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

Year 8 opened with the Islam of Amr ibn al-As, Khalid ibn al-Walid and Outhman ibn Talha, in Safar. Followed the letters to the kings with Abou Soufyan questioned before Héraclius, the Ghazwa of Dhat as-Salasil and the army of dried leaves, reduced to a date a day by the seashore. In Joumada fell Mouta, in Ramadhan the conquest of Mecca, in Shawwal Hunayn then the siege of Ta’if, in Dhoul-Qi’da the Umra of Ji’rana. The year closed with the Islam of the poet Ka’b ibn Zouhayr: the Prophet granted him safety when he came repentant, saying: « Leave him be: he has come repentant, breaking with his past. »

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.