The Conquest of Makkah

For roughly a century the Khuza'a and the Banu Bakr had fought on and off, much like the pre-Islamic feud between the Aws and the Khazraj. When the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah permitted each side (the Quraysh and the Muslims) to form alliances with other tribes under the treaty's protections, the Khuza'a (most of whom were by then Muslim) joined the Muslims' side, while the Banu Bakr, the only pagan tribe remaining in the vicinity of Makkah, joined the Quraysh. In the 8th year of the Hijrah, the Banu Bakr sought Quraysh permission for one raid to settle old scores of revenge and take plunder; the Quraysh not only agreed but some of them (including Suhayl ibn Amr and Safwan ibn Umayyah) supplied weapons, reportedly for a share of the spoils, reasoning that a night attack would never be traced back to them. The Banu Bakr surprised the Khuza'a encampment at al-Watir, a pond outside the Haram boundary, expecting to slip away with camels and a little plunder; instead the alarm was raised and a fight broke out, leaving more than twenty Khuza'a dead, including women and children. One man of the Khuza'a fled into the sanctuary of the Haram and called out for his pursuer to fear Allah, but the man from the Banu Bakr answered, "There is no God today," and killed him there regardless.

Placed here because: Ep. 76: "The Banu Bakr Violates the Term of the Treaty"; dated shortly before Ramadan 8 AH.

News of the massacre at al-Watir reached the Khuza'a's chieftain, Amr ibn Salim al-Khuza'i, who led a delegation of 40 men to Madinah to seek the Prophet ﷺ's help. He recited a one-page poem before the Prophet ﷺ, recorded in Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham, invoking the ancient covenant (Hilf) his own father had made with the Prophet ﷺ's grandfather Abdul Muttalib, that the two tribes would stand as one against anyone who caused the other distress, "as long as the generations proceed"; he also invoked the shared ancestress the two tribes had through Qusayy ibn Kilab, and the Khuza'a's standing as allies of the Muslims under the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, before describing how the Banu Bakr had fallen on his people while they were bowing and prostrating in prayer. Moved by the poem, the Prophet ﷺ promised to help, and later, seeing a cloud on the horizon, took it as a good omen of victory for the Khuza'a (also called Banu Ka'b). Most scholars hold that the Prophet ﷺ then took the Banu Bakr's attack as an automatic breach of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and began marching on Makkah without any further negotiation with the Quraysh; well within his rights, since the Quraysh had knowingly broken the treaty. A report graded mursal sahih by Ibn Hajar and others instead holds that the Prophet ﷺ first sent the Quraysh an ultimatum: sever ties with the Banu Bakr and pay the blood money for the twenty dead (2,000 camels), or face war. On this account, the Quraysh refused both conditions outright: the blood money alone would have ruined them, and they argued the Banu Bakr were the only tribe left in the region still on their own religion.

Placed here because: Ep. 76: the Khuza'a rider reminds the Prophet ﷺ of "the treaty of Abdul Muttalib with his own grandfather."

With no resolution reached, Abu Sufyan (with Quraysh's approval) travelled alone to Madinah to try to renegotiate the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. Accounts differ on the order of his visits: Ibn Ishaq has him go first to the Prophet ﷺ, who gave him no response at all, and only then to Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al-Khattab, and Ali ibn Abi Talib in turn; Ibn Sa'd instead has him visit Abu Bakr, Umar, and Ali first, going to the Prophet ﷺ last (Sh. Yasir Qadhi favors Ibn Ishaq's version). Abu Bakr, his old friend from the days of Jahiliyyah, refused to help him. Umar, his former business partner, refused even more bluntly. Ali, his third cousin and the closest relative to him in Madinah, would not intervene with the Prophet ﷺ's decision either, though he heard Abu Sufyan out and, when Abu Sufyan tried appealing through Ali's young son Hasan and then through Fatima directly, advised him as a last resort to make a public plea for protection in the mosque; protection which, under Arab custom, any Muslim (male, female, young, or unable to fight) had standing to grant. Abu Sufyan did so, but no one came forward, since the Prophet ﷺ himself had said nothing. Before leaving Madinah, Abu Sufyan visited his daughter Umm Habiba, a wife of the Prophet ﷺ whom he had not seen in over 13 years since her emigration to Abyssinia; she refused to let him, a mushrik, sit on the Prophet ﷺ's own bedding. Abu Sufyan returned to Makkah empty-handed and was mocked by the Quraysh for having had to beg publicly in the mosque.

Placed here because: A few weeks before the march; the Quraysh sent him once they realised what the raid had cost them.

After the Prophet ﷺ announced that the army would march on Makkah, Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah RA, whose family had remained behind in Makkah protected by no tribe, paid a mawla-lady of Banu Hashim to smuggle a warning letter to the Quraysh, hidden in the braids of her hair. Jibril AS told the Prophet ﷺ exactly where to find her; he sent Ali ibn Abi Talib RA and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam RA to Rawdatu Khakh outside Madinah, where they overtook her caravan. She denied carrying anything until Ali RA swore that neither the Prophet ﷺ nor Jibril AS could have been mistaken and threatened to search her by force: at which point, asking them first to turn around out of modesty, she untied her hair and handed over the letter.

Placed here because: Told in Ep. 77 as the army prepares to leave; the rider was caught on the road south of Madinah.

Barely two days out from Madinah on the march to the Conquest of Makkah, at the valley of Juhfa, the Muslim army encountered al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, the Prophet ﷺ's uncle, who had set out from Makkah to make hijrah with his family, unaware the Conquest was already underway.

Placed here because: Al-Abbas met the army at Juhfa, two days out from Madinah, and turned back with it.

At Marr al-Zahran (later known as Wadi Fatima), the final camping station of the Muslim army before the Conquest of Makkah, the army lit ten thousand fires. Al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, newly reunited with the army, went out that night to persuade the Quraysh to submit peacefully and encountered three Quraysh and Khuza'a leaders keeping watch, among them Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the last senior chief left in Makkah. Al-Abbas RA brought Abu Sufyan into the camp on the Prophet ﷺ's own mule, Duldul, past Umar ibn al-Khattab RA, who wanted him executed on the spot; the Prophet ﷺ had Abu Sufyan spend the night in al-Abbas RA's tent, and the next morning Abu Sufyan reluctantly accepted Islam. The Prophet ﷺ then declared that whoever entered the Haram, stayed in their own home, or entered the house of Abu Sufyan would be safe, and had al-Abbas RA show Abu Sufyan the army marching past tribe by tribe, at which Abu Sufyan marveled at its scale.

Placed here because: The night before the entry, at the last camp outside Makkah.

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah had permitted either side to form alliances with outside tribes, with Hudaybiyyah's own terms extending automatically to any tribe that joined. The Khuza'a (kin to the Prophet ﷺ through his great-great-great-grandmother and bound to Banu Hashim by an old alliance of Abdul Muttalib's) took the side of the Muslims; the Banu Bakr took the side of the Quraysh. In the 8th year of the Hijrah, the Banu Bakr (with old blood-scores to settle, helped with weapons by the Quraysh, some of whom fought beside them secretly by night; Hassan ibn Thabit's verses lay the blame on Suhayl ibn Amr and Safwan ibn Umayyah) raided the Khuza'a by night at the pond of al-Watir, just outside the Haram boundary. Men of Khuza'a were killed and the rest driven into the sacred area, and when his own men reminded the Bakri leader Nawfal ibn Mu'awiyah that they were inside the Haram, he answered that he had no god that day. The Khuza'a chieftain Amr ibn Salim al-Khuza'i went to Madinah and recited a poem invoking the old treaty and the massacre in the same breath; moved, the Prophet ﷺ promised, "You shall be helped, O Amr ibn Salim." Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, sent to renegotiate on the Quraysh's behalf, found every door in Madinah closed to him (Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab RA both refused to intercede, Ali ibn Abi Talib RA and his infant son Hasan could offer him nothing, and even his own daughter Umm Habiba RA would not let him sit on the Prophet ﷺ's bedding) and he returned to Makkah having secured nothing. The Prophet ﷺ called for a full mobilization without naming its destination, telling no one (not even Abu Bakr RA or Aisha RA) where the army was headed, and, by some reports, sending a small decoy party of eight men north toward Batn Idam to suggest Syria was the target. Then he told the people he was going to Makkah, and prayed, "O Allah, take eyes and ears from the Quraysh so that we may take them by surprise in their land." It was then that Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah RA (a Badr veteran, by the strongest opinion a mawla from Yemen whose family had no protecting tribe in Makkah) paid a mawla-lady of Banu Hashim to smuggle a warning letter to the Quraysh, hidden in her hair braids. News of it came to the Prophet ﷺ from heaven, and he told them where to find her; Ali ibn Abi Talib RA and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam RA overtook her caravan at Rawdatu Khakh outside Madinah. She denied carrying anything until Ali swore neither the Prophet ﷺ nor Jibril AS could have been mistaken and threatened to search her by force: at which point, asking them first to turn around out of modesty, she untied her hair and handed over the letter. Confronted, Hatib confessed and explained that his loyalty to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ had never wavered; he had acted only out of fear for his unprotected family, not love of the Quraysh. Umar ibn al-Khattab RA twice asked to execute him as a traitor; the Prophet ﷺ pardoned him both times, telling Umar that Allah may have already forgiven every participant of Badr, reducing Umar to tears, and declared, "Hatib has spoken the truth. Nobody should say anything about Hatib anymore except good." Allah then revealed the opening of Surah al-Mumtahanah (Qur'an 60:1), instructing the believers not to take His enemies as allies. The army moved with remarkable speed: it left Madinah on the 10th of Ramadan and reached the outskirts of Makkah on the 19th, nine days for a force that had swollen past 10,000 as the Muhajirun and Ansar marched to a man and allied tribes such as the Muzayna and Banu Sulaym joined along the way; barely six years after only 300 Muslims had fought at Badr. On reaching al-Kadid, between Usfan and Qudaid, the Prophet ﷺ broke his Ramadan fast and the army with him. At the valley of Juhfa the army encountered al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, the Prophet ﷺ's uncle, riding out from Makkah to make his own Hijrah with his family, unaware the Conquest was already underway; by a weak report the Prophet ﷺ called him the last of the Muhajirun. At Niq al-Uqab, between Makkah and Madinah, two of the Prophet ﷺ's first cousins who had long mocked and opposed him (the poet Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith ibn Abdul Muttalib RA and Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah RA, brother of Umm Salama RA) came out to seek an audience; the Prophet ﷺ at first refused to see them, saying that one had wounded his pride and the other had insulted him in Makkah, and only relented, moved, when Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith threatened with his young son at his side to go and die in the desert rather than be turned away. Both accepted Islam. At the final camping station of Marr al-Zahran, later known as Wadi Fatima, the army's camp fires lit up the plain. Al-Abbas RA, newly reunited with the army and anxious to spare his people needless bloodshed, went out that night to persuade the Quraysh to submit peacefully, and encountered three Quraysh and Khuza'a leaders out looking for news: Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, Hakim ibn Hizam and Budayl ibn Warqa'. Al-Abbas brought Abu Sufyan into the camp on the Prophet ﷺ's own white mule, past Umar ibn al-Khattab RA, who wanted him executed on the spot; the Prophet ﷺ had Abu Sufyan spend the night in al-Abbas's tent, and the next morning, pressed by both men, Abu Sufyan reluctantly testified to the shahada. The Prophet ﷺ then declared that whoever entered the Haram, stayed in their own home, or entered the house of Abu Sufyan would be safe, and had al-Abbas show him the army marching past tribe by tribe. Abu Sufyan marveled at its scale and remarked to al-Abbas, "The kingdom of your nephew has become great"; al-Abbas corrected him, "It is not a kingdom. It is prophethood." The final entry came on the morning of the 20th of Ramadan, with the people of Makkah still unaware of what was upon them, a secrecy so complete over a force of more than 10,000 that it was remembered as nothing short of miraculous. The Prophet ﷺ divided the army at Dhu Tuwa: Zubayr ibn al-Awwam RA on the left, Sa'd ibn Ubadah RA with the Ansar, Khalid ibn al-Walid RA on the right with Aslam, Sulaym, Ghifar, Muzayna, Juhayna and other Arab tribes, and Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah RA leading the troops ahead of the Prophet ﷺ (Ibn Ishaq). As Sa'd ibn Ubadah passed Abu Sufyan he called out, "Today is the day of a great battle, and today the Ka'bah will be made lawful!" Abu Sufyan reported it to the Prophet ﷺ, who said that Sa'd was wrong: today Allah would honour the Ka'bah, and today it would be covered (al-Bukhari). By Ibn Ishaq's account the Prophet ﷺ had the banner taken from Sa'd and given to Ali RA; in al-Bukhari, Zubayr RA carried the Prophet ﷺ's own flag. Al-Abbas RA then sent Abu Sufyan back into the city to warn the Quraysh not to fight; Abu Sufyan ran through the streets calling, "Come to my house and you will be safe!": to the fury of his still-pagan wife Hind bint Utbah, who seized him by the moustache and called for him to be killed as a wretched protector of his people, but Abu Sufyan held his ground and, pressed on what one house could do for the whole city, spelled out the fuller terms of safety: the Haram, one's own home, or his own house. Entering Makkah from east and west, the Prophet ﷺ ordered that no one be killed unless attacked, naming only a small number of individuals excepted from this general amnesty. A handful of Quraysh under Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal, Safwan ibn Umayyah, and Suhayl ibn Amr made a brief, doomed stand in the alleys of the city; about twelve or thirteen of the Quraysh were killed, and two or three men of Khalid ibn al-Walid RA's cavalry, and resistance collapsed. The Prophet ﷺ then entered the city on his camel in armor, his head bowed so low it nearly touched the camel's back, reciting Surah al-Fath (Qur'an 48:1); he rode to the Ka'bah and performed tawaf on his camel, striking with his stick at the 360 idols around it, which fell, while reciting, "Truth has come, and falsehood has departed" (Qur'an 17:81). He then had Uthman ibn Talha bring the key, and cleared the Ka'bah of the idols and images inside, including one of Ibrahim AS with divination arrows, saying, "May Allah curse them! By Allah, neither Ibrahim nor Isma'il practised divination by arrows." (Al-Azraqi, quoting Ibn Ishaq, also reports pictures of Jesus and Mary.) He is also reported to have prayed inside the Ka'bah, with Bilal RA beside him; Bilal RA said he prayed two rak'ahs between the pillars, while Ibn Abbas RA reported that he did not pray inside. He once told Aisha RA that were it not for the Quraysh being new to Islam, he would have rebuilt the Ka'bah on Ibrahim AS's original foundation and lowered its door to the ground, a renovation he chose, even now, not to force through. Speaking from the door of the Ka'bah, the Prophet ﷺ declared, "There is no God but Allah alone. He has fulfilled His promise, and He has aided His servant, and He has destroyed all the enemies by Himself," abolished every claim of Jahiliyyah except the custodianship of the Ka'bah and the feeding of pilgrims, and recited Qur'an 49:13 on the equality of mankind before Allah. Asked what he intended to do with them, the assembled Quraysh answered, "Good. You are a noble brother, son of a noble brother," and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Go your way, for you are the freed ones" (Ibn Ishaq); some tellings add Yusuf AS's words, "No blame on you today" (Qur'an 12:92). Ali ibn Abi Talib RA asked whether the Ka'bah's custodianship (sadana) and the pilgrims' feeding (siqaya) might both be given to Banu Hashim; the Prophet ﷺ instead called for Uthman ibn Talha and said, "Here is your key; today is a day of good faith" (Ibn Ishaq; other reports link it to Qur'an 4:58), a custodianship that has remained with his clan, the Banu Abd al-Dar, ever since. In the conquest's immediate aftermath, the Prophet ﷺ by one report permitted the Khuza'a until Asr to retaliate against the Banu Bakr, then forbade any further bloodshed in the Haram; when men of Khuza'a killed Ibn al-Athwa' of Hudhayl the next day, the Prophet ﷺ told them to stop, paid the blood money himself, ruled that after that a victim's family could choose retaliation or blood money, and stressed that Allah alone had permitted him, and only briefly, to fight within the sanctuary. Unusually among conquests in human history, no war booty, prisoners, or land were taken, and almost no fighting occurred at all. Of the whole city, only a small number of individuals were denied amnesty by name, and the lists differ: Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal, who fled to Yemen meaning to sail for Abyssinia, turned to Islam at the sea (in Ibn Ishaq because the ship's master demanded belief in one God, in other tellings during a storm), came back under the protection his wife Umm Hakim obtained for him, and later died a martyr fighting the Romans; Abdullah ibn Khatal, executed after clinging to the Ka'bah's curtain for protection, having killed the Muslim freedman who served him and turned murtad; Miqyas ibn Subaba, executed for assassinating a sahabi in revenge for his brother's accidental death at al-Muraysi'; Abdullah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi al-Sarh, the Prophet ﷺ's former scribe who had turned murtad and slandered the Qur'an's revelation, pardoned after his foster brother Uthman ibn Affan RA interceded; Ibn Khatal's two singing girls, Fartanah and her companion, of whom one was killed and the other fled and was later pardoned; Sarah, who had insulted the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah and was later pardoned; Habbar ibn al-Aswad, who had caused Zaynab bint Muhammad ﷺ's miscarriage, later repented and was forgiven; al-Huwayrith ibn Nuqaydh, executed by Ali ibn Abi Talib RA one of those who had insulted the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah (by another report, he had attacked Fatima and Umm Kulthum RA on their journey to Madinah); and Wahshi, the killer of Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, who fled to Ta'if and converted about a year later. In the end, four of them were killed: Ibn Khatal, Miqyas, al-Huwayrith and one of the singing girls. After the khutbah, the Prophet ﷺ had Bilal ibn Rabah RA climb the Ka'bah and give Makkah's first-ever adhan, an Abyssinian former slave raised, literally and symbolically, above the Quraysh who had once tortured him. By a note of Ibn Hisham, sitting in the courtyard with al-Harith ibn Hisham and Itab ibn Asid, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb privately weighed in with remarks of Jahiliyyah about Bilal's honor; when the Prophet ﷺ later recounted each man's private words to him word for word as he left the Haram, al-Harith and Itab both accepted Islam on the spot. Al-Harith is the Companion who asked the Prophet ﷺ how revelation came to him (al-Bukhari, with no occasion given), and by one report he died a martyr at the Battle of Yarmouk (15 AH) after giving up water meant for himself twice over (to Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal RA, who passed it to Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'ah RA) all three dying before it could be drunk. The Prophet ﷺ then sat at Mount Safa, where the public dawah had begun two decades earlier, and took the bay'ah from the men of Quraysh in fulfillment of Qur'an 110:2. When Mujashi' ibn Mas'ud RA brought his brother to pledge for Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ said there was no migration after the Conquest, but he would take his pledge for Islam; in Ibn Abbas RA's report he said, "There is no emigration after the Conquest, but jihad and intention." He then took the oath of the women of Quraysh per Qur'an 60:12, with Umar ibn al-Khattab RA physically administering it since the Prophet ﷺ never touched the hand of a woman not related to him. Hind bint Utbah, veiled and unrecognized, sparred with each condition in turn (objecting that women were asked more than men, admitting she had skimmed from Abu Sufyan's wealth (which he forgave on the spot), protesting that a free woman would never commit zina, and retorting over the ban on killing children that the Muslims had killed the Quraysh's sons as adults at Badr, a reply at which Umar laughed immoderately); the Prophet ﷺ had recognized her when Abu Sufyan spoke, asked, "Then you are Hind bint Utbah?", and went on with the pledge when she asked him to forgive what was past. Some of the Ansar, meanwhile, worried among themselves that the Prophet ﷺ's return to his own people meant he had grown soft toward them; revelation came to him, and he told them, "I migrated towards Allah and towards you. I will live with you and will die with you," and they wept (Muslim). Over the 19 days the Prophet ﷺ remained in Makkah, several notable figures held out before eventually accepting Islam. By a weak report, a young Fudala ibn Umayr, enraged at the defeat, hid a dagger meaning to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ during tawaf; confronted by name, he lied about his intent, and the Prophet ﷺ laughed, sought Allah's forgiveness, and placed a hand on his chest, after which, by his own account, no one was more beloved to him, and he accepted Islam on the spot. Safwan ibn Umayyah, who had joined the doomed resistance, fled to Jeddah intending to drown himself; Umayr ibn Wahb RA begged the Prophet ﷺ for his protection and caught up with him bearing the Prophet ﷺ's own turban as proof, talking him down from the ship and back toward Makkah. Safwan asked for two months to decide and was given four; his Islam came later, after Hunayn, by some reports after he lent the Muslims armour and was given a great share of its spoils. By a report not found in Ibn Ishaq, Suhayl ibn Amr, the Hudaybiyyah negotiator, locked himself in his house in terror and sent his Muslim son Abdullah ibn Suhayl RA to beg protection on his behalf, which the Prophet ﷺ granted at once, instructing the sahaba to receive him with respect since "he is too intelligent to be ignorant of Islam"; Suhayl accepted Islam about a month later, after Hunayn and the Siege of Ta'if. And Abu Quhafa, Abu Bakr RA's blind and elderly father who had long opposed Islam, was brought to the mosque by Abu Bakr, as his granddaughter Asma bint Abi Bakr RA narrated; the Prophet ﷺ asked why he had not left the old man at home so that he could come to him there, Abu Bakr answered that it was more fitting for him to come, and the Prophet ﷺ stroked his chest, invited him to Islam, and told them to change the whiteness of his hair but avoid black. Umm Hani' bint Abi Talib RA (a daughter of Abu Talib, full sister of Ali ibn Abi Talib RA, and cousin of the Prophet ﷺ) embraced Islam in this same stretch, having remained on her earlier faith until the Conquest itself. When two of her in-laws of Banu Makhzum fled to her and Ali RA swore to kill them, she bolted her door on them and went to the Prophet ﷺ. She found him bathing, screened by his daughter Fatima RA; he welcomed her and said, "O Umm Hani', we grant protection to whomever you have granted protection"; the right to grant protection belongs to any Muslim, man or woman. Umm Hani' RA also narrated that she saw the Prophet ﷺ pray eight rak'ahs of Salat al-Duha that morning, the only surviving report of how many rak'ahs he himself prayed of that prayer. Among the last holdouts was Abdullah ibn al-Zab'ari of Banu Sahm, the official poet of the Quraysh, who had traded barbed verses with Hassan ibn Thabit RA for years and fled to Najran at the Conquest rather than face the Muslims. Stung by a single verse Hassan RA directed at him, he resolved to return and embrace Islam in some tellings despite his cousin's objections, telling him, "Why should I not convert? ... Should I not go back to my own kith and kin, my own cousin? He is the best of all mankind." By reports not found in Ibn Ishaq, seeing him approach the Ka'bah from a distance, the Prophet ﷺ remarked to the sahaba, "That is Ibn al-Zab'ari; and I see from him the nur of Iman." Ibn al-Zab'ari then gave the shahada and a moving declaration of repentance for his years of poetic hostility, and the Prophet ﷺ told him, "Islam wipes away all that you have done in the past." He spent the rest of his life composing poetry in praise of Islam, for which, by one report, the Prophet ﷺ gave him his cloak. With no house of his own left in Makkah (Abu Talib had died a mushrik, and by the ruling that a Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever, his house passed instead to his non-Muslim sons Talib and Aqil, and Aqil later sold it) the Prophet ﷺ set up a tent at al-Hujun for his 19 days in the city, telling Usama ibn Zayd RA, who asked where they would stay, "Has Aqil left for us any house to lodge in?" He shortened his prayers throughout the stay, which Ibn Abbas RA put at nineteen days and Ibn Ishaq at fifteen nights. During these 19 days the Prophet ﷺ delivered short sermons teaching the new Muslims the basics of the religion. He reaffirmed the enduring sanctity of Makkah, declaring, "Allah has made Makkah sacred the day that He created the heavens and the earth, and it shall remain sacred until the Day of Judgment ... Makkah was never halal before me, nor shall it be halal after me. And even for me, it was made halal just for an hour of the day." He forbade the sale of alcohol, carcasses, pigs and idols, ending the Makkans' lucrative trade in idol-carving, establishing the fiqh principle that whatever is unlawful to use is also unlawful to sell. Scholars differ on when zawaj al-mut'ah was prohibited, but the Conquest is where most place its final prohibition. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA, ill in Makkah (in al-Bukhari's main report, in the year of the Farewell Hajj), asked the Prophet ﷺ whether he could will away two-thirds, then half, of his wealth having only one daughter as heir; the Prophet ﷺ said "No, too much" to each until Sa'd proposed a third, prompting the ruling still followed in Islamic inheritance law that a bequest outside the Qur'anic heirs may not exceed one-third. When Usama ibn Zayd RA, beloved of the Prophet ﷺ, interceded for a noblewoman of Banu Makhzum caught stealing, the Prophet ﷺ became angry and answered, "Do you intercede in a case connected with Allah's prescribed punishments?", and in a sermon said that if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad ﷺ, stole, he would cut off her hand; the woman later regularly visited Aisha RA, who relayed her requests to the Prophet ﷺ, showing that punishment does not brand a person a criminal for life. A dispute between Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA, claiming for his brother Utbah a boy born to the slave-girl of Zam'ah, and Abd ibn Zam'ah RA, who claimed the boy as his brother born on his father's bed, was settled by the Prophet ﷺ's verdict, "The boy is for the bed, and the stone is for the adulterer" (al-Bukhari). The Prophet ﷺ also sent mini-expeditions to destroy the remaining centers of idolatry: he commanded every household to destroy its own idols, and dispatched Khalid ibn al-Walid RA to destroy the great idol al-Uzza (mentioned in Qur'an 53:19) and by other reports another party to destroy Manat (Qur'an 53:20). At Nakhla, al-Uzza's Sulami guardian hung his sword on her and climbed the mountain, calling on her to strike Khalid down; Khalid destroyed her and returned (Ibn Ishaq). This achievement was marred by a mistake of Khalid ibn al-Walid RA, a very recent convert still unfamiliar with fiqh. Sent to invite the Banu Jadhimah to Islam, he met a tribe that had killed his uncle in the Jahiliyyah; they took up their weapons, and he told them to lay them down, since everyone had accepted Islam. When they did, saying "Saba'na, saba'na" because they could not say "Aslamna", he had them bound and killed a number of them (Ibn Ishaq; al-Bukhari). Abdullah ibn Umar RA and his companions refused his order to kill their captives, and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf RA told Khalid he had done a pagan act in Islam; the two quarrelled and Khalid reviled him. On hearing the news, the Prophet ﷺ stood facing the Ka'bah, raised his hands, and declared, "O Allah, I am free from what Khalid has done," then sent Ali ibn Abi Talib RA with wealth to pay blood money and apologize to the bereaved families on his behalf. Hearing of the quarrel, the Prophet ﷺ said, "None should revile my Companions, for if one among you were to spend as much gold as Uhud, it would not amount to one mudd of one of them, or half of it" (Muslim). The 19 days consolidated only Makkah's immediate vicinity; Ta'if, the fortified plateau city that had once expelled and stoned the Prophet ﷺ, remained beyond reach of the army and would be addressed in the campaigns that followed.

Placed here because: Ep. 76: "The Prophet ﷺ left Madinah on the 10th of Ramadan of the 8th year of the Hijrah, and arrived on the outskirts of Makkah on the 19th of Ramadan."

At the Conquest of Makkah, Safwan ibn Umayyah (who had never spoken to his cousin Umayr ibn Wahab since Umayr's conversion years earlier) fled the city, assuming the Prophet ﷺ would never forgive his role in the earlier plot against him. Umayr asked the Prophet ﷺ for a guarantee of protection (aman) for Safwan, which was granted; Umayr then found Safwan and convinced him to return, where he pronounced the shahada before the Prophet ﷺ.

Placed here because: Within the days after the entry, before the army left for Hunayn; Safwan then rode with it as a pagan.

During his 19-day stay in Makkah after the Conquest, the Prophet ﷺ ordered every household to destroy its own idols and sent out mini-expeditions to destroy the remaining public centers of idolatry. He dispatched Khalid ibn al-Walid RA to destroy the great idol al-Uzza (mentioned in Qur'an 53:19), while a separate group was sent to destroy Manat (Qur'an 53:20). At al-Uzza's temple, one of its custodians flung a weapon at the idol and cried out that it should protect itself, before fleeing and abandoning it to be destroyed. Within days, every idol in the vicinity of the Hejaz was gone.

Placed here because: Ep. 81: during the nineteen days "he sent a number of mini-expeditions around Makkah to invite the neighboring tribes to Islam and destroy the major centers of idolatry."

After the Conquest of Makkah, Khalid ibn al-Walid RA (a very recent convert) was sent, among several expeditions, to invite the tribe of Banu Jadhimah to Islam. Khalid had a personal grievance against this tribe from the Jahiliyyah era, since they had killed his uncle. When Khalid arrived with an armed party, some of the Banu Jadhimah assumed he had come for revenge and drew their swords; Khalid's men fought back. Other members of the tribe realized what was happening and announced their submission, but rather than saying the expected "Aslamna" (we have submitted), they used the unfamiliar phrase "Saba'na" (we have become Sabians), the term Arabs sometimes used, incorrectly, for those entering Islam. Khalid, not recognizing the phrase, did not understand they were professing Islam and continued the attack, killing a number of them. Abdullah ibn Umar RA and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf RA, among other Companions present, refused Khalid's order to join the killing; when Khalid rebuked Abd al-Rahman for disobeying his commander, he cursed him.

Placed here because: ~ One of the same expeditions from Makkah (Ep. 81); its order relative to al-Uzza is not given.

On the march to Hunayn, the Muslims passed by a magnificent, lush tree called Dhat Anwat, at which the pagan Quraysh had held an annual festival: sacrificing animals and hanging their weapons on it for good luck before battle. Abu Waqid al-Laythi RA, who had accepted Islam only about a week earlier, asked the Prophet ﷺ, "O Messenger of Allah ﷺ! Why don't you make for us a hanging tree just as they have the Hanging Tree?" The Prophet ﷺ, swearing by Allah, told him he had asked exactly what the Children of Israel asked of Musa AS when they said, "O Moses, make for us a god just as they have gods" [Quran, 7:138], and said, "This is the custom that you will follow the pathways of those before you."

Placed here because: On the march out of Makkah towards Hunayn.

After the Conquest of Makkah, the tribe of Thaqif (custodians of Ta'if and its idol al-Lat) resolved to fight rather than accept the end of paganism in Arabia and the loss of the Ka'bah's custodianship to the now-defeated Quraysh. Thaqif sent emissaries to every pagan tribe in the region, and over 20,000 pagan fighters gathered under their banner, the largest gathering of pagan Arabs in Arabian history. Thaqif and the Bedouin tribe of Hawazin were the two largest contingents, together forming around 10,000. The Prophet ﷺ sent the new convert Abdullah ibn Abi Hadrat RA to scout Ta'if's forces; he returned reporting he had never seen so large a gathering, prompting Umar ibn al-Khattab RA to doubt the report and Abdullah to rebuke him for once having disbelieved the Prophet ﷺ himself. The Prophet ﷺ then mobilized roughly 12,000 men (10,000 who had come from Madinah and 2,000 new Makkan converts, some of whom, like Safwan ibn Umayyah RA, were not yet even Muslim) and borrowed a hundred coats of mail with their weapons from Safwan as a loan to be returned. The Muslims left Makkah on the 6th of Shawwal, 8 AH (after roughly 19 days there, per Sahih al-Bukhari, though other reports give shorter periods), and reached the valley of Hunayn on the 10th, camping there rather than at Ta'if itself since Thaqif had already massed in that region. Among the pagan coalition, the elderly and blind nobleman Durayd ibn al-Sima urged the newly elected young chieftain Malik ibn Awf al-Nasri to send the tribe's women, children, and livestock back to safety rather than bring them onto the battlefield, warning that their presence would not help the men fight; Malik refused, even threatening to kill himself rather than be overruled, and the people's families and flocks stayed on the field. Thaqif and Hawazin had laid a trap: a small decoy contingent was stationed at the mouth of the valley the Muslims had to cross, while the bulk of their army and hundreds of archers hid in the mountains on either side. As the Muslims advanced, the decoy fled, drawing the Muslim army deep into the pass, at which point volleys of arrows fell from the unseen archers above and the main pagan force charged. The Muslim army, many of them raw new converts without proper armor, panicked and fled in every direction, leaving the Prophet ﷺ almost alone on his mule; among the small group who stayed near him was the Ansariyyah Umm Sulaym, who leapt from her mount and drew a hand dagger, telling the Companions that she would use it on anyone who reached her. He ﷺ called out, "Come to me! I am the Messenger of Allah ﷺ! I am Muhammad ﷺ, the son of Abdullah!" and declared, "I am the Prophet ﷺ, there is no lie about this! I am the son of Abdul Muttalib," invoking both his prophethood and his tribal lineage. He ﷺ called on his uncle al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, known for his powerful voice, to call the fleeing Muhajirun and Ansar back by name and by tribe; al-Abbas stood on his mount and rallied them to return, and as they came back fighting the Prophet ﷺ declared, "Now the real fight begins!", the first recorded use of this Arabic expression. He ﷺ then took a handful of dust, threw it toward Thaqif, and said, "May the faces be disfigured," after which the tide of the battle turned and the Muslims surged forward. As the Prophet ﷺ called out and al-Abbas rallied the Companions tribe by tribe, they slowly regathered around him. Allah then sent down His sakina (tranquility) upon the Prophet ﷺ and the believers and, as Surah al-Tawbah 9:25-26 relates, sent invisible forces to their aid; a number of Muslims and non-Muslims reported seeing these angels descend, among them Jubayr ibn Mut'im RA, who described a dense black cloud coming down from the sky and dispersing among the people like ants. Amid the chaos, Shayba ibn Uthman (a newly converted cousin of the Prophet ﷺ from the Banu Abd al-Dar whose father Uthman ibn Abi Talha had been killed at Uhud fighting the Muslims) rode at the Prophet ﷺ's unguarded back meaning to avenge his father, until a blinding light stopped him and the Prophet ﷺ, turning and sensing what was happening, made du'a for his guidance; Iman entered Shayba's heart at once and he turned to fight alongside the Muslims for the rest of the battle. Having relied entirely on the ambush, Thaqif and Hawazin had no fallback plan: once the Muslims regathered and charged, the pagan coalition fled in every direction. The Prophet ﷺ ordered the Companions to pursue them into the surrounding valleys and mountains before the scattered tribesmen could regroup, and a long series of mini-expeditions followed, in which several of the sahaba were wounded or killed, among them Abu Amir RA, the uncle of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari RA, mortally struck by a javelin. Walking the battlefield afterward, the Prophet ﷺ came upon the body of a woman who had been killed and said it was not right that she had been killed; learning it was Khalid ibn al-Walid RA who had killed her, he sent word forbidding him from killing any more women, children, or other noncombatants. A second large body of the fleeing coalition regrouped at a place called Awtas, where a further skirmish took place with some Muslim casualties before the Muslims prevailed. In total, only four Muslims were killed in the Battle of Hunayn itself, though many were wounded, famously including all four of the future Khulafa al-Rashidun, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali RA, who all stood with the Prophet ﷺ and were all wounded that day.

Placed here because: Ep. 82: "he ﷺ left on the 6th of Shawwal, and arrived in Hunayn on the 10th."

After their defeat at Hunayn, while the tribe of Thaqif fled back to the fortified city of Ta'if, a second, large group of the pagan coalition fled to a place called Awtas. There a further battle took place, with some casualties on the Muslim side, but the Muslims were victorious overall.

Placed here because: The pursuit of the Hawazin who fled Hunayn.

After Hunayn, the Prophet ﷺ left the ghanima and prisoners of war under guard at Ji'ranah and marched on Ta'if, where the defeated Thaqif had taken refuge behind the city's massive walls. Scholars of seerah generally treat the Battle of Hunayn and the Siege of Ta'if together, since they occurred back to back against a common enemy, though they were two separate incidents: Hunayn was a battle, Ta'if was a siege. The Muslims arrived in the last week of Shawwal, 8 AH. Ta'if was a green, well-watered city in the mountains, unlike the barren valley of Makkah; it had no Ka'bah, but the Thaqif had fortified it with massive walls, devices to hurl burning oil and arrows down on attackers, and supplies stocked for nearly a year, expecting a long siege. Even before Hunayn, while still in Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ had foreseen the need to besiege Ta'if and sent Companions, including Urwah ibn Mas'ud and Ghaylan ibn Salama, to the tribe of Jurash to learn siege engineering the Muslims had never used before: the catapult, the battering ram, and the testudo (a shield-wall formation used to approach a wall). By the time the Muslims reached Ta'if these Companions had returned with this knowledge, and for the first time a catapult was built and used by Muslims. The Companions first camped near the city but were showered with arrows, so the Prophet ﷺ moved them to another site, later the location of the city's first mosque. Using the testudo to approach the walls, the Muslims were burned by oil poured from above and had to retreat under a fresh volley of arrows, with a number killed; the battering rams made little progress and the catapults caused only limited damage. The Prophet ﷺ suggested withdrawing and returning another time, but when some of the Companions, still riding the momentum of Makkah and Hunayn, were reluctant to leave so close to what looked like victory, he let them stay.

Placed here because: Ep. 83: "the Muslims arrived during the last week of Shawwal."

After the Siege of Ta'if, the Prophet ﷺ returned to Ji'ranah, where the ghanima and prisoners of war of Hunayn had been kept under guard, and camped there for over a week, waiting for the tribe of Hawazin to come and accept Islam so that their families and property could be returned to them, as had happened before with the Banu al-Mustaliq. Nearly a month after Hunayn, the Hawazin still had not come, so the Prophet ﷺ began distributing the ghanima. Ghanima left behind by a fleeing enemy (rather than taken from the slain) is left to the ruler's discretion to distribute, so the soldiers had no guaranteed share of it. The Prophet ﷺ gave the largest gifts ever seen in Islam up to that point, one by one, mostly to leading men of the Quraysh who were new or not-yet Muslims: the muallafati qulubuhum, those whose hearts needed reconciling to Islam. He gave 100 camels each to Abu Sufyan ibn Harb RA, to Safwan ibn Umayyah RA (who was still not Muslim and was moved to accept Islam by this generosity), to Uyaynah ibn Hisn of Ghatafan, and to al-Aqra' ibn Habis of Tamim, besides large gifts to Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan and to al-Harith ibn Hisham RA, the full brother of Abu Jahal, perhaps 60-70 people in total, with smaller shares also given to the Muhajirun. The Ansar received nothing from this particular large share, and some of the younger Ansar began to murmur that swords still dripping with the enemy's blood earned them nothing while the Quraysh went home with fortunes. Sa'd ibn Ubadah RA, chief of the Ansar, brought this to the Prophet ﷺ, who gathered the Ansar alone in a tent and delivered one of the most moving speeches of his life in praise of them, explaining that he gave to the new converts out of concern for their weaker hearts while trusting that what Allah had placed in the Ansar's hearts was worth more than any gift, and asking them whether they were not content to return with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself while others returned with sheep and camels; the Ansar wept and declared themselves content with Islam and with him. As word of the Prophet ﷺ's generosity spread, Bedouins flocked in seeking money: one chieftain grabbed the Prophet ﷺ's collar demanding a share, and on another occasion Bedouins crowded so close begging that his garment caught on a thorn bush; when the money was gone he told them that if he had as many camels as the surrounding shrubs he would give them all away rather than be found miserly. It was also here that a man with a straggly beard accused the Prophet ﷺ of injustice in the distribution (the beginning of what would become the Khawarij mentality), and when Umar ibn al-Khattab RA asked to execute him for it, the Prophet ﷺ refused for the sake of the community's wellbeing and foretold that people like him would recite the Qur'an fluently while leaving Islam as an arrow leaves its target. Eventually the Hawazin came and accepted Islam, hoping their property could still be returned; the Prophet ﷺ told them it was too late for their property but let them choose between it and their families, and they chose their families. The next day, after Zuhr, the Prophet ﷺ gave up his own tribe's share of the prisoners first, prompting the other Quraysh leaders to follow suit and return their captives freely; a few newly Muslim Bedouin tribes asked to be paid instead, and the Prophet ﷺ promised to compensate them from future revenue. In this way all of the Hawazin's families, though not their property, were restored to them. Before leaving Ji'ranah for Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ entered ihram there and performed his third of four Umrahs in his lifetime. Among the Hawazin who came to Ji'ranah, the Prophet ﷺ specifically asked after their chieftain Malik ibn Awf al-Nasri, who had fled into Ta'if with Thaqif rather than surrender. The Prophet ﷺ sent word that if Malik came to him as a Muslim, his family, property, and a hundred camels besides would be restored to him; unwilling to live on without his tribe, family, and wealth, Malik accepted, came to the Prophet ﷺ, embraced Islam, and was reinstated as chieftain over his own people. Malik then composed verses declaring the Prophet ﷺ a true prophet, and the Tamimi chieftain al-Aqra' ibn Habis, reflecting on the scale of the Prophet ﷺ's generosity, remarked, "I have just come from a man who doesn't care about poverty! Wallahi, this man is a prophet, for no king would do what he has done!"

Placed here because: Ep. 83: "The Muslims then returned to Ji'ranah where the ghanima was ... camped at Ji'ranah and waited for more than a week."

After the tribes had entered Islam, Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr was fought and defeated at the Battle of Hunayn. A woman of the tribe caused a commotion, claiming to be the Prophet ﷺ's sister, and the companions brought her before him. This took place among the prisoners of war being led in to Ji'ranah after the battle. Shayma cried out that she was the Prophet ﷺ's own foster sister, daughter of his wet-nurse Halimah al-Sa'diyah, and the astonished Companions brought her to him.

Placed here because: ~ The Hawazin delegation and their captives came to Ji'ranah; the exact day within the stay is not given.

About two weeks after the Prophet ﷺ returned to Madinah from the Conquest of Makkah, Ka'b ibn Zuhayr, the most renowned poet in the Arabian Peninsula, who had written vulgar satirical poetry against the Muslims, came secretly to Madinah to seek forgiveness. He entered unrecognized by face, stayed the night at the house of a relative, and after Fajr approached the Prophet ﷺ in disguise, put his hand in the Prophet ﷺ's hand, and asked whether protection would be granted to Ka'b ibn Zuhayr if he repented. When the Prophet ﷺ agreed, Ka'b revealed himself. An Ansari rose to strike him down, but the Prophet ﷺ stopped him. Ka'b then recited his praise-poem for the Prophet ﷺ, known as the Qasidat al-Burda (Banat Su'ad), the original poem of this name, distinct from the later, more famous Qasidat al-Burda of al-Busiri (a 7th-century-Hijrah poet who claimed to have seen the Prophet ﷺ in a dream).

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 84 tells it after the return from Ta'if; he came to Madinah, so it belongs at the end of the campaign.