الْمَغَازِي

17 Ramaḍān, 2 AH

Three hundred and thirteen against something near a thousand, with two horses among them. He ﷺ stood in the shelter that night with his hands raised until his cloak fell from his shoulders. Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه put it back and said, enough. Quraysh lost seventy dead and seventy captured, and the Qur’an calls the day al-Furqān, the criterion. Captives who could write bought their freedom by teaching ten children of Madinah to read.

خَرَجَ ﷺ فِي ثَلَاثِمِائَةٍ وَبِضْعَةَ عَشَرَ رَجُلًا، فَلَقُوا قُرَيْشًا بِبَدْرٍ، وَبَاتَ يَدْعُو رَبَّهُ حَتَّى سَقَطَ رِدَاؤُهُ، فَنَصَرَهُ اللَّهُ وَقُتِلَ مِنْ صَنَادِيدِ قُرَيْشٍ سَبْعُونَ وَأُسِرَ سَبْعُون.

اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ تَهْلِكْ هَذِهِ الْعِصَابَةُ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْإِسْلَامِ لَا تُعْبَدْ فِي الْأَرْض

O Allah, if this band of the people of Islam perishes, You will not be worshipped on the earth.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Hishām

Shawwāl, 3 AH

Quraysh came back with three thousand. He ﷺ put fifty archers on a hill and told them not to leave it whether the Muslims were winning or being carried off by birds. The battle was won; the archers came down for the spoils; the cavalry came round the hill behind them. Seventy were killed, Ḥamzah رضي الله عنه among them. His own face was cut, a tooth broken, and two rings of his helmet driven into his cheek — and asked to curse them, he asked forgiveness for them instead.

أَقْبَلَتْ قُرَيْشٌ فِي ثَلَاثَةِ آلَافٍ، فَأَقَامَ ﷺ الرُّمَاةَ عَلَى الْجَبَلِ وَنَهَاهُمْ عَنْ مُفَارَقَتِهِ، فَلَمَّا نَزَلُوا دَارَتِ الْخَيْلُ مِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ، وَاسْتُشْهِدَ سَبْعُونَ مِنْهُمْ حَمْزَةُ سَيِّدُ الشُّهَدَاءِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْه.

اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِقَوْمِي فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُون

O Allah, forgive my people, for they do not know.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · al-Wāqidī, al-Maghāzī

Shawwāl, 5 AH

Ten thousand came to finish Madinah. Salmān al-Fārisī رضي الله عنه proposed a trench across the open side of the city, and they dug it in the cold with stones tied to their stomachs against the hunger — and he ﷺ dug with them and was hungrier. A month of siege ended in a wind that tore the confederates’ tents out of the ground in the night. He said afterwards: now we go to them, and they do not come to us.

أَقْبَلَتِ الْأَحْزَابُ فِي عَشَرَةِ آلَافٍ، فَأَشَارَ سَلْمَانُ الْفَارِسِيُّ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ بِحَفْرِ الْخَنْدَقِ، فَحَفَرَهُ الْمُسْلِمُونَ وَالنَّبِيُّ ﷺ مَعَهُمْ، ثُمَّ أَرْسَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ رِيحًا فَانْصَرَفُوا خَائِبِين.

‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏ ‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏ ‏‏ ‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏ ‏

O you who have believed, remember the favor of Allah upon you when armies came to [attack] you and We sent upon them a wind and armies [of angels] you did not see. And ever is Allah, of what you do, Seeing.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Hishām

Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 6 AH

He set out for ʿUmrah with fourteen hundred unarmed men and was turned back at Ḥudaybiyah. The treaty he signed looked like a surrender: go home this year, a ten-year truce, and anyone fleeing Makkah to him must be returned. He even let them strike out “Messenger of Allah” from the document. On the road home Sūrat al-Fatḥ came down calling it a clear opening — and in the two years of peace that followed, more people entered Islam than in all nineteen years before it.

خَرَجَ ﷺ مُعْتَمِرًا فِي أَلْفٍ وَأَرْبَعِمِائَةٍ، فَصُدَّ عَنِ الْبَيْتِ، فَصَالَحَ قُرَيْشًا بِالْحُدَيْبِيَةِ عَلَى شُرُوطٍ ظَاهِرُهَا الْغَبْنُ، فَأَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ: إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا، وَدَخَلَ النَّاسُ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ فِي تِلْكَ الْهُدْنَةِ أَكْثَرَ مِمَّا دَخَلُوا قَبْلَهَا.

‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏ ‏‏ ‏‏‏‏ ‏‏‏‏‏ ‏

Indeed, We have given you, [O Muhammad], a clear conquest

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · az-Zuhrī in Ibn Hishām

6 to 7 AH

From a city that had been under siege the year before, he ﷺ had a silver seal cut and sent letters to Heraclius of Rome, Khosrau of Persia, the Muqawqis of Egypt, the Negus and the Arab kings, calling each of them to Islam in a few lines. Khosrau tore his up. Heraclius questioned Abū Sufyān about him in Jerusalem, got answers that fit a prophet, and kept the letter.

كَتَبَ ﷺ إِلَى مُلُوكِ الْأَرْضِ يَدْعُوهُمْ إِلَى الْإِسْلَامِ: إِلَى هِرَقْلَ وَكِسْرَى وَالْمُقَوْقِسِ وَالنَّجَاشِيِّ وَغَيْرِهِمْ، وَاتَّخَذَ خَاتَمًا مِنْ فِضَّةٍ نَقْشُهُ: مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّه.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Saʿd

Muḥarram, 7 AH

The fortresses of Khaybar, from which the confederates had been raised against Madinah, were taken in under a month. He ﷺ said he would give the banner to a man who loved Allah and His Messenger and whom they loved; he gave it to ʿAlī رضي الله عنه, whose eyes were sore, after wiping them. The land was left in its people’s hands for half its produce.

فَتَحَ ﷺ حُصُونَ خَيْبَرَ، وَأَعْطَى الرَّايَةَ عَلِيًّا رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ بَعْدَ أَنْ تَفَلَ فِي عَيْنَيْهِ فَبَرَأَتَا، وَأَقَرَّ أَهْلَهَا فِي أَرْضِهِمْ عَلَى شَطْرِ مَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim