them, the tribe agreed to leave Madinah and find another place.
Then, it was the turn of the Quraysh to launch an attack on Madinah. One year after the Battle of Badr, a 3000-strong army marched at speed, aiming to take the Muslims by surprise. The Muslim fighting force numbered only 700. A battle was fought, in which the Muslims initially gained the upper hand; however a battalion positioned on a hill to the rear deserted their position, thinking that the battle was over and victory was assured. This enabled two units of the Quraysh army to launch a counterattack from behind. The Muslim army was thus besieged. A number of the Quraysh fighters had vowed to kill the Prophet, and when the Muslim troops were in chaos as a result of the attack from their rear, those fighters launched a determined attack against him. They injured him and broke his teeth, however, he was defended by a small number of his dedicated Companions and the attack against him was repulsed. This clash, known as the Battle of Uḥud, ended in a military defeat for the Muslims, who lost seventy martyrs (ten percent of their fighting force).
This battle revealed the existence of hypocrites in Madinah. These were people who pretended to be Muslims, but did not really believe in Islam. Their leader, ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy, was able to cause a split in the Muslim ranks before the battle, taking with him no less than 300 men who had initially marched with the army. This reduced the Muslim army to around 700 soldiers, who were left to face a force that was four times their number. The pretext offered by the deserters was absurd, and the Qur’ān quotes their argument: “Had we known there would be a fight, we would certainly have followed you.” (3: 167)
Arguably, in any state based on a coherent set of principles and an ideology, there will always be some people who stand against the system. If their opposition is openly expressed, there is little problem for society. However, where this opposition engages in secret plots to undermine the system, problems arise. When the Prophet established the first Muslim state in Madinah, those of its Arab population who did not accept Islam were of two types: the first were those who continued to reject Islam, making no secret of their stand. No problem was ever recorded with them, either as individuals or as a group. They were large in number initially, but many of them in time decided to embrace Islam, as they began to realize the truth of its message. The second group included those who realized that Islam was gaining in strength and that unless they joined its ranks they would be cut off by their people. Yet, they had no interest in becoming Muslims. Therefore, they pretended to accept Islam, but did not believe in it in reality. These were the hypocrites, and they were to cause the Muslim community significant problems.
The Muslim defeat in the Battle of Uḥud encouraged some tribes to resort to trickery in order to score some success against the Muslim state. Two specific events caused the Prophet and the Muslim community much distress. The first, known as al-Rajīʿ, involved people coming to the Prophet requesting him to send a few of his Companions with them to teach their Muslim people the Qur’ān. He sent six of his Companions, but the group attacked them on the way and killed four of them. Then they sold the other two to the Quraysh, where they were killed in revenge for the soldiers who were killed at Badr. The second involved between forty and seventy Muslims, who were well-versed in the Qur’ān. They travelled to Najd to advocate Islam, after the Prophet had received assurances that they would be under the protection of the local chiefs. However, they were entrapped and killed.
The home front was not always easy for the Muslim state. The next group to pose a problem was the Jewish tribe of al-Naḍīr. They were party to the convention established by the Prophet after his arrival in Madinah, which committed them to certain duties of citizenship. The Prophet wanted to test their commitment to these duties. He went to their quarters with three of his trusted Companions. He asked them for help in the payment of the blood money of two men a Muslim man had killed by mistake. They agreed to help, requesting the Muslim group to sit down while they raised the money. However, they tried to assassinate the Prophet while he sat waiting. The angel Gabriel informed the Prophet of the plot, and he immediately left on his own and headed towards his mosque. He then sent them notice to evacuate the city. He offered for them to take what they wished of their possessions and to appoint agents to manage their farmland. At first they agreed, but then they received word from ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy, the chief hypocrite, promising full support: he even vowed to fight alongside them if the matter came to a battle. Therefore, they rejected the Prophet’s offer. The Prophet laid siege to their forts. As the siege began to take its toll, and they realized that no one would actually come to their support, they agreed to evacuate the city, accepting terms that were much worse than those the Prophet had initially offered. They had to relinquish their farmland, although they destroyed their homes so that the Muslims would not benefit from them.
The success against al-Naḍīr did not prevent some Arabian tribes from trying their luck against the Muslim state. A tribe called al-Muṣṭalaq thought that they could attack Madinah and make easy gains, particularly after the setbacks it suffered. However, the Prophet employed a highly successful tactic, making use of the element of surprise. When he received intelligence of an impending attack, he moved very quickly to neutralize the threat. The Prophet’s tactics never included a surprise attack on any people. Rather, he used surprise to make his presence in force felt so that the enemy would realize that resistance was useless. That would achieve much better results for the Muslims, at little or no cost. This is the approach he adopted for the Muṣṭalaq threat. The Muslims were totally unexpected when they actually appeared at the wells of the Muṣṭalaq tribe. A short battle ensued, before the Muṣṭalaq surrendered, having lost ten of their men.
All these engagements and the victories scored by the Muslim community still did not allow the Muslim state in Madinah to live in peace. They had powerful enemies all over Arabia, who were not prepared to listen to the message of Islam. Even Arabian tribes that lived in remote areas and did not feel concerned with the conflict between the Quraysh and Islam preferred to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. They continued to look at the situation as a conflict between the Quraysh and one of its sons. Those who were actively hostile to Islam began to feel that they must join forces in order to stand any chance of victory. Therefore, an alliance was forged between the Quraysh, the major Arabian tribe of Ghaṭafān, and the Jews. They raised an army of 10,000, which was the largest ever seen in Arabia, and marched towards Madinah, having solemnly pledged to each other that they would exterminate Islam and the Muslim community.
Madinah was vulnerable to attack only from the north. To the east and west of the city there were two wide stretched areas of volcanic rocks that were too difficult for any enemy to traverse. To the south were the date farms of the Anṣār and the forts of the Jewish tribe of Qurayẓah, which were bound by a treaty with the Muslims. The Prophet ordered that a moat should be dug at the northern entrance to Madinah, which should be wide and deep enough to stop the invading army. This was done very quickly, with all Muslims, including the Prophet himself, sharing in the digging and the removal of the dust and stones. By the time the attacking army arrived, the moat was completed and Madinah was well fortified. The attackers could only lay a siege, hoping for the morale of the defenders to collapse.
The first couple of weeks of the siege showed no weakening in the Muslim ranks. The mastermind behind the forging of the alliance, Ḥuyayy ibn Akhṭab (the chief rabbi of the Naḍīr Jews who were evacuated from Madinah eighteen months earlier), worked hard to bring his objective to fulfilment. He went to the Qurayẓah Jews and succeeded in persuading them to join the alliance and to attack the Muslims from the rear: thus, the Muslims would be fighting on two fronts. On learning this, the Muslims responded to the Prophet’s call to show total reliance on God and to place their unwavering trust in Him. Before the Qurayẓah Jews were ready to launch their attack, God sent a violent storm over the area where the allied forces were encamped. This demoralized the unbelievers, as their supplies were already running very low, after having laid siege to Madinah for twenty-seven days. Therefore, the commander of the Quraysh forces, Abū Sufyān, gave orders to withdraw. The Ghaṭafān followed suit. In the morning, the Muslims looked across the moat they had dug and found that the enemy had disappeared.
That left the Qurayẓah Jews, with
