Delegations and Expeditions following Al-Muraisi‘ Ghazwah


1. A military expedition led by ‘Abdur Rahman bin ‘Auf was despatched to the habitation of Bani Kalb in Doumat Al-Jandal in Sha‘ban 6 Hijri. Before setting out, the Prophet PBUH summoned ‘Abdur Rahman, and placed his hand on the latter’s hand invoking Allâh’s blessings and giving him commandments to act magnanimously during the war. He told him to marry the king’s daughter if they obeyed him. ‘Abdur Rahman stayed among those people for three days, invited them to Islam and they responded positively. He then did marry the king’s daughter Tamadur bint Al-Asbagh.

2. In the same month and year, ‘Ali bin Abi Talib was despatched at the head of a platoon to the habitation of Bani Sa‘d bin Bakr in a place called Fadk. Prophet Muhammad PBUH had been reported that those had rallied ranks to support the Jews.

 The Muslim fighters used to march in the day and lurk at night. On their way, they captured an enemy scout who admitted being sent to Khaibar tribe, to offer them support in return for their dates. ‘Ali and his companions raided their encampment, captured five hundred camels and two thousand goats, but Banu Sa‘d, with their chieftain Wabr bin ‘Aleem had fled away.

3. An expedition led by Abu Bakr As-Siddiq or Zaid bin Haritha was despatched to Wadi Al-Qura in Ramadan 6 Hijri after Fazara sept had made an attempt at the Prophet’s life. Following the morning prayer, the detachment was given orders to raid the enemy.

Some of them were killed and others captured. Amongst the captives, were Umm Qirfa and her beautiful daughter, who was sent to Makkah as a ransom for the release of some Muslim prisoners there.[] Umm Qirfa’s attempts at the Prophet’s life recoiled on her, and the thirty horsemen she had gathered and sustained to implement her evil scheme were all killed.

4. Anas bin Malik reported that some people belonging to tribe of ‘Uraina came to Allâh’s Messenger PBUH and made pretensions to Islam. They stayed in Madinah but found its climate uncongenial, so they were asked to pitch their tents in the pastures nearby.

They did so and were all right. They then fell on the Prophet’s shepherd and killed him, turned apostates from Islam and drove off the camels. This news reached the Prophet PBUH , who sent a group of twenty Muslims led by Karz bin Jabir Al-Fihri on their track. They were brought and handed over to him. He had their hands and feet cut off, their eyes gouged out in recompense for their behaviour, and then they were thrown on the stony ground until they died.[]

• Biographers also reported ‘Amr bin Omaiya Ad-Damari and Salamah bin Abi Salamah to have been sent on an errand to kill Abu Sufyan, the chief of Quraish, who had already sent a bedouin to kill the Prophet PBUH. The two-men mission failed except for three polytheists killed on the way.

 It is noteworthy that all the foregone invasions did not imply real bitter fighting, they were rather skirmishes or punitive military manoeuvres carried out to deter some enemies still unsubdued.

 Deep meditation on the development of war circumstances reveal the continuous collapse of the morale among the enemies of Islam, who had come to understand that they were no longer in a position to contain the Islamic call or weaken its active drive. This state of affairs reached its climax in Al-Hudaibiyah Treaty when the two belligerent parties, believers and disbelievers, entered into a truce agreement that pointed markedly to the ever-growing power of Islam, and recorded unequivocally the perpetuity of this heavenly religion in pan-Arabia.