from Bakr, supported by a number of the Quraysh nobility, launched a night raid against Khuzāʿah and killed twenty of their people. In response, the Khuzāʿah sent a delegation to Madinah, reporting the attack to the Prophet and appealing to him for support. The Prophet considered this attack a flagrant breach of the treaty and pledged his support.
In Makkah, the Quraysh recognized that their action was totally unwarranted and that they needed to take speedy action in order to avoid retaliatory action by the Muslims. Therefore, their leader, Abū Sufyān, travelled to Madinah on a mission of appeasement. However, the Prophet did not accept his apology and the leading Companions of the Prophet told Abū Sufyān frankly that they would only do what the Prophet bid them, and would not take action on their own initiative in such a matter of state. Thus he went back home having totally failed to achieve his purpose.
The Prophet then ordered mobilization, but he ensured that the Quraysh remained unaware of his plans. He sent a request to all tribes that had recently become Muslim to join his army, and they all sent strong contingents. The Muslim army was the largest ever, close to 10,000. This army moved quietly, without being detected, until it reached a place called Marr al-Ẓahrān, which is close to Makkah. The Prophet’s tactic now was to psychologically overwhelm the Quraysh. He therefore ordered that his army light as many fires as possible during the night. As a result, when Abū Sufyān and a couple of the elders of Makkah went out looking for news they saw the fires and were perturbed. Soon they met al-ʿAbbās, the Prophet’s uncle, who had been looking for someone to carry a message to the Quraysh. He wanted them to come over and negotiate peace with the Prophet. Al-ʿAbbās took Abū Sufyān to the Prophet. After a hard discussion, Abū Sufyān declared himself a Muslim. The Prophet offered for the people of Makkah to stay indoors, or in the mosque, or in Abū Sufyān’s home, so that they would not be harmed.
The Prophet separated his army into four divisions as it moved into Makkah, which allowed them to enter the city from four directions. His commanders were under strict orders not to fight anyone unless they were attacked. The Muslim army moved in and Makkah surrendered. There was very little fighting against the division commanded by Khālid ibn al-Walīd. The Prophet, accompanied by many of his Companions, performed the circumambulation (ṭawāf), around the Kaʿbah, which is a form of Islamic worship. He had a stick in his hand. All around the Kaʿbah, the Quraysh had their idols which they worshipped. The Prophet pushed these with his stick. When he pushed an idol in the back, it fell on its face, and when it touched one in the front, it fell on its back. He then had all the idols and all the symbols of idolatry removed from the Kaʿbah, claiming the shrine for Islam forever.
Two days later, he addressed the people of Makkah. He asked them: “What do you think I will do with you?” They said: “All goodness. You are a noble brother and your father was a noble brother” He responded: “You may all go as you please. You are all pardoned.”3 Before entering Makkah, the Prophet had named around twenty people who were to be killed wherever they were found. In the event, those of them who came to him personally, or escorted by a Muslim, to seek pardon were also pardoned. Only four of them were killed. Obviously, these were among the most hardened enemies of Islam.
The people of Makkah began to see Islam and the Muslims in a fresh light. Their pagan beliefs stood no comparison with Islam, and those with Muslim relatives discussed the changes that Islam brought about in their lives and soon felt that the only right course of action was to follow their lead. People came to the Prophet individually or in groups to declare their acceptance of Islam. Although not everyone in Makkah had a complete change of heart, as days went on, the change was taking hold of them and Makkah was fast becoming Muslim.
The fall of Makkah to Islam, however, did not mean that all danger from the pagan Arabs was over. A number of major tribes maintained the worship of idols and were ready to attack the Muslim state. When he was still in Makkah, the Prophet learned that the Hawāzin, a very large Arab tribe, was raising an army to fight him, with the support of the Thaqīf, another major tribe who lived in the city of Taif. As the Prophet had his army intact, he moved to meet the Hawāzin. His army swelled by another 2000 from Makkah, most of whom had converted to Islam only after Makkah had fallen to Islam. Some were still pagans, but they joined in, feeling that the Muslims would score an easy victory and would give them a share of the spoils of war.
The two sides met at the valley of Ḥunayn, but the Hawāzin were more familiar with the area and they arrived at the valley where they took their positions before the Muslims had arrived. The valley had a narrow entrance and the Muslim army had to pass through it. The Hawāzin stationed a large number of their best marksmen at a high level near the front and the back of the entrance, and as the front unit of the Muslim army moved through the entrance, which was in the still-dark hours before dawn, the marksmen started showering them with arrows, killing a good number of them. Soon confusion arose in the Muslim army and some of the units began to retreat, clashing with the advancing units. This was a terrible situation: however the Prophet remained steadfast, with only a small number of his Companions. One of these was his uncle, al-ʿAbbās, who had a loud voice. The Prophet told him to call on the Anṣār and on the Muhājirūn. As they heard the call, they immediately responded, moving towards the voice. Soon, a small unit had gathered around the Prophet, with more men coming forward. They were able to withstand the Hawāzin onslaught and then to advance, forcing the Hawāzin on the retreat. Although the Muslim army had suffered an initial setback, the Prophet had managed to turn things around and cause confusion among the Hawāzin. The Hawāzin commander, Mālik ibn ʿAwf, committed a blunder in his preparations for the battle: despite advice to the contrary, he ordered his people to bring their women, children, and animals with them, as he assumed the people would fight much harder in order to defend their folk and property. When the Hawāzin’s defeat became irreversible, their fighters fled, leaving their women, children, cattle and property, which became spoils of war to be taken by the Muslims.
The Prophet then laid siege to Taif, where the other major tribe of Thaqīf lived. They were in collaboration with Hawāzin, so it was necessary to deal with them. However, the siege did not lead to any decisive outcome. Realizing that the people of Taif could stand a very long siege, as their supplies and water resources were to their rear, the Prophet thought it better to leave without forcing a showdown. He hoped that the people of Taif would have a better view once they had considered their options. Therefore, he ordered his army to depart.
People in the Muslim camp, particularly those who were newcomers to Islam, wanted the Prophet to divide the spoils of war that had been gained at Ḥunayn without delay. The Islamic rule assigns eighty percent of the spoils of war to be shared out by the army and twenty percent go to the state to look after orphans and people in need. The Prophet, however, wanted to delay such division, particularly in respect of the prisoners of war, who included the Hawāzin women and children. According to the universal rules of the day, these could become slaves, and the Prophet did not want that situation to occur. Eventually, the elders of Hawāzin came and appealed to him, pressing their old relation with him. The tribe of Saʿd ibn Bakr (to whom Ḥalīmah, his wet nurse, belonged) was a branch of Hawāzin. They said that had they suffered a defeat at the hands of the Persian or the Byzantine Emperors and they had such a relationship with them, they would have hoped for their kind treatment. The Prophet told them to choose either their women and children or their property. They chose their women and children. The Prophet ensured that all their womenfolk and children were freed and given back to them. The Muslims kept the cattle and the money, which were divided among the soldiers. Out of the one-fifth share of the state, the Prophet gave very generous gifts to some of the chiefs of Makkah and other tribes. He wanted to bring them wholeheartedly into the camp of Islam.
No such gifts were given to anyone of the Muhājirūn or the Anṣār, and the latter felt uneasy about this. Their chief, Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, raised the matter with the Prophet. The Prophet appealed to their faith and sense of sacrifice. He then put the issue in the correct perspective: that which he had gifted was a “mere trifling of worldly luxury.” They had their faith. The contrast could not be more marked: others went back home with sheep and cattle,
