The prayer raised to four, the call to prayer and the first expeditions

Ibn Jarir reports that in this first year of the Hijra, according to some, two rak’a were added to the settled prayer, which had been like the travelling prayer of two rak’a: that took place a month after the Prophet’s arrival in Medina, in Rabi’ al-Akhir, after twelve nights of it. The Waqidi claims there is no disagreement among the people of the Hijaz on it. Now the Boukhari has already reported, from Ma’mar, from az-Zouhri, from Urwa, from Aïcha: the prayer was first prescribed as two rak’a; the travelling prayer was confirmed, and additions were made to the settled prayer. Ach-Cha’bi likewise reports it, through Masrouq, from her. The Bayhaqi relates from al-Hasan al-Basri that the settled prayer, when first prescribed, was prescribed as four. And Allah is most knowing: we have treated this in the tafsir of the chapter of the Women, at the words: when you travel through the land, no blame upon you to shorten the prayer (an-Nisa, 101).

Ibn Ishaq reports: when the Messenger of Allah was settled in Medina, and his emigrant brothers had gathered to him, and the affair of the Ansar was consolidated, the affair of Islam was strengthened: prayer was established, the zakat and the fast were prescribed, the legal punishments were instituted, the lawful and unlawful were prescribed, and Islam took hold among them. Now the people used to gather to the Messenger of Allah for prayer only at the times of prayer, without any call. The Messenger of Allah considered using a horn like the horn of the Jews, by which they called to prayer, but disliked it; he ordered a wooden bell which was carved for striking to call the Muslims to prayer; and while they were upon that, Abdallah ibn Zayd ibn Tha’laba ibn Abd Rabbih, brother of Balharith ibn al-Khazraj, beheld the call. He came to the Messenger of Allah and said: O Messenger of Allah, a visitor encircled me this night: a man wearing two green garments, carrying a bell in his hand.

I said: O servant of Allah, will you sell me this bell? He said: what would you do with it? I said: we shall call to prayer by it. He said: shall I not point you to better?

I said: and what is it? He said: you will say:

Allah is greater, Allah is greater, Allah is greater, Allah is greater; I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah; I bear witness that Mohamed is the Messenger of Allah, I bear witness that Mohamed is the Messenger of Allah; come to prayer, come to prayer; come to success, come to success; Allah is greater, Allah is greater; there is no deity but Allah. When he informed the Messenger of Allah of it, he said: "It is a true vision, if Allah wills. Rise with Bilal, convey it to him, and let him call to prayer by it: his voice is more sonorous than yours." When Bilal made the call, Oumar ibn al-Khattab heard it in his house: he went out dragging his cloak to the Messenger of Allah, saying: O Prophet of Allah, by Him who sent you with truth, I saw the like of what he saw!

The Messenger of Allah said: "Praise belongs to Allah." Mohamed ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Harith reported this hadith from Mohamed ibn Abdallah ibn Zayd ibn Tha’laba, from his father. Abou Dawoud, the Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and Ibn Khuzayma reported it through routes from Ibn Ishaq, and the Tirmidhi and Ibn Khuzayma declared it authentic. Abou Dawoud mentions that the Prophet also taught him the second call, which repeats the same formulas with the addition: prayer has begun, prayer has begun.

Ibn Majah reports this hadith through Abou Oubayd, from Mohamed ibn Salama al-Harrani, from Ibn Ishaq, who adds the poem that Abdallah ibn Zayd composed on that occasion: "I have praised Allah, the Owner of majesty and honour, in abundant praises for the call; the bearer of glad news brought it to me from Allah, and I honoured in it the bearer of glad news; he visited me over nights, turning away after three, and each visit increased my reverence." We say: this poem is strange, and it implies that he saw it over three nights before informing the Messenger of Allah. Allah is most knowing. Az-Zouhri reports from Sa’id ibn al-Moussayyab, from Abdallah ibn Zayd, a version like that of Ibn Ishaq without the poem.

And Ibn Majah reports through az-Zouhri, from Salim, from his father, that the Messenger of Allah consulted the people about what occupied them toward prayer: they mentioned the horn, and he disliked it because of the Jews; then the wooden bell, and he disliked it because of the Christians; then the call was shown that night to a man of the Ansar called Abdallah ibn Zayd and to Oumar ibn al-Khattab. The Ansari knocked at the door of the Messenger of Allah by night, and the Messenger of Allah ordered Bilal to make the call. Az-Zouhri adds that Bilal added to the dawn call: prayer is better than sleep, twice, and the Messenger of Allah confirmed it. Oumar said: O Messenger of Allah, I saw the like of what he saw, but he preceded me.

As for the hadith related by as-Souhayli, through the Bazzar, that on the night of the Night Journey an angel came out from behind the veil and pronounced this call, each word confirmed by Allah, then took the hand of Mohamed and set him forward, seating him before the people of heaven, among them Adam and Nouh: that hadith is not authentic as as-Souhayli claimed, but rejected: it is reported only through Ziyad ibn al-Moundir Abou al-Jaroud, after whom the Jarudite sect is named, and who is among the accused narrators. Moreover, had the Messenger of Allah heard that call on the night of the Night Journey, he would most likely have commanded it after the emigration for the call to prayer. And Allah is most knowing. Ibn Jourayj reports from Oubayd ibn Oumayr that the Prophet and his companions resolved upon the wooden bell for gathering to prayer; while Oumar was seeking to buy two boards for the bell, he saw in a dream:

do not take the wooden bell, but call to prayer. Oumar went to the Prophet to inform him of what he saw, and revelation had already come with that: Oumar was startled only to find Bilal calling to prayer, and the Messenger of Allah said to him when he told him: "The revelation has preceded you." That indicates that revelation came confirming what Abdallah ibn Zayd saw, as some have stated plainly. And Allah Most High is most knowing. Ibn Ishaq finally reports, from a woman of the Banu an-Najjar: my house was among the highest around the mosque, and Bilal used to make the dawn call to prayer upon it. He would come in the early dawn, sit on the house waiting for dawn; when he saw it, he would stretch, then say: "O Allah, I praise You and seek Your aid against Quraysh, that they may establish Your religion." Then he would make the call. By Allah, I never knew him to omit those words a single night. Abou Dawoud alone reports it.

The Waqidi claims that the Messenger of Allah, in this year, in the month of Ramadhan, at the head of the seventh month, appointed Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib over thirty emigrants with a white banner carried by Abou Marthad al-Ghanawi, to ambush the caravans of Quraysh. Hamza met Abou Jahl at the head of three hundred Qurayshites, and Majdi ibn Amr intervened between the two, and there was no fighting. He also reports that the Prophet, at the head of the eighth month, in Shawwal, appointed Oubayda ibn al-Harith with a white banner carried by Moustah ibn Outhatha, ordering him to march toward the belly of Rabigh: they reached Thaniyyat al-Murra, near al-Jouhfa, in seventy or eighty emigrants, no Ansari among them; and they exchanged arrows with the polytheists at a water called Ahya, without sword play: Oubayda ibn al-Harith exchanged arrows with an-Nadr ibn al-Harith. The Waqidi says the polytheists were two hundred, under Abou Soufyan Sakhr ibn Harb: that is what is established with us; it is also said they were under Mikraz ibn Hafs.

He finally reports that in Dhoul-Qi’da of this first year, the Messenger of Allah appointed Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas as far as al-Kharrar, with a white banner carried by al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad.

Abou Bakr ibn Isma’il reports from Amir ibn Sa’d, from his father: I went out with twenty men, or twenty-one, on foot, hiding by day and marching by night, until we surprised al-Kharrar on the fifth morning. The Messenger of Allah had enjoined me not to pass beyond it, but the caravan had outstripped me by a day. The Waqidi says: the caravan numbered sixty, and those with Sa’d were all emigrants. Abou Ja’far Ibn Jarir reports that according to Ibn Ishaq, these three expeditions, which the Waqidi mentions, all belong to the second year of the Hijra.

We say: the statement of Ibn Ishaq, as Abou Ja’far relates it, is not explicit for whoever considers it: it is possible that these expeditions took place in the first year, and we shall set them out in detail in their place, at the beginning of the book of campaigns of the second year. The Waqidi holds beautiful additional material and a chronology mostly established: for he is one of the great imams of this science, truthful yet profuse, as we have treated of his equity and criticism in our book entitled at-Takmil fi ma’rifat ath-thiqat wad-du’afa’ wal-majahil. And to Allah belong praise and favour.