The Year 8 of the Hijra: Conversions, Letters to the Kings and the Ode of Ka'b

The Islam of Amr ibn al-As, Khalid ibn al-Walid and Outhman ibn Talha

Their arrival came at the beginning of the eighth year. The Waqidi reports, through his shaykh Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja’far, that Amr ibn al-As related from his own mouth: "I long remained aloof from Islam, obstinate. I attended Badr with the polytheists and escaped; then Ouhoud and escaped; then the Trench and escaped. I said to myself: how many times more! By Allah, Mohamed will surely prevail over Quraysh. So I joined my wealth at al-Waht, and cut down my contact with the people. When Houdaybiya came, and the Messenger of Allah departed on a treaty, and Quraysh returned to Mecca, I kept saying: Mohamed will enter Mecca before long with his companions: Mecca and Ta’if are no longer a refuge, and nothing is better than going out. I was still far from Islam, saying: even if all Quraysh converted I would not convert.

I came to Mecca, gathered men of my people who followed my counsel and heard me, and advanced me in their undertakings, and said: how do you regard me among you? They said: you are our counselor and our support, our blessing. I said: you know that, by Allah, I see the affair of Mohamed becoming an affair towering over all; and I have a view. They said: what is it? I said: let us join the Negus and stay with him: if Mohamed prevails we shall be with the Negus, and to be under the Negus is dearer to us than to be under Mohamed; and if Quraysh prevail, we are those they know. They said: that is the view. I said: then gather what we shall give him as a gift. The best of gifts from our land was leather, so we gathered much of it and went out until we came to the Negus. We were with him when Amr ibn Oumayya ad-Damri arrived:

the Messenger of Allah had sent him with a letter in which he sought in marriage Oum Habiba bint Abi Soufyan. He entered upon the Negus and then went out. I said to my companions: this is Amr ibn Oumayya: if I entered upon the Negus and asked him for him and he gave him to me, I would strike off his neck, and by doing so I would delight Quraysh, and I should be quit of them for having killed the messenger of Mohamed. I entered upon the Negus and prostrated to him as I was accustomed. He said: welcome, my friend! Have you brought me something from your land? I said: yes, O king, I have brought you much leather. I presented it: it pleased him, he distributed part of it among his patricians, ordered the rest stored and kept. When I saw his good humour I said: O king, I saw a man come out from you, the envoy of an enemy who has fought us, killed our nobles and best men:

give him to me, that I may kill him. He grew angry at that, raised his hand and struck my nose such a blow that I thought it broken: blood streamed from my nostrils, and I caught it with my garments, feeling such humiliation that had the earth split open I would have entered it. Then I fled from him. Then I said: O king, had I thought you disliked what I said, I would not have asked. He said, having felt shame: O Amr, you ask me to give you the envoy of him to whom comes the great Inspiration that came to Moussa and that came to Issa, to kill him?! Amr said: Allah turned my heart from what I was upon, and I said to myself: this man knows the truth, Arabs and non-Arabs, and you oppose it?! Then I said: do you bear witness to this, O king? He said: yes, I bear witness to it before Allah, O Amr. So obey me and follow him:

for by Allah he is upon the truth, and he shall prevail over whoever contradicts him, as Moussa prevailed over Pharaon and his host. I said: will you pledge me allegiance to him upon Islam? He said: yes. He stretched out his hand and pledged me allegiance to Islam; then he called for a basin, washed the blood from me and clothed me, for my garments were filled with blood, and I cast them off. I went out to my companions, who rejoiced at seeing me clothed in the garment of the Negus, and said: did you attain your aim? I said to them: I disliked addressing him at first, and I shall return to him. They said: your view is good. So I left them as one intent upon a need, and went to the place of the ships: I found a vessel loaded about to be pushed off. I boarded with them, and they sailed until they reached ach-Chou’ayba.

I went out of the ship with provisions, bought a camel, and set out for Medina, passing by Marr adh-Dhahran, and went on until, at al-Hada, behold, two men had outstripped me by little, seeking a camp, one entering under the tent and the other holding the two mounts. I looked, and it was Khalid ibn al-Walid. I said: where are you going? He said: to Mohamed: the people have entered Islam, and none remains who has any relish left; by Allah, were I to stay, they would seize our necks as the lizard is seized in its hole. I said: and I, by Allah, had resolved upon Mohamed, and upon Islam. Then Outhman ibn Talha came out and greeted me warmly; we alighted all together at that camp, then travelled on until we came to Medina. Never shall I forget the word of a man we met at the well of Abi Inaba, crying: O Rabah! O Rabah! O Rabah! We drew good omen from his word and rejoiced; then he looked at us and I heard him say:

Mecca has given its bravest after these two! I thought he meant me and Khalid ibn al-Walid, and he hurried off toward the mosque: I thought he was giving the Messenger of Allah glad tidings of our coming, and so it was. We watered at the harra, put on our best garments, and when the asr was called we went until we caught sight of him: his face was radiant, and the Muslims around him rejoiced at our Islam. Khalid ibn al-Walid advanced and pledged allegiance; then Outhman ibn Talha advanced and pledged; then I advanced. By Allah, no sooner had I sat before him than I could not raise my eyes to him, out of shame toward him. I pledged him allegiance upon the forgiveness of my past sin, not upon what was to come. He said: "Islam wipes out what was before it, and the emigration wipes out what was before it."

By Allah, never did the Messenger of Allah prefer me, or Khalid ibn al-Walid, over any of his companions in a matter that weighed on us since we accepted Islam: we held with Abou Bakr that very station, and with Oumar that very standing, and Oumar was to Khalid as a chiding father." The Waqidi reports likewise, through Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Rachid, freedman of Habib, from his master Habib, from Amr ibn al-As; and Mohamed ibn Ishaq relates it so. The Waqidi’s shaykh asked Yazid ibn Abi Habib to date the arrival of Amr and Khalid: he said only: before the conquest. And the Waqidi’s father informed him that Amr, Khalid and Outhman ibn Talha arrived at the crescent of Safar of the year eight. In the Sahih of Mouslim will come, at the death of Amr, what bears witness to this account and to the excellence of his companionship of the Messenger of Allah all his life.

As for the Islam of Khalid ibn al-Walid, the Waqidi reports, through Yahya ibn al-Moughira ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from his father, that Khalid said: "When Allah willed of me the good He willed, He cast Islam into my heart and my right guidance came to me. I said: I have witnessed all these battlefields against Mohamed, and there is no battlefield at which I witnessed him but that I turned away feeling myself a man who amounted to nothing, and that Mohamed would prevail. When the Messenger of Allah went out to Houdaybiya I went out with horsemen of the polytheists, and I met the Messenger of Allah and his companions at Ousfan: I stood before him and defied him. He prayed the dhouhr with his companions before us, and we considered falling upon them, but no resolve was made, and among us were men of excellence. Allah made known to him the thought within us, and he prayed with his companions the asr as the prayer of fear; and that struck us down. I said: the man is guarded! So I withdrew from them, leaving the track of our horsemen and taking the right side. When he made peace with Quraysh at Houdaybiya, and Quraysh granted him generously, I said to myself: what remains? Where is the way? To the Negus? Mohamed has already followed him, and his companions are with him in safety: shall I go out to Héraclius? Abandon my religion for Christianity or Judaism, or dwell subject among the Persians, or remain in my land among those who remain?

While I was in that state, the Messenger of Allah entered Mecca in the Umra of Fulfilment, and I hid and did not witness his entry. My brother al-Walid ibn al-Walid had entered with the Prophet in the Umra of Fulfilment, sought me and did not find me, and wrote me a letter, wherein was: In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. As to what follows: never have I seen your reason depart from Islam as it departs, you who have reason! Has anyone ever been ignorant of Islam? The Messenger of Allah asked me about you and said: where is Khalid? I said: Allah will bring him. He said: "None is more ignorant of Islam than he. Had he set his intelligence and discernment with the Muslims it would have been better for him, and we would have preferred him over others. So retrieve, my brother, what has escaped you: for good stations have escaped you." When his letter came to me I stirred to go out; it increased my longing for Islam, and the Messenger of Allah’s asking after me delighted me. I saw in sleep as if I were in a strait, barren land, and went out to a green and spacious land, and I said: this is a vision. When I came to Medina I said: I shall relate it to Abou Bakr. He said: your going out, whereby Allah guided you to Islam, and the straitness you were in was association. When I resolved to go out to the Messenger of Allah I said: whom shall I take as companion? I met Safwan ibn Oumayya and said: O Abou Wahb, do you not see what we are in? We are but a people whose head is sought, and Mohamed has prevailed over Arabs and non-Arabs:

if we were to go to Mohamed and follow him, the honour of Mohamed would be our honour. He refused with the strongest disdain and said: were none left but I, I would never follow him. So we parted, and I said: this is a man whose brother and father were killed at Badr. I met Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl and said to him what I had said to Safwan ibn Oumayya, and he answered me as Safwan answered. I said: conceal it for me. He said: I shall not mention it. I went to my dwelling, ordered my mount saddled, and went out until I met Outhman ibn Talha. I said: here is a friend of mine: were I to mention it to him, I would hope. Then I recalled those of his forefathers who were killed, and disliked reminding him. Then I said: what is it to me, I am departing this very hour. I mentioned to him how the matter had gone, and said: we are as a fox in its burrow: were a bucket of water poured in, it would come out. I said to him the like of what I had said to my companion, and he hastened to accept, saying: this very morning I had resolved to go, and here is my mount tethered by the fetlock. He and I made a pact: if he outstripped me he would wait, and if I outstripped him I would wait for him. We travelled at first light, and before dawn broke we met at Yajaj; we went on until we reached al-Hada, and found Amr ibn al-As there. He said: welcome to the people! We said: and to you. He said: where do you travel? We said: and what brought you out? He said: and what brought you out? We said:

entering into Islam and following Mohamed. He said: that is what set me forth! So we travelled all together until we entered Medina, and watered our mounts on the ridge of the harra. The Messenger of Allah was informed of us and rejoiced at us. I put on my best garments and made for the Messenger of Allah; my brother met me and said: hasten, for the Messenger of Allah has been told of you and rejoices at your coming, and he is awaiting you. We quickened our pace; I caught sight of him, and he kept smiling at me until I stood before him. I greeted him, saluting his prophethood, and he returned my greeting with a bright face. I said: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and that you are the Messenger of Allah. He said: "Come." Then the Messenger of Allah said: "Praise belongs to Allah who guided you! I always saw in you an intellect, and hoped it would lead you to nothing but good." I said: O Messenger of Allah, you have seen how I bore witness against you in those battlefields, opposing the truth: so pray Allah to forgive me. The Messenger of Allah said: "Islam wipes out what was before it." I said: on that, O Messenger of Allah. He said: "O Allah, forgive Khalid ibn al-Walid all that he committed of barring the way upon Your path." Khalid said: Outhman and Amr then advanced and pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah. Our coming was in Safar of the year eight. And by Allah, the Messenger of Allah never preferred over me, in what weighed on me, anyone of his companions.

The expeditions of Chouja’ ibn Wahb and Ka’b ibn Oumayr

The Waqidi reports that the Messenger of Allah sent Chouja’ ibn Wahb al-Asadi with twenty-four men against a gathering of Hawazin, commanding him to raid them. He went out, marching by night and hiding by day, and surprised them at dawn, having counselled his companions not to linger in pursuit. They took many camels and sheep and drove them to Medina: the share of each man came to fifteen camels. Others claim they also took captives, and that the commander chose a radiant slave-girl from among them; their families later came as Muslims, and the Prophet consulted their commander about restoring the women: he agreed. They were returned, and he gave the woman he held her choice: she chose to remain with him. This expedition may be the one reported by ach-Chafi’i, from Malik, from Nafi’, from Ibn Omar: the Messenger of Allah sent an expedition toward Najd, among them Abdallah ibn Omar, who said: we took many camels, and our share reached twelve camels, and the Messenger of Allah granted us a camel each. The two Sahihs reported it by Malik, as did Mouslim by other routes: our commander granted us a camel each; then we came to the Messenger of Allah and he divided our spoils, and each man of us took twelve camels after the fifth, and the Messenger of Allah neither took us to account for what our commander had given us nor faulted him for it: so each of us had thirteen camels with the grant.

The Waqidi also reports, from az-Zouhri, that the Messenger of Allah sent Ka’b ibn Oumayr al-Ghifari with fifteen men until they reached Dhat Atlah in the land of Syria. They found a great gathering of their people, called them to Islam: they refused and showered them with arrows. When the companions of the Messenger of Allah saw that they fought them fiercely until they were slain; one wounded man escaped from among the corpses, and when night cooled he forced his march until he came to the Messenger of Allah, who intended to send a force against them, then learned they had moved to another place.

The letters to the kings: Abou Soufyan questioned before Héraclius

The Waqidi dates the sending of letters to the kings to the end of the sixth year, in Dhoul-Hijja, after the Umra of Houdaybiya; the Bayhaqi places this chapter here, after the Ghazwa of Mouta. They do not disagree that it began before the conquest of Mecca and after Houdaybiya: such is the word of Abou Soufyan to Héraclius when he asked: does he betray his covenants? He said: no; and we are with him now in a truce of which we know not what he will do in it. In a wording of the Boukhari: that was in the truce which Abou Soufyan made with the Messenger of Allah. Mohamed ibn Ishaq says it was between Houdaybiya and his death. Anas reports, in the Sahih of Mouslim, that the Messenger of Allah wrote before his death to Kisra and César and to the Negus, and to every tyrant, calling them to Allah: and it was not the Negus for whom he prayed.

Younous reports from Ibn Ishaq, from az-Zouhri, from Oubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Outba, from Abdallah ibn Abbas, that Abou Soufyan related to him from his own mouth: we were a people of merchants, and war had hemmed us in until it wore out our wealth. When the truce of Houdaybiya came between us and the Messenger of Allah, we felt no security but that we found security, and I went out trading to Syria with a party of Quraysh. By Allah, I knew no man or woman in Mecca who did not load me with merchandise. our market in Syria was Gaza, in the land of Palestine. We went out until we reached it, at the time when César, master of the Byzantines, had prevailed over the Persians who were in his land: he drove them out of it and recovered his great cross which they had carried off. His residence was at Homs in the land of Syria; he went out from it walking in gratitude to Bayt al-Maqdis, to pray in it:

carpets were spread for him and jewels cast upon them, until he reached Ilya and prayed there. One morning he was found troubled, turning his glance to the sky. His patricians said: O king, you rise troubled. He said: indeed. They said: and what is that? He said: last night I was shown in a dream that the king of the circumcised would prevail. They said: by Allah, we know no nation that circumcises but the Jews, and they are under your hand and within your dominion: if this has settled in your soul concerning them, send throughout your whole kingdom that no Jew remain but his neck be struck, and you will be rid of this worry: that is their own counsel in the matter. While they were upon it, the envoy of the lord of Bosra came to them with a man of the Arabs who had come to them. He said: O king, this man is of the Arabs, of the people of sheep and camels, who relates to you an event that befell his land: ask him of it.

When he reached him, Héraclius said to his interpreter: ask him what is this event that befell his land. He asked, and the man said: a man of the Arabs, of Quraysh, has come forth claiming to be a prophet; people have followed him and others opposed him, and there have been battles between them in various places; I went out from my land while they were upon that. When he informed him of the news, Héraclius said: strip him. And behold, he was circumcised. He said: this, by Allah, is what I was shown, not what you say! Give him back his garment, and let him go about his business. Then he called the chief of his guard and said: turn Syria back to front until you bring me a man of this man’s people, that I may ask him of his affair. Abou Soufyan said: we were, by Allah, at Gaza when he fell upon us and asked: of whom are you? We informed him, and he drove us all to him. When we reached him, Abou Soufyan said:

by Allah, I never saw a man more perceptive than that aged one, meaning Héraclius. He said: when we reached him he said: which of you is nearest of kin to this man? I said: I am. He said: bring him near to me, and seat his companions behind him; then he said to his interpreter: tell them I ask this man about that man: if he lies to me, contradict him. Abou Soufyan said: by Allah, had it not been for shame at being reported liars, I would have lied about him; but I was a man of rank who prized honour and was ashamed to lie, and I knew that the least of it would be that they would relate my lie, then speak of it in Mecca: so I did not lie to him. He said: inform me about this man who has come forth among you. I sought to belittle his affair and diminish his standing before him, but by Allah he paid no heed, and said to me: inform me of what I shall ask you of his affair. I said: ask me whatever occurs to you. He said:

what is his lineage among you? I said: pure lineage, from the middle of us. He said: inform me: did anyone of his household ever say the like of his word, imitating him? I said: no. He said: inform me: did he ever hold dominion which you took from him, so that he came with this claim to recover it? I said: no. He said: inform me: who are his followers? I said: the young, the weak and the poor; as for their nobles, they are not of them. He said: inform me of those who accompany him: do they love him and hold to him, or criticize him and leave him? I said: seldom has a man accompanied him and then left him. He said: inform me of the war between you and him. I said: it has been alternating: he reaches us and we reach him. He said: inform me: does he betray? I found nothing whereby to disparage him but this, and I said: no; but we are with him now in a truce, and we do not feel secure from his betrayal in it.

By Allah he paid no heed to it. He said: then he repeated the account to me, and said: you claim he is of purest lineage among you: thus does Allah take a prophet, taking him only from the midst of his people. I asked you whether anyone of his household had said the like of his word: you said no; had one said it, I would have said: a man imitating a word said before him. I asked you whether any of his ancestors had been a king: you said no; were it so, I would have said: a man seeking his father’s kingdom. I asked you whether you accused him of lying before he said what he said: you said no: so I know he would not have spared lies to men and lied upon Allah. I asked you whether the nobles of the people followed him or their weak: you said their weak followed him, and such are the followers of the messengers. I asked you whether they increase or decrease: you said they increase: such is the affair of faith until it is complete.

I asked you whether anyone turns away in disgust from his religion after entering it: you said no: such is faith when its joy mingles with hearts. I asked you whether he betrays: you said no: such are the messengers, who do not betray. I asked you what he commands you: you said he commands you to worship Allah alone and associate nothing with Him, forbids you the worship of idols, commands you prayer, truth and chastity. If what you say is true, he will possess the place beneath these two feet of mine. And I knew he was coming forth, but I did not think he would be of you. If I knew I could reach him, I would labour to meet him; and were I with him, I would wash his feet. Then he called for the letter of the Messenger of Allah which he had sent with Dihya to the great one of Bosra, who passed it on to Héraclius. It read: In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

From Mohamed, servant of Allah and His messenger, to Héraclius, the great of the Byzantines. Peace be upon whoever follows the guidance. As to what follows: I invite you with the invitation of Islam: accept Islam and you will be safe, and Allah will give you your reward twice; but if you turn away, upon you is the sin of the tillers. And: O people of the Book, come to a word equal between us and you: that we worship none but Allah and associate nothing with Him, and take not one another for lords beside Allah. But if they turn away, then say: bear witness that we are submissive (Al Imran, 64). When he had said what he said and finished reading the letter, clamour rose about him, voices were raised, and we were expelled. I said to my companions as we were expelled: the affair of the son of Abou Kabcha has become great! The king of the sons of yellow garments fears him! And I never ceased certain that he would prevail, until Allah brought me into Islam.

The Boukhari reports this story with other additions, from his Sahih, before the chapter of faith: Héraclius had sent for them in a caravan of Quraysh merchants in Syria, in the truce in which the Messenger of Allah had made a truce with Abou Soufyan and the unbelievers of Quraysh. They came to him at Ilya; he summoned them in his audience hall surrounded by the great men of the Byzantines, then called for his interpreter and said: which of you is nearest in kinship to this man who claims to be a prophet? Abou Soufyan said: I am the nearest of them in kinship. He said: bring him near to me, and bring his companions near, and seat them behind him. Then he said to his interpreter: say to them: I ask this man about that man: if he lies to me, contradict him. Abou Soufyan said: by Allah, were it not for shame at being reported lying, I would have lied about him. The first thing he asked me about him was: how is his lineage among you? I said: he is of noble lineage among us. He said:

has anyone among you ever said this before him? I said: no. He said: was there a king among his forefathers? I said: no. He said: do the nobles of the people follow him or their weak? I said: rather their weak. He said: do they increase or decrease? I said: rather they increase. He said: does anyone of them turn back in disgust at his religion after entering it? I said: no. He said: did you accuse him of lying before he said what he said? I said: no. He said: does he betray? I said: no, and we are with him now in a truce of which we know not what he will do. He said: I could not insert into it anything but this word. He said: have you fought him? I said: yes. He said: how was your fighting of him? I said: the war between us and him is alternating: he reaches us and we reach him. He said: what does he command you? I said: he says: worship Allah alone and associate nothing with Him, and abandon what your fathers say; and he commands us prayer, truth, chastity and kindred ties. Then he said to the interpreter: say to him:

I asked you of his lineage, and you claimed he is of noble lineage among you: so are messengers sent, in the lineage of their peoples. I asked you whether anyone of you had said this before him, and you said no: were it so, I would have said: a man imitating a word said before him. I asked you whether there were kings among his ancestors: you said no: were it so, I would have said: a man seeking his father’s kingdom. I asked you whether you accused him of lying before he said what he said: you said no: so I know he would not have spared lies to men and lied upon Allah. I asked you whether the nobles of the people followed him or their weak: you said their weak followed him, and such are the followers of the messengers. I asked you whether they increase or decrease: you said they increase: such is the affair of faith until it is complete. I asked you whether anyone turns away in disgust from his religion after entering it: you said no: such is faith when its joy mingles with the hearts. I asked you whether he betrays:

you said no: such are the messengers, who do not betray. I asked you what he commands you: you said he commands you to worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, forbids you idol-worship, commands you prayer, truth and chastity. If what you say is true, he will possess the place beneath these two feet of mine; and I knew he was coming forth, but I did not think he would be of you: were I to know I could reach him, I would strive to meet him; and were I with him, I would wash his feet. Then he called for the letter of the Messenger of Allah which he had sent with Dihya to the great one of Bosra, who passed it on to Héraclius. When he had said what he said and finished reading the letter, clamour increased about him, voices were raised, and we were expelled. I said to my companions when we were expelled: the affair of the son of Abou Kabcha has become great! He is feared by the king of the sons of yellow garments! And I remained certain he would prevail, until Allah brought me into Islam.

Ibn an-Natour, the ruler of Ilya and vassal of Héraclius over the Christians of Syria, relates that when Héraclius came to Ilya he rose one day in an ill humour, and some of his patricians said: we find your appearance strange. Ibn an-Natour says: Héraclius was an astrologer; and when they asked him he said: when I looked into the stars I saw the king of the circumcised has appeared: who of this nation circumcises? They said: none circumcises but the Jews: let not their affair trouble you; write to the cities of your kingdom that they kill the Jews among them. While they were upon his command, Héraclius was brought a man sent by the king of Ghassan, who related the news of the Messenger of Allah. When Héraclius questioned him he said: go and see whether he is circumcised or not. They looked at him and told him he was circumcised. He asked the Arabs whether they circumcised, and they said: they do. Héraclius said: the dominion of this nation has appeared!

Then Héraclius wrote to one of his men at Rome, his peer in knowledge, and Héraclius went to Homs; he did not remain at Homs before a letter came from his man agreeing with Héraclius’ opinion on the coming forth of the Prophet and that he was a prophet. Héraclius then permitted the great men of the Byzantines into an audience hall he had at Homs, then ordered its doors shut; then he looked out and said: O assembly of Byzantines, do you desire success and right guidance, and that your dominion be established? Then pledge allegiance to this Prophet! They surged like wild donkeys toward the doors, and found them shut. When Héraclius saw their revolt, and despaired of their faith, he said: bring them back to me. And he said: I only said my words just now to test your firmness in your religion, and I have seen! They prostrated to him and were pleased with him: and that was the last of the affair of Héraclius. The Boukhari reports it through Salih ibn Kaysan, Younous and Ma’mar, from az-Zouhri.

Ibn Lahi’a reports, from al-Aswad, from Urwa: Abou Soufyan ibn Harb went out to Syria as a merchant in a party of Quraysh, and the affair of the Messenger of Allah reached Héraclius, who wished to know what was to be known of the affair of the Messenger of Allah. He wrote to his lord over the Arabs in Syria, commanding him to send him men of the Arabs to ask them about him; he sent him thirty men, among them Abou Soufyan ibn Harb. They entered upon him in the church of Ilya in the midst of the city. Héraclius said: I have sent for you to inform me of the affair of this man in Mecca. They said: a sorcerer, a liar, and no prophet. He said: inform me, then, of the most knowing of you about him and the nearest of you to him in kinship. They said: this is Abou Soufyan, his cousin, who has fought him. When they told him that, he ordered them out, then seated Abou Soufyan and questioned him. He said: inform me, O Abou Soufyan. He said: he is a sorcerer, a liar. Héraclius said: I do not wish to insult him; but what is his lineage among you? He said: he is, by Allah, of the house of Quraysh. He said: how are his intellect and judgment? He said: we never knew of him intellect or judgment. Héraclius said:

was he a habitual swearer of false oaths, deceiving in his affair? He said: no, by Allah, he was never such. He said: perhaps he seeks dominion, or an honour that belonged to someone of his house before him? Abou Soufyan said: no. Then he said: who of you follows him: does anyone of them return to you? He said: no. Héraclius said: does he betray when he covenants? He said: no, unless he betray in this truce of his. Héraclius said: and what do you fear from this truce of his? He said: my people have extended their allies against his allies, and he is in Medina. Héraclius said: if you began, then you are the betrayers. Abou Soufyan grew angry and said: he has overcome us but once, and I was absent that day, the day of Badr; then I made war upon him twice in their houses, boring bellies and cutting ears and genitals. Héraclius said: do you see him as a liar or truthful? He said: rather he is a liar. He said: if there is a prophet among you, do not kill him, for the worst of people in that were the Jews. Then Abou Soufyan returned. In this account is strangeness, and in it benefits not found with Ibn Ishaq nor the Boukhari. Moussa ibn Oqba relates in his campaigns something near what Urwa ibn az-Zoubayr related, and Allah is most knowing.

Ibn Jarir relates in his History, and Mohamed ibn Ishaq likewise, that Héraclius said to Dihya ibn Khalifa al-Kalbi when he came to him with the letter of the Messenger of Allah: by Allah, I know indeed that your companion is a prophet sent, and that he is the one we awaited and find in our Book; but I fear the Byzantines for my life, and were it not for that I would follow him. Go then to the patriarch and mention to him the affair of your companion: for he is, by Allah, greater than I among them, and his word more readily accepted: see what he says to you. Dihya came and informed him of what he had brought from the Messenger of Allah to Héraclius, and of what he invited to. The patriarch said: your companion is, by Allah, a prophet sent: we know him by his description and find him in our Book by his name! Then he entered, cast off the black garments he wore, put on white garments, took his staff, and went out to the Byzantines in the church, saying: O assembly of Byzantines, there has come to us a book from Ahmad, inviting us therein to Allah, and I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that Ahmad is His servant and His messenger! They leapt upon him as one man and beat him until they killed him. When Dihya returned to Héraclius and informed him, he said: did I not tell you we fear them for ourselves? The patriarch was, by Allah, greater than they, and his word more readily accepted than mine.

The Tabarani reports through Yahya ibn Salama ibn Kouhayl, from his father, from Abdallah ibn Chaddad, that Dihya al-Kalbi said: the Messenger of Allah sent me to César, master of the Byzantines, with a letter. I said: grant entry to the envoy of the envoy of Allah! César was told that at the door was a man claiming to be envoy of the envoy of Allah, and they were startled; and he said: admit him. He admitted me while his patricians were around him, and I gave him the letter, which read: In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. From Mohamed, messenger of Allah, to César, master of the Byzantines. A nephew of his, red-skinned and blue-eyed, cried out: read not the letter today, for he has begun with himself: he wrote to the master of the Byzantines, not to the king of the Byzantines!

The letter was read until it was finished; then he ordered them out, then sent for me: I entered and he questioned me, and I informed him. He sent for the bishop, who entered: he was the chief of their religion, whose opinion and word they followed. When he read the letter the bishop said: he is, by Allah, the one of whom Moussa and Issa gave us glad tidings, whom we awaited. César said: what do you command me? The bishop said: as for me, I believe him and will follow him. César said: I know he is thus, but I cannot do it: if I did, my dominion would go and the Byzantines would kill me. Mohamed ibn Ishaq reports likewise, from Khalid ibn Yasar, from an elder of the people of Syria, that when Héraclius intended going out from the land of Syria to Constantinople, because of what had reached him of the affair of the Prophet, he gathered the Byzantines and said:

O assembly of Byzantines, I propose to you options: consider what I intend thereby. They said: what are they? He said: you know, by Allah, that this man is a prophet sent: we find him in our Book, we know him by the description given us: come, let us follow him, that our world and Hereafter be safe. They said: shall we be under the hands of the Arabs, when we are the greatest of people in dominion, the most numerous in men, and the broadest in territory?! He said: come, I shall give him the tribute every year, breaking his power and gaining rest from his war by what I give him. They said: shall we give the Arabs humiliation and lowliness in a tribute they take from us, when we are the most numerous of people, the greatest in dominion and the best fortified in land? No, by Allah, we shall never do that! He said: come, let me make peace with him by giving him the land of Syria, and he will leave me and the land of Syria. The land of Syria, he said, meant Palestine, the Jordan, Damascus, Homs and the land of Syria below the gate, all beyond the gate being to them the Syria. They said: shall we give him the land of Syria, when you know it is the navel of Syria? Never shall we do that! When they refused him he said: by Allah, you will wish you had prevailed, when you prove unable even in your city! Then he sat upon his mule and went; and when he looked upon the gate he faced the land of Syria, then said: peace be upon you, O land of Syria, a salutation of farewell! Then he sped until he entered Constantinople. And Allah is most knowing.

The Ghazwa of Dhat as-Salasil: the accord of Abou Oubayda and the tayammum of Amr

The Bayhaqi mentions here the Ghazwa of Dhat as-Salasil before the Ghazwa of the conquest, relating it through Moussa ibn Oqba and Urwa ibn az-Zoubayr, who said: the Messenger of Allah sent Amr ibn al-As to Dhat as-Salasil, on the confines of Syria, among Bali, among Abdallah and the Qouda’a: the Banu Bali were the maternal uncles of al-As ibn Wa’il. When he arrived there he feared the multitude of his enemy and wrote to the Messenger of Allah asking reinforcements. The Messenger of Allah called the first emigrants: Abou Bakr and Oumar volunteered among the elite of the emigrants, and the Messenger of Allah appointed Abou Oubayda ibn al-Jarrah over them. Moussa ibn Oqba says: when they came to Amr he said: I am your commander, and I wrote to the Messenger of Allah asking you as reinforcement. The emigrants said: rather you are commander of your companions, and Abou Oubayda is commander of the emigrants. Amr said: you are but a reinforcement sent to me. When Abou Oubayda saw that, and he was a man of fine character, gentle of disposition, he said: know, O Amr, that the last counsel the Messenger of Allah gave me was: when you come to your companion, comply with him; and you, if you disobey me, I shall obey you.

So Abou Oubayda ceded command to Amr ibn al-As. Mohamed ibn Ishaq reports, from Mohamed ibn Abd ar-Rahman at-Tamimi, that the Messenger of Allah sent Amr ibn al-As to summon the Arabs to Islam: the mother of al-As ibn Wa’il was of the Banu Bali, and the Messenger of Allah sent him to them to win them by that tie, until he was at a water in the land of Jouzam called as-Salasil, after which the campaign was named. When he was there and feared, he wrote to the Messenger of Allah asking reinforcement, and he sent him Abou Oubayda ibn al-Jarrah with the first emigrants, among them Abou Bakr and Oumar, saying to Abou Oubayda when he dispatched him: "Do not differ." Abou Oubayda went out, and when he came to him Amr said to him: you have come only as reinforcement to me. Abou Oubayda said to him: no; rather I am upon what I am upon, and you are upon what you are upon. Abou Oubayda was a gentle, easy man, to whom the world was light. Amr said to him: you are my reinforcement. He said: O Amr, the Messenger of Allah has said to me: "Do not differ"; and you, if you disobey me, I obey you. Amr said: then I am commander over you, and you are only reinforcement to me. He said: to you the command! And Amr ibn al-As prayed with the people.

The Waqidi reports, through Rabi’a ibn Outhman, from Yazid ibn Rouman, that when Abou Oubayda acceded to Amr ibn al-As they became five hundred, marching night and day until they trod the land of Bali and scoured it; and each place they reached, news of a gathering had been there before them: when the people heard of them they scattered, until he reached the farthest parts of the land of Bali, Oudhra and Balqayn, and at the last met a gathering not numerous: they fought an hour, exchanging arrows; that day Amir ibn Rabi’a was shot and his arm struck. The Muslims charged them and they fled, scattering through the lands in flight. Amr ranged the region for days, hearing of no gathering nor place they had resorted to; he used to send the horsemen, who brought sheep and flocks, which were slaughtered and sacrificed, and nothing more than that occurred, and no spoils were divided.

Abou Dawoud reports, through Yahya ibn Ayyoub, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Imran ibn Abi Anas, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Joubayr, from Amr ibn al-As: I had a wet dream on a cold night in the Ghazwa of Dhat as-Salasil, and feared that if I washed I should die. So I performed tayammum, then prayed the dawn with my companions. They mentioned that to the Messenger of Allah, and he said: "O Amr, you prayed with your companions while in major impurity?" I informed him of what had kept me from washing, and said: I heard Allah say: kill not yourselves; Allah is ever Merciful to you (an-Nisa, 29). And the Prophet of Allah laughed and said nothing. Mohamed ibn Salama reports it, through Ibn Lahi’a and Amr ibn al-Harith, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Imran ibn Abi Anas, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Joubayr, from Abou Qays, freedman of Amr ibn al-As, who was over an expedition: the hadith is similar, except that he washed his armpits, performed his ablution for prayer, and prayed with them, without mentioning tayammum.

Abou Dawoud relates this story from al-Awza’i, from Hassan ibn Atiyya, saying therein: he performed tayammum. The Waqidi reports, from Aflah ibn Sa’id, from Ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rouqaych, from Abou Bakr ibn Hazm: Amr ibn al-As, as they turned back, had a wet dream on a night of the most intense cold, and said to his companions: what do you think? By Allah I have had a pollution, and if I wash I shall die! He called for water, performed ablution, washed his member, performed tayammum, then rose and prayed with them. Awf ibn Malik was the first to send a courier: I came upon the Messenger of Allah in the small hours while he prayed in his house, and I greeted him. The Messenger of Allah said: "Awf ibn Malik?" I said: Awf ibn Malik, O Messenger of Allah. He said: "The owner of the camels?" I said: yes. He added nothing beyond that, then said: "Inform me." I informed him of our march, and of Abou Oubayda and Amr, and the compliance of Abou Oubayda, and the Messenger of Allah said: "May Allah have mercy upon Abou Oubayda ibn al-Jarrah."

Then I informed him that Amr had prayed with the people in major impurity, water at his side, doing no more than wash his member and perform ablution: the Messenger of Allah was silent. When Amr came to the Messenger of Allah he asked him of his prayer; he informed him and said: by Him who sent you with the truth, had I washed I would have died: never did I know cold like it! And I said: I heard Allah say: kill not yourselves; Allah is ever Merciful to you. And the Messenger of Allah laughed, and we never heard that he said anything. Ibn Ishaq reports, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Awf ibn Malik al-Achja’i: I was in the campaign the Messenger of Allah sent Amr ibn al-As upon, the Ghazwa of Dhat as-Salasil, and I accompanied Abou Bakr and Oumar. I passed by people over camels they had slaughtered, unable to bite into them, and I was a man of strength with the knife: I said to them: will you give me a portion if I divide it among you? They said: yes. I took the knife and carved it where I stood, took a piece and carried it to my companions; we cooked it and ate it. Abou Bakr and Oumar said:

whence is this meat to you, O Awf? I informed them, and they said: by Allah, you did well in feeding us this! Then the two rose voiding from their bellies what they had eaten. When the people returned from that journey I was the first comer upon the Messenger of Allah, who was praying in his house. I said: peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. He said: "Awf ibn Malik?" I said: yes, may my father and mother be your ransom! He said: "The owner of the camels?" And he added nothing to me beyond that. Thus Mohamed ibn Ishaq reports it, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Awf ibn Malik: it is discontinuous, nay difficult. The Bayhaqi says Ibn Lahi’a and Sa’id ibn Abi Ayyoub report it, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Rabi’a ibn Laqit, from Malik ibn Hidm, I think from Awf ibn Malik, relating the like of it, except that he said: I presented it to Oumar, who questioned me about it; I informed him, and he said: you have hastened your reward! And he did not eat of it. Then he relates the like from Abou Oubayda, without mentioning Abou Bakr.

The Bayhaqi reports, through Khalid al-Hadhdha, from Abou Outhman an-Nahdi, that Amr ibn al-As said: the Messenger of Allah sent me over the army of Dhat as-Salasil, and among the people were Abou Bakr and Oumar. I said to myself: he sent me not over Abou Bakr and Oumar except for a station I have with him. I came to him until I sat before him and said: O Messenger of Allah, who is the most beloved of people to you? He said: "Aïcha." I said: I am not asking you about your household. He said: "Her father." I said: then who? He said: "Oumar." I said: then who? Until he counted a number of men. I said to myself: I shall not return to ask of this. This hadith is related in the two Sahihs through that route, Amr adding: I fell silent, fearing he would place me last of them.

The expedition of Abou Oubayda to the seashore: the army of dried leaves

Imam Malik reports, from Wahb ibn Kaysan, from Jabir: the Messenger of Allah sent a company toward the shore, appointing Abou Oubayda ibn al-Jarrah over them, and they were three hundred. Jabir said: I was among them. We went out, and when we were partway the provisions ran out; they brought Abou Oubayda the provisions of that army, all of it gathered: it was two sacks of dates. He would give us from it day by day little by little until it ran out, so that nothing reached us but a date, a date. I said: what good is a date? He said: we felt its loss when it ran out! Then we reached the sea, and behold, a fish like a great dune. That army ate of it eighteen nights; then Abou Oubayda ordered two of its ribs taken and erected, and ordered a mount ridden: it passed beneath them without touching them. The two Sahihs reported it from Malik.

It is in the two Sahihs also through Soufyan ibn Ou’yayna, from Amr ibn Dinars, from Jabir: the Messenger of Allah sent us in three hundred riders, our commander Abou Oubayda ibn al-Jarrah, to watch for a caravan of Quraysh. Severe hunger beset us, until we ate the shrivelled leaves, and that army was named the army of the leaves. A man slaughtered for us three camels, then three, then three, until Abou Oubayda forbade him. Then the sea cast up a creature called the Anbar: we ate of it half a month and anointed ourselves with it, until our bodies firmed up and mended. Then he relates the story of the ribs. His word in the hadith: we watched for a caravan of Quraysh, is evidence that this expedition was before the truce of Houdaybiya. And Allah is most knowing. The man who slaughtered the camels for them was Qays ibn Sa’d ibn Oubada.

The Bayhaqi reports, through Abou Khaythama Zouhayr ibn Mou’awiya, from Abou az-Zoubayr, from Jabir: the Messenger of Allah sent us, appointing Abou Oubayda over us, to receive a caravan of Quraysh, and provisioned us with a sack of dates, finding nothing else for us; and Abou Oubayda would give us a date, a date. Jabir said: how did you use them? He said: we would suck it as an infant sucks, then drink water over it, and it would suffice us from our day to the night; and we would strike the leaves of the trees with our staves, soak them in water and eat them. We went to the shore of the sea: there was raised for us on the seashore the like of a great sand-hill. We came to it, and it was a creature called the Anbar. Abou Oubayda said: it is carrion. Then he said: no; rather we are the envoys of the Messenger of Allah, in the path of Allah, and you are in dire need: eat.

We stayed by it a month, three hundred of us, until we grew fat; we would scoop with the buckets the oil from its eye, and cut from it chunks of fat like a bull, or the size of a bull. Abou Oubayda took thirteen of us and seated them in its eye, and took one of its ribs and set it up, then had the greatest of camels laden pass under it, and it passed. We provisioned ourselves with its meat for the road. When we came to Medina we went to the Messenger of Allah and related it to him, and he said: "It is provision Allah brought out for you: have you any of its meat to feed us?" We sent to the Messenger of Allah, and he ate of it. Mouslim reported it through Yahya ibn Yahya and Ahmad ibn Younous, and Abou Dawoud through an-Noufayli, all three from Abou Khaythama. We say: the purport of most of these accounts is that this expedition was before the truce of Houdaybiya; but we relate it here following the hafiz al-Bayhaqi, who relates it after Mouta and before the Ghazwa of the conquest. And Allah is most knowing.

The Boukhari reports, after the Ghazwa of Mouta, the expedition of Usama ibn Zayd to al-Houraqat of Jouhayna, whose hadith we have already related and discussed. He also reports, through Yazid ibn Abi Ubayd, from Salama ibn al-Akwa’: I campaigned with the Messenger of Allah seven campaigns, and went out with nine of the companies he sent: once we were commanded by Abou Bakr, and once by Usama ibn Zayd. Then the Bayhaqi mentions here the death of the Negus of Abyssinia upon Islam, the Messenger of Allah’s announcing it to the Muslims, and his prayer over him. Malik reports, from az-Zouhri, from Sa’id ibn al-Moussayyab, from Abou Hourayra, that the Messenger of Allah announced to the people the death of the Negus on the day he died, went out with them to the place of prayer, arrayed them in rows and pronounced four takbirs. The two Sahihs reported it from Malik, and from al-Layth, from Ouqayl, from az-Zouhri, from Sa’id and Abou Salama, from Abou Hourayra, similarly. Ibn Jourayj reports, from Ata’, from Jabir, that the Messenger of Allah said:

"A righteous man died today!" And they prayed over al-Aschama. These hadiths have been related before, and the discussion upon them given, and to Allah belongs praise. We say: the apparent is that the death of the Negus was long before the conquest: in the Sahih of Mouslim, when he wrote to the kings of the horizons, he wrote to the Negus, and he was not then a Muslim; and others, like the Waqidi, claim it was he. And Allah is most knowing. The Bayhaqi reports, through Moussa ibn Oqba, from his father, from Oum Koulthoum, who said: when the Prophet married Oum Salama he said: "I have sent to the Negus ounces of musk and a garment, and I think he has died, and that the gift will be returned to me; if it be returned, I shall divide it among you." It was as the Messenger of Allah said: the Negus died and the gift was returned. When it was returned to him he gave each woman of his wives an ounce of that musk, and gave the rest to Oum Salama, and gave her the garment: and Allah is most knowing.

As for the conversion of Nudayr of Jouhayna: he relates that he had gone out with his people of Quraysh to Hunayn, still bent upon their religion, saying: we intended, had the wheel turned against Mohamed, to aid against him, but that was not granted us. When he was at al-Ji’rana, said Nudayr: I was upon what I was upon; had I sensed aught but the Messenger of Allah, he called: "Need you aid?" I answered: at your service. He said: "This is better than what you intended on the day of Hunayn, which Allah barred between you and it." I hastened to him, and he said: "It is time you saw where you were setting your feet." I said: I see that were there with Allah another, it would have availed something; and I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, alone without partner. The Messenger of Allah said: "O Allah, increase him in firmness!" Nudayr said: by Him who sent him with truth, my heart became as a stone, firm in the religion and clear-sighted in the truth. And the Messenger of Allah said: "Praise belongs to Allah who guided him."

The Umra of Ji’rana in Dhoul-Qi’da

Imam Ahmad reports, through Hammad ibn Yahya, from Qatada, who said: I asked Anas ibn Malik: how many times did the Messenger of Allah make pilgrimage? He said: one pilgrimage, and he made the lesser pilgrimage four times: his umra at the time of Houdaybiya; his umra in Dhoul-Qi’da from Medina; his umra from al-Ji’rana in Dhoul-Qi’da, when he divided the spoils of Hunayn; and his umra with his pilgrimage. The Boukhari, Mouslim, Abou Dawoud and the Tirmidhi reported it through routes from Hammad ibn Yahya, and the Tirmidhi judged it good and authentic. Ibn Abbas relates the four umras likewise. Amr ibn Chou’ayb reports, from his father, from his grandfather Abdallah ibn Amr, that the Messenger of Allah performed three umras, all in Dhoul-Qi’da, crying the talbiya until he grasped the Stone. That is strange by this route: these three umras, apart from that with his pilgrimage, did fall in Dhoul-Qi’da, that of his pilgrimage being in Dhoul-Hijja; and if he meant the state of ihram beginning in Dhoul-Qi’da, perhaps he did not intend the Umra of Houdaybiya, for he was barred from it. And Allah is most knowing.

Now Nafi’ and his master Ibn Omar denied outright that the Messenger of Allah performed the Umra of al-Ji’rana. The Boukhari reports, from Ayyoub, from Nafi’, from Ibn Omar, that Oumar ibn al-Khattab said: O Messenger of Allah, I had vowed in the Time of Ignorance a day of retreat. He ordered him to fulfil it. Oumar took two slave-girls of the captives of Hunayn and lodged them in one of the houses of Mecca. The Messenger of Allah then granted grace to the captives of Hunayn, and they began running through the paths. Oumar said: O Abdallah, look what this is! He said: the Messenger of Allah has granted grace to the captives. He said: go then, send the two slave-girls! Nafi’ said: and the Messenger of Allah did not perform the Umra of al-Ji’rana; had he performed it, it would not have been hidden from Abdallah. Mouslim reports it likewise, and reports also that the Umra of the Messenger of Allah from al-Ji’rana was mentioned before Ibn Omar and he said: he did not perform it from it. We say: this is very strange from Ibn Omar and his client Nafi’, their denial of the Umra of Ji’rana, when the host of narrators beyond them, of the compilers of the authentic collections, the Sounan and the Mousnads, and all the masters of campaigns and biographies, relate it. Likewise Aïcha reproached Ibn Omar his word that the Messenger of Allah performed an umra in Rajab, saying: may Allah forgive Abou Abd ar-Rahman! The Messenger of Allah performed no umra but that I witnessed it, and he never performed one in Rajab.

Ahmad reports from Moujahid that Urwa ibn az-Zoubayr asked Ibn Omar in which month the Messenger of Allah performed the umra, and he said: in Rajab. Aïcha heard; Urwa informed her of Ibn Omar’s word, and she said: may Allah have mercy on Abou Abd ar-Rahman: he performed no umra but that he witnessed it, and he performed none but in Dhoul-Qi’da. The Boukhari and Mouslim reported it through Jarir, from Mansour, from Moujahid. Abou Dawoud and an-Nasa’i also report it, from Zouhayr, from Abou Ishaq, from Moujahid: Ibn Omar was asked how many umras the Messenger of Allah performed, and said: two. Aïcha said: Ibn Omar knows the Messenger of Allah performed three besides the one he joined to the pilgrimage of farewell. Ahmad reports from Moujahid yet another scene: I entered the mosque with Urwa ibn az-Zoubayr, and behold, Ibn Omar leaning against the chamber of Aïcha, with people praying the dha. Urwa said: O Abou Abd ar-Rahman, what is this prayer? He said: an innovation. Urwa said: O Abou Abd ar-Rahman, how many umras did the Messenger of Allah perform? He said: four, one of them in Rajab. We heard a moan from Aïcha in the chamber. Urwa said to her: Abou Abd ar-Rahman claims the Messenger of Allah performed four umras, one of them in Rajab. She said: may Allah have mercy on Abou Abd ar-Rahman: the Prophet performed no umra but that I was with him, and he never performed one in Rajab! The Tirmidhi reports it so, judging it good, authentic and strange.

Ahmad reports, from Moukharrich al-Ka’bi, that the Messenger of Allah went out from al-Ji’rana by night, having entered the state of umra in the evening, and entered Mecca by night to complete his umra; then he went out before his morning and was at al-Ji’rana as one who had lodged there, until, when the sun declined, he went out from al-Ji’rana through the bed of the torrent, until the road joined the road of Medina at Sarif. Moukharrich said: thereby his umra remained hidden from many of the people. Ahmad reports it likewise through another chain. The purpose is that the Umra of Ji’rana is established by sound transmission that cannot be denied or repelled: whoever denies it has no argument against him who establishes it. And Allah is most knowing. Then they are near unanimous that it was in Dhoul-Qi’da, after the campaign of Ta’if and the division of the spoils of Hunayn.

At-Tabarani relates in his great dictionary, from Umayr, freedman of Abdallah ibn Abbas, from Ibn Abbas: when the Messenger of Allah came from Ta’if he alighted at al-Ji’rana and divided the spoils there, then performed the umra from it, that being with two nights of Shawwal remaining: that is very strange, and its chain calls for reserve. And Allah is most knowing. The Boukhari reports, from Ata’ ibn Safwan ibn Ya’la ibn Oumayya, that his father Ya’la used to say: would that I might see the Messenger of Allah when revelation descends upon him. The Messenger of Allah was at al-Ji’rana, under a garment shaded over him, with some of his companions, when a Bedouin came, in a cloak perfumed and thick with scent, and said: O Messenger of Allah, what do you say of a man who entered the state of umra in a cloak after perfuming himself? Oumar ibn al-Khattab motioned to Ya’la with his hand to come:

Ya’la came and put in his head, and behold, the Prophet with a reddened face, gesturing so for a moment; then it was shaded from him. He said: "Where is he who asked me of the umra just now?" The man was sought and brought. He said: "As for the perfume upon you, wash it three times; and as for the cloak, remove it; then do in your umra as you do in your pilgrimage." Mouslim reports it from Ibn Jourayj, and the two Sahihs from Ata’, both from Safwan ibn Ya’la, from his father. Aïcha reports that in the year of the conquest the Messenger of Allah entered Mecca from Kada’, from the upper part of Mecca, and entered upon the umra from Kouday. Sa’id ibn Joubayr reports from Ibn Abbas that the Messenger of Allah and his companions performed the umra from al-Ji’rana: they trotted about the House three times and walked four, placing their garments beneath their armpits, then casting them upon their left shoulders:

Abou Dawoud alone relates it. Mouawiya relates that he cut the hair of the Messenger of Allah at al-Marwa with a razor, or that he saw him shortened by it: the two Sahihs relate it through Ibn Jourayj, and Mouslim likewise through Soufyan ibn Ou’yayna. We say: this can only pertain to the Umra of Ji’rana: for in the Umra of Houdaybiya he did not enter Mecca, being barred from it; in the Umra of Fulfilment Abou Soufyan had not yet converted, and none of the people of Mecca remained there when the Messenger of Allah entered, for they had gone out and stayed away during those three days; and the umra joined to his pilgrimage was not, by consensus, followed by such shortening. This shortening that Mouawiya ibn Abi Soufyan performed upon the head of the Messenger of Allah at al-Marwa was therefore in the Umra of Ji’rana, as we have said. And Allah Most High is most knowing.

Mohamed ibn Ishaq reports: the Messenger of Allah then went out from al-Ji’rana in the state of umra, and ordered the remainder of the spoils detained, and it was held at Majanna, near Marr adh-Dhahran. We say: the apparent is that he withheld part of the spoils to win over whatever Arabs he might meet between Mecca and Medina. Ibn Ishaq reports that when the Messenger of Allah finished his umra he set out back to Medina, appointing Attab ibn Asid governor over Mecca and leaving with him Mou’adh ibn Jabal to instruct the people in religion and teach them the Quran. Urwa and Moussa ibn Oqba relate that the Messenger of Allah left Mou’adh with Attab in Mecca before going out to Hawazin, then left them there when he returned to Medina.

Ibn Hicham relates from Zayd ibn Aslam that when the Messenger of Allah appointed Attab ibn Asid over Mecca he granted him a dirham each day. He rose and addressed the people, saying: O people, Allah has starved the liver of whoever goes hungry for a dirham: the Messenger of Allah grants me a dirham each day, and I have need of no one. Ibn Ishaq relates that the umra of the Messenger of Allah was in Dhoul-Qi’da, and that he came to Medina at the end of Dhoul-Qi’da, or at the beginning of Dhoul-Hijja; Ibn Hicham says, from Abou Amr al-Madini, six nights remaining of Dhoul-Qi’da. He relates that the people performed the pilgrimage that year as the Arabs used to, and that Attab ibn Asid led the pilgrimage of the Muslims that year: it was the year eight. The people of Ta’if remained upon their unbelief and refusal in their city from Dhoul-Qi’da until Ramadhan of the year nine.

The Islam of Ka’b ibn Zouhayr and the ode "Bant Sou’ada"

Ka’b ibn Zouhayr ibn Abi Soulayma was the son of the poet Zouhayr, author of one of the seven suspended odes: a poet son of a poet. When the Messenger of Allah returned from his turning back from Ta’if, Boujayr ibn Zouhayr wrote to his brother Ka’b, by their father, informing him that the Messenger of Allah had killed in Mecca men who used to satirize and harm him, and that of the remaining poets of Quraysh, ibn az-Ziba’ra and Houhayra ibn Abi Wahb had fled in every direction. If you have need of your soul, then hasten to the Messenger of Allah: for he never kills anyone who comes to him repentant; and if you do not, then flee to your safety from the land. Ka’b had said of Boujayr: Shall I not convey from me to Boujayr a message? Woe to you for what you said, and woe to you, have you any? Make plain to us, if you are not the doer: upon what else have you fallen? Upon a character which for a day a father loved nothing of, nor you, and your father loved nothing of you. If you do not, I shall not be sorry, nor say:

if you stumble, may your curse follow you! The Bountiful gave you to drink a brimming cup: may the Bountiful destroy you by it, and saddle you! Ibn Hicham relates the poem under other forms. He sent it to Boujayr, and when it reached him Boujayr disliked concealing it from the Messenger of Allah, and recited it to him. When he heard: The Bountiful gave you to drink a brimming cup, the Messenger of Allah said: "He spoke truly: he is indeed a liar: I am the Bountiful!" And at: Upon a character which a father and mother loved nothing of: "Indeed, his father and mother loved nothing of it!" Then Boujayr wrote to Ka’b: Shall one convey to Ka’b: have you need of that whereof you blame wrongly, and it is more binding? In Allah, not in al-’Uzza nor al-Lat alone: that you be saved when salvation comes, and safe; upon a day when none is saved, and none delivers men but the pure of heart, submissive. So embrace the religion of Zouhayr, for his is nothing; and the religion of Abou Soulayma is forbidden to me!

When the letter reached Ka’b the earth straitened him; he feared for his life, and whoever was present of his enemies unsettled him, saying: he is a dead man! Finding no escape, he composed his ode in which he praises the Messenger of Allah, mentioning therein his fear and the unsettling of his enemies, then went out until he came to Medina and lodged with a man of Jouhayna whom he knew, as was related to me, who brought him at dawn to the Messenger of Allah at the dawn prayer. He prayed with the Messenger of Allah, then his host pointed him out to him, saying: this is the Messenger of Allah: rise to him and seek his safety. It is related that he rose to the Messenger of Allah and sat beside him, placing his hand in his hand, the Messenger of Allah not knowing him, and said: O Messenger of Allah, Ka’b ibn Zouhayr has come seeking your safe-conduct, repentant, a Muslim: will you accept him if I bring him to you? The Messenger of Allah said: "Yes." He said: then I, O Messenger of Allah, am Ka’b ibn Zouhayr! A man of the Ansar leapt upon him and said: O Messenger of Allah, let me at this enemy of Allah, that I strike his neck! The Messenger of Allah said: "Leave him be: he has come repentant, breaking with his past." Ka’b grew angry at that clan of the Ansar for what their man had done, for no one of the emigrants had spoken but good: wherefore he said in the ode he composed when he came to the Messenger of Allah: Sou’ada has departed:

my heart today is stricken, a sleepless man following her traces, unaverted; and Sou’ada, on the morning of parting, when she appeared, was but a sunbeam, the eye refined with kohl, lighting the border of the dark when she smiles, like the lamp of a hermitage in a meadow drenched with pure rain on a summer morning; the desert winds carry the drifting sand from her tresses, and the excess of a morning shower waters her; O friend, were she but true to her promise, or were counsel accepted! But she is a friend whose blood has known no constancy: sorrow, and biting, and betrayal, and change; she does not remain in one state, as the ghoul shifts colours in her robes; nor does she keep the pledge she claimed, but as water is held in the talons of ravens; let not her favours and promises deceive you:

hopes and dreams are but delusion; her trysts are like those of Ourqoub, and her trysts are but fables; I hope and expect that she will hasten, but never will they hasten, for time does not speed them; Sou’ada dwells in a land none reaches but the noble, slow, worn camels; none reaches her but a fat, heavy-paced she-camel, blackened beyond telling, anonymous, throwing her legs at the glance of an exhausted charger, when the banners of battle blaze; huge, her mail riveted, her stride shackled, preferred in beauty to the daughters of the stallion; the sister of al-Harf, their father, of the tribe of Mouhajjan, her uncle Qawda’ Chimlil; the mites walk upon her, then she lets them slip: butter and skins of milk; the mare launched in the race, stripped of her twins, her flanks parted from her legs; bearing the harness between her two flanks to the seeing eye:

manifest freedom, and upon the cheeks a smoothing; as if all that escaped her eyes and her slaughter, from her muzzle and her jaws, was scarified; she passes like a palm of Egypt well-formed, planted in soil the pitfalls have not corrupted; she broods over the giddy eggs whose fall shakes the earth; the black ewes leave the pebbles as a flock, without swelling of the head of the mountain; a day the great lizard lurks in it, as if its morning, with the sun, were stretched; and she says to the riders driving her, as the locusts run over the pebbles: come on! As the arms of a fair arm, sweating, wrapped in silver bracelets; or the two hands of a bereaved suppliant, when she rose and answered her, a stone-thrower measuring; a wailing one, soft as the two she-wolves, who, when she mourned her firstborn, had no comforter; she draws butter with her palms, her bodice split, showing her collarbones; the she-wolves run at her two sides, and they say: you, O son of Abou Soulayma, will be slain! And every friend I hoped in says: busy me not, for I am taken with you. I said: let my road be, you have no father: all the Merciful decrees is done! Every son of a female, however long his safety, one day upon a humped plank is carried! I was told the Messenger of Allah threatens me: but forgiveness is hoped from the Messenger of Allah! Patience: may He guide you who gave you in surplus the Quran, wherein are exhortations and expounding! Take me not by the words of the whisperers:

I have not sinned, though the slanders multiply! I shall make a stand were the elephant to see and hear: dread trembles with anguish did the Messenger of Allah not grant increase; until I place my right hand, unopposed, in the palm of a man of white teeth, whose word is spoken; and his diversion is more fearful to me when I address him, and it is said: you are accused and questioned! He is a fierce lion, his lair in the belly of Aththar, in whose girth the winds are outstripped; he goes forth and devours two lions, their life of men, flesh spared to the carrion-birds; when he besieges a horn he may not leave it but worn out; of him the wild asses stay in flight, and the targets walk not in his valleys; and in his valley ever remains a man of trust, in a striped cloak eaten through. The Messenger is a light whereby one is enlightened, an Indian sword of God, unsheathed; in a band of Quraysh, when they accepted Islam, their words were said in the belly of Mecca: turn away! They turned, and no recantation nor unveiling at the meeting, nor leaning aside; they walk the walk of white camels, kept by a blow when the lances are planted; helmeted heroes, their garments of the weaving of Dawoud, in the fray, tunics; white, flawless, ring-perforated, like the rings of a chiselled boulder, interlaced; they are not archers when their spears reach a people, nor swordsmen when they strike; the thrust falls but on their napes, and from the pools of death they do not shrink.

Thus Mohamed ibn Ishaq relates this ode, without chain; the Bayhaqi relates it in the proofs of prophethood with a connected chain: al-Hajjaj ibn dhou ar-Ruqayba, from his father, from his grandfather, who said: Ka’b and Boujayr, sons of Zouhayr, went out until they came to Abraq al-’Azzaf. Boujayr said to Ka’b: stay in this place until I go to this man, meaning the Messenger of Allah, that I hear what he says. Ka’b stayed and Boujayr went out and came to the Messenger of Allah, who offered him Islam, and he accepted. That reached Ka’b, who said: Shall I not convey from me to Boujayr a message? Upon what else have you fallen? Upon a character which a father and mother loved nothing of! The Bountiful gave you to drink a brimming cup: may the Bountiful destroy you by it, and saddle you! When the verses reached the Messenger of Allah he declared his blood lawful, and said:

"Whoever meets Ka’b, let him kill him!" Boujayr wrote that to his brother, mentioning that the Messenger of Allah had declared his blood lawful, saying: salvation! I see not that you will escape. Then he wrote to him after that: know that never does anyone come to the Messenger of Allah bearing witness that there is no deity but Allah and that Mohamed is the Messenger of Allah, but that he accepts it of him and cancels what was before it. When my letter comes to you, accept Islam and come. Ka’b accepted Islam and composed his ode in which he praises the Messenger of Allah; then he came until he tethered his mount at the door of the mosque of the Messenger of Allah, entered the mosque while the Messenger of Allah was with his companions like a table among the people, ringed about with them circle upon circle, turning to these a while and speaking to them, and to those a while and speaking to them.

Ka’b said: I tethered my mount at the door of the mosque, entered it, knew the Messenger of Allah by description, stepped over until I sat beside him, accepted Islam and said: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and that you are Mohamed, the Messenger of Allah: the safe-conduct, O Messenger of Allah! He said: "And who are you?" I said: Ka’b ibn Zouhayr. He said: "He who says: Sou’ada has departed?" Then the Messenger of Allah turned to Abou Bakr and said: "How did he say it, O Abou Bakr?" Abou Bakr recited: The Bountiful gave you to drink a brimming cup: may the Bountiful destroy you by it, and saddle you! Ka’b said: O Messenger of Allah, I did not say so. He said: "How did you say it?" He said: I said: The Bountiful has given you to drink a brimming cup: may the Bountiful destroy you by it, and saddle you! The Messenger of Allah said: "Bountiful, by Allah!" Then he recited the whole ode to him to its end, and it is the ode related before. We have noted already the divergence of the recitations of Ibn Ishaq and the Bayhaqi in the variants. Abou Omar Ibn Abd al-Barr relates in al-Isti’ab that when Ka’b reached: The Messenger is a light whereby one is enlightened; I was told the Messenger of Allah threatens me: but forgiveness is hoped from the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah signalled to those with him to listen: Moussa ibn Oqba mentioned that before him in his campaigns.

It comes in some narrations that the Messenger of Allah gave him his cloak when he recited the ode to him: ach-Charsari versified that in some of his panegyrics; and the hafiz Abou l-Hasan Ibn al-Athir mentions it in al-Ghabe, saying: it is the cloak that was with the caliphs. We say: this is a thing very famous, but I have not seen it in any of these famous books with a chain I would approve: Allah is most knowing. It is also related that the Messenger of Allah said to him when he said: Sou’ada has departed: "And who is Sou’ada?" He said: my wife, O Messenger of Allah. He said: "She has not departed." But that is not authentic, and one imagined thereby that with his Islam his wife would leave him; the apparent is that he meant the sensible departure, not the juridical. And Allah Most High is most knowing. Asim ibn Omar ibn Qatada says that when Ka’b said in his ode: when the lances are planted, meaning thereby us, the assembly of the Ansar, for what our master had done to him, and having singled out the emigrants of Quraysh for praise, the Ansar were angry with him: so after his conversion he praised the Ansar, mentioning their standing with the Messenger of Allah and their place of honour:

Whoso delights in the nobility of life, let him dwell ever in a branch of the good of the Ansar; They inherited greatness, descendant upon descendant: the best are the sons of the best; Those who force victory by arms like the filaments of India, not short; Those who watch with eyes bloodshot, like embers never veiled of sight; Those who sell their souls to their Prophet for death, on the day of grappling and return; Those who lead the people from their religions by the burnoose and the keen lances; They purify, seeing it a rite for them, with the blood of those they mixed with of the unbelievers; They charged as charged in the belly of Khafiyya the thick-necked of the ravening lions; And when you are given leave to forbid them, you wake at the dens of the caves. Ibn Hicham relates that it is said the Messenger of Allah said to him when he recited: Sou’ada has departed: "Would you had not mentioned the Ansar in good, for they are worthy of that!" So Ka’b said these verses, in an ode of his. Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jou’dan relates that Ka’b ibn Zouhayr recited to the Messenger of Allah in the mosque: Sou’ada has departed: my heart today is stricken: the Bayhaqi relates it by his chain mentioned, and it is without chronological link.

Abou Omar Ibn Abd al-Barr says in al-Isti’ab, after relating part of the biography of Ka’b ibn Zouhayr: Ka’b ibn Zouhayr was an excellent poet, prolific, foremost in his class, he and his brother Boujayr, Ka’b the more poetic of the two, and their father Zouhayr above them both. Of what is admired of his poetry: Were I to wonder at aught, I would wonder at the striving of the youth whose destiny is hidden; The youth strives toward matters he does not attain: the soul is one, and the care dispersed; Man, so long as he lives, has hope prolonged: the eye ceases not until the trace ceases. Ibn Abd al-Barr relates many verses of his, too long to mention, without dating his death; nor did Abou l-Hasan Ibn al-Athir date it in al-Ghabe, but he relates that his father died a year before the mission. And Allah is most knowing.

Summary of the year eight: the idols broken and the Kaaba of Khath’am

In Joumada of that year fell the Ghazwa of Mouta; in Ramadhan the conquest of Mecca; after it, in Shawwal, the Ghazwa of Hawazin at Hunayn; after it the siege of Ta’if; then came the Umra of Ji’rana in Dhoul-Qi’da; then he returned to Medina in the remainder of the year. The Waqidi reports that the Messenger of Allah returned to Medina with nights remaining of Dhoul-Hijja in this journey. The Waqidi also reports that in this year the Messenger of Allah sent Amr ibn al-As to Jaifar and Amr, sons of al-Joundi of the Azd, and the tribute was taken from the fire-worshippers of their land and the Arabs around it. In Dhoul-Qi’da he married Fatima bint adh-Dhahhak ibn Soufyan al-Kilabiyya: she sought release from him and he parted from her; it is said rather that he gave her the choice and she chose the world, so he parted from her. In Dhoul-Hijja of it was born Ibrahim, son of the Messenger of Allah, of Marie the Copt: the jealousy of the mothers of the believers against her grew intense when she was granted a son. His midwife was Salma, freedwoman of the Messenger of Allah, who went out to Abou Rafi’ and informed him, and he went and gave the glad news to the Messenger of Allah, who gave him a slave.

The Prophet entrusted the child to Oum Bourda bint al-Moundir ibn Zayd ibn Khidach, whose husband was al-Bara’ ibn Aws. In it occurred the deaths of the martyrs we mentioned in these battles. We related before the destruction by Khalid ibn al-Walid of the house in which al-’Uzza was worshipped at Nakhla, between Mecca and Ta’if, that being with five nights remaining of Ramadhan. The Waqidi reports that in it was the destruction of Souwa’, worshipped by Hudhayl at Rouhat: Amr ibn al-As destroyed it, finding nothing in its treasury; and Manat was destroyed at al-Mouchallal, which the Ansar, its Aws and Khazraj, magnified: Sa’d ibn Zayd al-Achhali destroyed it. We related of this a beneficial chapter at length in the tafsir of the sura of the Star, at the words: Have you seen al-Lat and al-’Uzza, and Manat, the third, the other? (an-Najm, 19-20). The Boukhari mentions, after the conquest of Mecca, the story of the destruction by Jabir of the house worshipped by Khath’am, which they called the Kaaba of the Yemen, imitating the Kaaba of Mecca, which they called the Kaaba of Syria.

The Boukhari reports, from Qays, from Jabir: the Messenger of Allah said to me: "Can you not relieve me of Dhou l-Khalasa?" I said: yes. I set out with a hundred and fifty horsemen of Ahmas, men of horses, and I did not keep to horses: I mentioned that to the Prophet, who struck his hand into my chest until I saw the mark of his hand on my chest, and said: "O Allah, make him firm and make him a guided guide!" And I never fell from a horse after. Dhou l-Khalasa was a house in the Yemen belonging to Khath’am and Bajila, in which was an idol worshipped, called the Kaaba of the Yemen. I came to it, burned it with fire and broke it. When Jabir came to the Yemen there was a man casting divining arrows. It was said to him: the envoy of the Messenger of Allah is here: if he gains power over you he will strike your neck! As he cast them, Jabir stood over him and said: you shall break it and bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, or I shall strike your neck! So he broke it and bore witness. Then Jabir sent a man of Ahmas, surnamed Abou Arta’a, to the Prophet with the glad news; and when he came to the Messenger of Allah he said: O Messenger of Allah, by Him who sent you with truth, I did not come until I had left it like a mangy camel! And the Messenger of Allah blessed the horses of Ahmas and their men five times. Mouslim reports it through multiple routes, from Isma’il ibn Abi Khalid, from Qays ibn Abi Hazim, from Jabir ibn Abdallah al-Bajali, similarly.