the spoils of Ḥunayn; and an ʿumra with his ḥajj.

We set out with the Prophet in the year of al-Ḥudaybiya. His Companions entered the state of consecration, but I did not.

You count the conquest to be the conquest of Mecca, and the conquest of Mecca was indeed a conquest. But we count the conquest to be the Pledge of Riḍwān on the day of al-Ḥudaybiya. We were with the Prophet, fourteen hundred people. Al-Ḥudaybiya was a well, and we drew out all its water, leaving not a drop. This reached the Prophet, so he came to it and sat at its rim. He asked for a vessel of water, performed ablution, rinsed his mouth, and prayed. Then he poured the water into the well. We left it only a short while, then it supplied all the water we and our mounts needed.

On the day of al-Ḥudaybiya, they were with the Messenger of Allah, numbering fourteen hundred or more. They camped at a well and drew it dry. They went to the Messenger of Allah, and he came to the well and sat at its rim. He said, “Bring me a bucket of its water.” It was brought to him. He spat into it and prayed, then said, “Leave it for a while.” They drank their fill, and so did their mounts, until they set out.

The people became thirsty on the day of al-Ḥudaybiya. The Messenger of Allah had a small leather water vessel before him and performed ablution from it. The people came toward him, and he asked, “What is the matter with you?” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, we have no water with which to perform ablution, and the only water we have to drink is what is in your vessel.” The Prophet placed his hand in the vessel, and water began to gush between his fingers like springs. We drank and performed ablution. I asked Jābir how many they were that day. He said, “Had we been one hundred thousand, it would have sufficed us. We were fifteen hundred.”

I said to Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, “I have heard that Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh used to say they were fourteen hundred.” Saʿīd told me, “Jābir related to me that they were fifteen hundred—the ones who pledged allegiance to the Prophet on the day of al-Ḥudaybiya.” Abū Dāwūd corroborated it: Qurra related to us, from Qatāda.

On the day of al-Ḥudaybiya, the Messenger of Allah said to us, “You are the best people on earth.” We were fourteen hundred. If I could see today, I would show you the place of the tree. Al-Aʿmash corroborated it, having heard Sālim from Jābir: fourteen hundred.