The Treaty of Hudaybiyya

There are moments in the Seerah where the outward events and their true meaning lie so far apart that only time makes the difference visible. Hudaybiyya is the clearest example. The Sahaba ﵃ saw a humiliating treaty. Allah ﷻ called it a clear victory. Between those two perceptions lies not merely a difference of perspective but a difference of access: the Prophet ﷺ acted on the basis of revelation, his Sahaba ﵃ on the basis of what they could see. That distinction is no minor matter. It is the key to understanding what truly happened at Hudaybiyya and what it does not mean for those who come after him.

The Dream and the Departure

In the year 6 after the Hijra, the Prophet ﷺ saw in a dream that he and his Sahaba ﵃ entered the Ka’bah, in safety, with shaven heads and in the state of ihram. The dream of a prophet is revelation. The Prophet ﷺ shared this with his Sahaba ﵃ and they prepared themselves for the Umrah.

He set out with about fourteen hundred men. They took no weapons of war beyond what a traveller normally carries, and they drove the sacrificial animals before them as a sign of their peaceful intent. The route ran along the western coast in the direction of Makkah. Along the way groups joined them from tribes that recognised the authority of the Islamic state or simply seized the chance to be part of what was clearly a historic moment.

When news reached the Quraysh that the Prophet ﷺ was on the move with fourteen hundred men, they reached for their weapons. They sent Khalid ibn al-Walid with two hundred riders to intercept the caravan. The Prophet ﷺ deviated from the main route and reached, by another path, the plain of Hudaybiyya, on the edge of the sacred area, a day’s march from Makkah.

There his she-camel Qaswa suddenly halted and refused to go further.

He ordered his camp to be set up on the plain of Hudaybiyya.

The Negotiations

The Quraysh sent envoys in succession to the camp of the Prophet ﷺ. Badil ibn Waraqa of the Khuza’a came first, then Urwa ibn Mas’ud al-Thaqafi, a man of standing and shrewdness. Urwa returned to the Quraysh with an impression that surprised them.

The Prophet ﷺ for his part sent Uthman ibn Affan ﵁ to Makkah, because Uthman ﵁ had family ties among the Quraysh that gave him protection. Uthman ﵁ set out but was long delayed. A rumour spread that he had been killed.

The Bay’at al-Ridwan

When the rumour of the death of Uthman ﵁ reached the camp, the Prophet ﷺ summoned his Sahaba ﵃ together under a tree and took a pledge from them. They swore to fight and not to flee. One man, Jadd ibn Qays, withdrew from the pledge by hiding behind his camel. The rest, fourteen hundred men, gave the pledge.

Allah ﷻ revealed concerning this moment:

لَّقَدۡ رَضِيَ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ إِذۡ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحۡتَ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ فَعَلِمَ مَا فِي قُلُوبِهِمۡ فَأَنزَلَ ٱلسَّكِينَةَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ وَأَثَٰبَهُمۡ فَتۡحٗا قَرِيبٗا

Allah was indeed pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts and He sent down tranquillity upon them and rewarded them with a near victory.

Surah Al-Fath: 18

The rumour proved untrue. Uthman ﵁ returned. But the bay’ah had been given and its meaning remained. The Quraysh had seen what fourteen hundred men were prepared to do for their Prophet ﷺ on a plain without cover, a day’s march from Makkah, without full arms. That changed the tone of the negotiations.

The Terms of the Treaty

The Quraysh sent Suhayl ibn Amr as their negotiator. He was a man of reputation and the choice of him indicated that the Quraysh were serious about negotiating. The Prophet ﷺ received him and the discussions began.

The terms that came out of the negotiations were, to those who looked at them with human eyes, heavy on the side of the Muslims. The Muslims would return that year without performing the Umrah and the next year they could come back for three days, unarmed. Anyone who fled from Makkah to Madinah as a Muslim would be sent back, but anyone who fled from Madinah to Makkah would not be sent back. The tribes of Arabia were free to ally themselves with the Quraysh or with the Muslims. And there would be no war between the two parties for ten years.

When the Prophet ﷺ instructed Ali ibn Abi Talib ﵁ to write down the treaty and dictated “In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate”, Suhayl ibn Amr objected.

The Sahaba ﵃ watched with growing unease. Umar ibn al-Khattab ﵁ could no longer contain himself.

Umar ﵁ later said that for these words and what he had said that day he continued to fast, to pray and to give alms, in the hope that Allah ﷻ would forgive him.

The treaty was signed.

The Trial of the Return

Even before the caravan departed, the first trial of the treaty presented itself. Abu Jandal ibn Suhayl, the son of the negotiator Suhayl ibn Amr, succeeded in breaking his chains and stumbled into the camp of the Muslims. He had accepted Islam in Makkah and had been tortured and imprisoned by his own father. Now he sought protection.

Abu Jandal ﵁ was sent back as his cries echoed through the camp. The Sahaba ﵃ looked on.

The Prophet ﷺ then ordered his Sahaba ﵃ to slaughter their sacrificial animals and shave their heads as a sign that the rites of the Umrah were concluded, even though they had not reached the Ka’bah. They hesitated, paralysed by their inability to comprehend what had just happened. The Prophet ﷺ went into his tent. Umm Salama ﵂, his wife who accompanied him on this journey, spoke to him.

The Victory They Did Not See

On the way back to Madinah the revelation came down that placed everything in another light.

إِنَّا فَتَحۡنَا لَكَ فَتۡحٗا مُّبِينٗا

Indeed, We have granted you a clear victory.

Surah Al-Fath: 1

And it was a victory, though its full extent only became visible later.

The first gain was recognition. The Quraysh had for years refused to regard the Islamic state as a legitimate party. By negotiating and signing a treaty they acknowledged for the first time, formally and in writing, that there was a power in Madinah with which they had to conclude an agreement on equal terms. That Muhammad ﷺ was not allowed to keep his title as Messenger of Allah in the text changed nothing about the reality the treaty confirmed: the Quraysh had not been able to stop him, not at Badr, not at Uhud, not at Al-Khandaq, and now not at Hudaybiyya either.

The second gain was the freedom of tribes to ally themselves. This clause turned out to be the most far-reaching of all. The Khuza’a, a tribe with deep roots in the area around Makkah and an ancient alliance with the forefathers of the Prophet ﷺ, joined the Muslims. Their rivals, the Banu Bakr, sided with the Quraysh. Two years later the Banu Bakr attacked the Khuza’a with the support of the Quraysh, a direct violation of the treaty. That was the cause of the Fath Makkah. The clause that seemed to mean nothing turned out to be the legal ground for the conquest of Makkah.

The third gain was time. The ten years of peace gave the Islamic state room to grow without a southern front. In the two years that followed, the Prophet ﷺ conquered Khaybar, the richest agricultural area of northern Arabia, and thereby neutralised the last great base of organised opposition outside Makkah. He sent letters to Heraclius of Byzantium, Chosroes of Persia, the Negus of Abyssinia and the governor of Egypt. Thousands of people accepted Islam in those two years, more than in all the years before combined. When the Prophet ﷺ marched on Makkah two years after Hudaybiyya, he did so with ten thousand men.

The fourth gain was visibility. The caravan of fourteen hundred Muslims who set out unarmed for the Umrah, the calm with which the Prophet ﷺ negotiated, the discipline of the Sahaba ﵃ who swallowed their anger and obeyed the order: all of this was seen by the tribes of Arabia. Khalid ibn al-Walid ﵁ and Amr ibn al-As ﵁, two of the sharpest military minds of their generation, travelled to Madinah shortly after Hudaybiyya and accepted Islam.

Abu Basir and the Coastal Community

The clause that the Sahaba ﵃ found heaviest was the one concerning fugitives. Anyone who fled from Makkah to Madinah as a Muslim had to be sent back. The asymmetry was painful: anyone who defected from the Muslims to the Quraysh did not have to be returned. On paper that looked like a one-sided humiliation.

What happened next made visible that the Prophet ﷺ saw something the Sahaba ﵃ did not see.

Shortly after the return to Madinah, a man arrived named Abu Basir ﵁, a Muslim from Makkah who had managed to escape his guards. The Quraysh immediately sent two men to demand his return. The Prophet ﷺ handed him over.

Abu Basir ﵁ left with the two men of the Quraysh. On the way he managed to kill one of the two. The other fled back to Madinah and reported what had happened. Abu Basir ﵁ also returned and explained the situation to the Prophet ﷺ.

Abu Basir ﵁ understood the message. He did not go to Madinah but settled on the coast at al-Is, on the trade route of the Quraysh to Syria. The word spread among the Muslims who were trapped in Makkah. One after another they fled Makkah, not to Madinah for that was forbidden by the treaty, but to Abu Basir ﵁ on the coast. Abu Jandal ﵁, who had himself been sent back at Hudaybiyya, also reached him. Within a short time a community of seventy men had formed that attacked the caravans of the Quraysh to Syria and made the trade route unsafe.

The Quraysh had nowhere to turn. The Prophet ﷺ had kept the treaty. What these men did outside Madinah fell outside his responsibility. The pressure on the Quraysh became so great that they themselves sent a messenger to Madinah with the request to cancel the clause about fugitives and to allow Abu Basir ﵁ and his men into Madinah. The Prophet ﷺ sent a letter to Abu Basir ﵁. It reached him on his deathbed. Abu Basir ﵁ died with the letter in his hand.

The clause that the Sahaba ﵃ had regarded as their greatest concession had been undone by the Quraysh themselves.

The Believing Women

There was yet another turn. The treaty spoke of men who fled without the permission of their guardian. When believing women fled from Makkah to Madinah and the Quraysh demanded their return, Allah ﷻ revealed that the situation of women had to be judged differently.

يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ إِذَا جَآءَكُمُ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنَٰتُ مُهَٰجِرَٰتٖ فَٱمۡتَحِنُوهُنَّۖ ٱللَّهُ أَعۡلَمُ بِإِيمَٰنِهِنَّۖ فَإِنۡ عَلِمۡتُمُوهُنَّ مُؤۡمِنَٰتٖ فَلَا تَرۡجِعُوهُنَّ إِلَى ٱلۡكُفَّارِ

O you who believe, when believing women come to you as emigrants, then test them. Allah knows best what their faith is. If you find them to be believing women, then do not return them to the disbelievers.

Surah Al-Mumtahana: 10

The women were tested for the sincerity of their faith. Whoever proved to be sincere was permitted to remain. Her former husband received his bridal gift back. The clause concerning the return of fugitives therefore did not apply to women. Here too the treaty proved to be less one-sided than it had seemed: the Quraysh had negotiated about men, and Allah ﷻ had kept the women out of their reach.

Hudaybiyya Does Not Belong to Us

Here is something that must be said, clearly and without detours.

The Prophet ﷺ did not act at Hudaybiyya on the basis of political calculation. He acted on the basis of wahi. His dream about the Umrah was revelation. His decision to accept the treaty while his Sahaba ﵃ protested was based on a certainty that he had and they did not. When Umar ﵁, one of the sharpest and most resolute men among the Sahaba ﵃, asked him why they were giving in regarding their religion, the Prophet ﷺ did not answer with a strategic analysis. He said: I am the servant of Allah and He will not abandon me. That is not pragmatism. That is obedience to wahi.

And the outcome confirmed exactly that. Every clause that seemed unjust was turned aside by Allah ﷻ. The return of fugitives dissolved itself through Abu Basir ﵁. The women were protected by revelation. The clause on tribes laid the foundation for the conquest of Makkah. The Prophet ﷺ had not calculated this. He knew it, because he was receiving wahi.

This is precisely why Hudaybiyya does not belong to us.

We do not receive wahi. We cannot know what Allah ﷻ has placed in the outcome of a treaty we sign or a concession we make. The Prophet ﷺ could, because Allah ﷻ had revealed it to him. Whoever today gives up principles of the religion, seeks rapprochement with what Allah ﷻ has forbidden, or compromises his position for the sake of political acceptance, and then points to Hudaybiyya as a precedent, takes something that exclusively belonged to a prophet with wahi and uses it to cover himself. That is not Seerah. That is the misuse of Seerah.

This does not mean that Muslims may not think strategically. On the contrary. The Seerah is from beginning to end soaked in strategic thinking: the choice of Madinah as a base, the digging strategy at Al-Khandaq, the ruse of Nu’aym ibn Mas’ud ﵁, the marriage to Juwayriya ﵂ that freed a hundred households, the sending of Uthman ﵁ to Makkah because he had family ties that gave him protection. The Prophet ﷺ was an exceptional strategist. But his strategy was always bound to the sharia, not to what was politically convenient. He ﷺ erased his own title from the treaty but refused to break the treaty itself when Abu Jandal ﵁ stood before him pleading. Strategy within the limits of Allah ﷻ, never beyond them.

Umar ﵁ himself, who on that day protested loudly and later said that he had never doubted the Prophet ﷺ as he did at Hudaybiyya, understood this so well in retrospect that he carried regret over it for the rest of his life. Not because he had miscalculated strategically. But because he had momentarily underestimated the wahi that the Prophet ﷺ was receiving and on which he was acting.

We do not have a prophet standing beside us. Whoever urges us to make concessions in the religion by appealing to Hudaybiyya asks us to show the obedience of the Sahaba ﵃ without the revelation that justified that obedience. Hudaybiyya teaches us patience, trust and steadfastness within the sharia. It teaches us that Allah ﷻ works through ways that the human mind does not always grasp. But it is not a licence for anyone to compromise the religion and call it strategy.