The year nine: Tabouk, the pilgrimage of Abou Bakr and the proclamation of the Baraa

In Rajab of the ninth year of the Hijra, the Prophet set out with nearly thirty thousand men toward Tabouk, against the Byzantines, in violent heat and scarcity that earned the expedition the name of the army of hardship; Outhman ibn Affan spent a thousand dinars, and the Quran rebuked the hypocrites who stayed behind. Abou Bakr led the pilgrimage and Ali proclaimed the Baraa at Mina: « no polytheist shall make pilgrimage after this year, and no naked shall circle the House ». After the conquest of Mecca and the conversion of Thaqif, the delegations of the Arabs came from every side: the year nine was called the year of delegations.

In Rajab of the year nine fell the Ghazwa of Tabouk. Allah Most High says: O you who believe, the polytheists are only impurity: so let them not approach the Sacred Mosque after this their year; and should you fear poverty, Allah will enrich you of His bounty if He wills: Allah is Knowing, Wise. And fight those who believe not in Allah nor in the Last Day, and hold not unlawful what Allah and His messenger have made unlawful, and follow not the religion of truth, of those given the Book, until they give the tribute from hand, being abased (at-Tawba, 28-29). Ibn Abbas, Moujahid, Ikrima, Sa’id ibn Joubayr, Qatada and ad-Dahhak relate that when Allah commanded that the polytheists be barred from drawing near the Sacred Mosque in pilgrimage and otherwise, Quraysh said: our merchants and markets will be cut off from us in the days of pilgrimage, and we shall lose what we gained of them.

Allah compensated them by the command to fight the people of the Book until they embrace Islam or give the tribute from hand, abased. We say: the Messenger of Allah resolved upon fighting the Byzantines, for they were the nearest of people to him and the most worthy of the call to truth, by their nearness to Islam and its people, as Allah said: O you who believe, fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you (at-Tawba, 123).

When the Messenger of Allah resolved upon the campaign against the Byzantines in the year of Tabouk, in fierce heat and straitness of condition, he made the affair known to the people and called the Arab tribes around him to go out with him: a great many answered him, near thirty thousand, while others held back; Allah rebuked those of the hypocrites and slack who stayed without excuse, blaming them, chiding them and reviling them with the harshest reviling, disgracing them with the worst disgrace, and sending down upon them a recited Quran, their affair being set out in the sura of Baraa as we set it out at length in the tafsir; and the believers were commanded to march forth in every case. So the Most High said: March forth, light and heavy, and strive with your wealth and your souls in the path of Allah: that is better for you, did you but know!

Had it been a near gain and an easy journey they would have followed you; but the distance seemed long to them, and they will swear by Allah: had we been able, we would have gone out with you: they destroy their souls, and Allah knows they are liars! And the verses after it. Then the Most High said: The believers should not all go forth: why should not a company of every party go forth, that they may learn the religion and warn their people when they return, haply they may beware? It has been said this abrogates that, and it has been said no: Allah is most knowing.

Ibn Ishaq relates that the Messenger of Allah stayed in Medina from Dhoul-Hijja to Rajab, meaning of the year nine, then commanded the people to prepare for the campaign against the Byzantines. Az-Zouhri, Yazid ibn Rouman, Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr, Asim ibn Omar ibn Qatada and others of our scholars relate, each what reached him, that the Messenger of Allah commanded his companions to prepare for the campaign against the Byzantines, in a time of hardship among the people, of fierce heat and barrenness of the lands, when the fruits had ripened: the people love to stay among their fruit and their shade, and hate going forth in the state they were in. The Messenger of Allah seldom went out to a campaign without veiling it, except the campaign of Tabouk, which he made plain to the people, for the distance of the toil, the severity of the season and the multitude of the enemy aimed at, that the people might prepare: he commanded them jihad and told them he intended the Byzantines.

One day, while equipping for that earnest task, the Messenger of Allah said to Jad ibn Qays, of the Banu Salima: "O Jad, have you this year any fighting against the sons of yellow garments?" He said: O Messenger of Allah, would you permit me and not try me? By Allah, my people know that no man is more infatuated with women than I, and I fear that if I see the women of the sons of yellow garments I shall not endure. The Messenger of Allah turned from him and said: "I permit you." Upon Jad Allah sent down the verse: And among them is he who says: permit me, and try me not: into the trial they have fallen already, and Gehenna shall encompass the unbelievers (at-Tawba, 49). And a people of the hypocrites said one to another: march not forth in the heat: a slackness in jihad, doubt in the truth, and mischief against the Messenger. Allah sent down upon them: And they said: march not forth in the heat! Say: the fire of Gehenna is hotter, did they but understand! So let them laugh a little and weep much, in recompense for what they earned (at-Tawba, 81-82).

Ibn Hicham relates, from a trustworthy narrator, from Mohamed ibn Talha ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abdallah ibn Haritha, from his father, from his grandfather, that it reached the Messenger of Allah that some of the hypocrites gathered in the house of Souwaylim the Jew, near al-Jasoum, holding the people back from the Messenger of Allah in the campaign of Tabouk. He sent Talha ibn Ubaydallah with a party of his companions, commanding him to burn Souwaylim’s house over them. Talha did so: adh-Dhahhak ibn Khalifa forced in from the back of the house and broke his leg, while his companions forced in and escaped. Adh-Dhahhak said: A fire, and the house of Allah, of Mohamed, which adh-Dhahhak and the son of Abou Riq kindle!

I remained, wrapped in the fetter of Souwaylim, hobbling on my broken leg and elbow! Peace on you: to the like of it I return not, fearing that whomever the fire wraps is burned! Ibn Ishaq relates that the Messenger of Allah then laboured in his journey, commanded the people to equip and gird, urged the wealthy to spending and burden-bearing in the path of Allah: men of wealth carried, seeking reward; and Outhman ibn Affan spent a great provision such as none matched. Ibn Hicham relates, from one he trusts, that Outhman spent in the army of hardship, in the campaign of Tabouk, a thousand dinars, and the Messenger of Allah said: "O Allah, be pleased with Outhman:

I am pleased with him." Ahmad reports, from Kathir, freedman of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Samura, that Outhman ibn Affan came to the Prophet with a thousand dinars in his garment when the Prophet equipped the army of hardship. He poured them into the lap of the Prophet, who kept turning them with his hand, saying: "Nothing harms the son of Affan in what he does after this day." The Tirmidhi reports it, judging it good and strange.

Abd ar-Rahman ibn Khabbab as-Soulami relates: the Prophet preached and urged on the army of hardship, and Outhman ibn Affan said: upon me a hundred camels with their harness and tethers. Then he descended a step of the pulpit and urged again, and Outhman said: upon me another hundred with their harness and tethers. And I saw the Messenger of Allah moving his hand thus, like one amazed: "Nothing weighs upon Outhman in what he does after this." The Bayhaqi reports it through Amr ibn Marzouq, from Sakan ibn al-Moughira, saying: three times, and he bound himself to three hundred camels with their harness and tethers, and the Prophet said from the pulpit: "Nothing harms Outhman after it," or "after this day."

Abou Dawoud at-Tayalisi reports that Outhman said to Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, Ali, az-Zoubayr and Talha: I adjure you by Allah: do you know that the Messenger of Allah said: "Whoever equips the army of hardship, Allah forgives him"? And I equipped them until they wanted nothing.

Ibn Ishaq relates: after the arrival of the delegation of Thaqif in Ramadhan, which we set out at length, the Messenger of Allah remained the rest of Ramadhan, then Shawwal and Dhoul-Qi’da; then he sent Abou Bakr commander of the pilgrimage of the year nine, to establish for the Muslims their pilgrimage, while the polytheists were still at their stations of pilgrimage, not yet barred from the House, some having a pact to a term. When Abou Bakr went out with the Muslims with him, and had departed from Medina, Allah sent down these verses from the opening of the sura of the Repentance: Disavowal from Allah and His messenger to the polytheists with whom you covenanted: travel in the land four months; until: and an announcement from Allah and His messenger to the people, on the day of the greater pilgrimage, that Allah is quit of the polytheists, and so is His messenger, to the end of the account. It was said: O Messenger of Allah, would you not send it to Abou Bakr? He said: "None shall convey it on my behalf but a man of my household."

Then he called Ali ibn Abi Talib and said: "Go out with this passage from the opening of the Baraa, and proclaim to the people on the day of immolation, when they gather at Mina:

none enters Paradise but a believer; no polytheist shall make pilgrimage after this year; no naked shall circle the House; and whoever has a covenant with the Messenger of Allah, it stands to its term." Ali ibn Abi Talib went out upon al-’Adhba’, the she-camel of the Messenger of Allah, until he overtook Abou Bakr, who said: commander or charged with a mission? He said: rather charged with a mission. Then they went on: Abou Bakr established for the people the pilgrimage, the Arabs that year being upon their stations of pilgrimage as in the Time of Ignorance; until, on the day of immolation, Ali ibn Abi Talib rose and proclaimed to the people what the Messenger of Allah had commanded, and the people were given four months from the day of the proclamation, that every people might return to their sanctuaries and lands; then no covenant for a polytheist, nor protection, save for one who had a covenant with the Messenger of Allah: it stood to its term.

No polytheist made pilgrimage after that year, and no naked circled the House; then they both came to the Messenger of Allah. This is related without chronological link by this route.

The Boukhari reports, at the chapter of the pilgrimage of Abou Bakr with the people in the year nine, that the Prophet had sent him over it before the pilgrimage of farewell, with a company proclaiming to the people that no polytheist should make pilgrimage after this year, nor circle the House naked. In another place: Abou Bakr sent me in that pilgrimage among the proclaimers, whom he sent on the day of immolation to proclaim at Mina: no polytheist shall make pilgrimage after this year, and no naked shall circle the House. Houmayd said: then the Prophet followed with Ali, commanding him to proclaim the Baraa. Abou Hourayra said: Ali proclaimed with us among the people of Mina, on the day of immolation, the Baraa: no polytheist shall make pilgrimage after this year, and no naked shall circle the House. The Boukhari says in the book of jihad: the day of the greater pilgrimage is the day of immolation; it is called the greater on account of the people’s saying: the lesser pilgrimage.

Abou Bakr cast proclamation among the people in that year, and no polytheist made the pilgrimage of the year of farewell, in which the Messenger of Allah made pilgrimage. Mouslim reports it likewise through az-Zouhri. Ahmad reports, from Moughira, from ach-Cha’bi, from Mouharrir ibn Abi Hourayra, from his father: I was with Ali ibn Abi Talib when the Messenger of Allah sent him. He said: what were you proclaiming?

He said: we proclaimed: none enters Paradise but a believer; no naked circles the House; whoever has a covenant with the Messenger of Allah, its term, or its respite, goes to four months; when the four months have passed, Allah is quit of the polytheists and so is His messenger, and no polytheist shall make pilgrimage to this House after this year. He said: I proclaimed until my voice grew hoarse. We say: the chain is good, but in the narrator’s word, whoever has a covenant, its term goes to four months, is a strangeness: some have held this, but the correct is that whoever has a covenant stands to its term, reaching its full extent even if beyond four months; and whoever has no covenant at all is given four months.

A third category remains: one whose term reaches less than four months from the day of deferral, who may join the first, his term standing though short, or it may be said he is deferred to four months, being more worthy of it than one with no covenant at all. And Allah Most High is most knowing. Ahmad reports, from Affan, from Hammad, from Simak, from Anas ibn Malik, that the Messenger of Allah sent the Baraa with Abou Bakr; and when he reached Dhoul-Hulayfa he said: "None shall convey it but I, or a man of my household." So he sent it with Ali ibn Abi Talib. The Tirmidhi reports it, from Hammad ibn Salama, judging it good and strange from Anas. Abdallah ibn Ahmad reports, from Louwayn, from Mohamed ibn Jabir, from Simak, from Hanach, from Ali, that when the Messenger of Allah followed Abou Bakr with Ali, and he took the letter from him at al-Jouhfa, Abou Bakr returned and said: O Messenger of Allah, has anything come down concerning me? He said: "No; but Jibril came to me and said: none shall convey it on your behalf but you, or a man of you."

That is weak of chain, and its text has strangeness. And Allah is most knowing. Ahmad reports, from Soufyan, from Abou Ishaq, from Zayd ibn Yuthi’, a man of Hamdan, who said: we asked Ali with what he was sent, the day the Messenger of Allah sent him with Abou Bakr in the pilgrimage. He said: with four: none enters Paradise but a believing soul; no naked circles the House; whoever has a covenant with the Messenger of Allah, his covenant stands to its term; and the polytheists and Muslims shall not make pilgrimage after this their year. The Tirmidhi reports it likewise, judging it good and authentic. Ibn Jarir reports it, from Ma’mar, from Abou Ishaq, from al-Harith, from Ali. The Waqidi reports that there had gone out with Abou Bakr from Medina three hundred of the companions, among them Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf; Abou Bakr went out with five sacrificial beasts, and the Messenger of Allah sent with him twenty beasts; then he followed him with Ali, who overtook him at al-’Arj and proclaimed the Baraa before the sanctuary.

In this year nine there occurred: the Ghazwa of Tabouk in Rajab; the death of the Negus of Abyssinia in Rajab, which the Messenger of Allah announced to the people; the death of Oum Koulthoum, daughter of the Messenger of Allah, in Cha’bane: Asma bint Oumays and Safiyya bint Abd al-Muttalib washed her, or it is said women of the Ansar washed her, among them Oum Atiyya. That is established in the two Sahihs; and it is established in the hadith also that when he prayed over her and intended to bury her, he said: "None shall enter her grave tonight who has shared the bed of his wife tonight." Her husband Outhman therefore abstained, and Abou Talha al-Ansari buried her. We say: he may have meant by this word those who took charge of that, of the companions who volunteered in digging and burial, like Abou Oubayda and Abou Talha and their like, saying: none shall enter her grave but one of these who has not shared his wife’s bed: for it is far-fetched that Outhman had no wife besides Oum Koulthoum, daughter of the Messenger of Allah.

That is remote, and Allah is most knowing. In it also made peace the king of Ayla, the people of Jarba and Adhrouh and the lord of Doumat al-Jandal, as all that was clarified in its places. In it was destroyed the mosque of harm, which a company of the hypocrites had built in the image of a mosque, a house of war within: he ordered it, and it was burned. In Ramadhan of it came the delegation of Thaqif, who made peace for their people and returned to them with safe-conduct, and al-Lat was broken, as has come; and in it died Abdallah ibn Oubay ibn Saloul, chief of the hypocrites, whom Allah cursed, at the end of it; before him by some months died Mouawiya ibn Mouawiya al-Laythi, or al-Muzani, over whom the Messenger of Allah prayed while encamped at Tabouk, if the report be sound; in it Abou Bakr made pilgrimage with the people by the leave of the Messenger of Allah; and in it came the delegations of the Arab tribes generally: wherefore the year nine was named the year of delegations.