The peace of Hudaybiyya was not an end point. It was a breathing space, and the Prophet ﷺ used it with a precision that only became fully visible in hindsight. In the two years between the treaty and the opening of Makkah, a series of events unfolded that were each significant in themselves but together had a single direction: the systematic removal of every obstacle that stood between the Islamic state and Makkah. The economic base of the opposition was broken. The psychological barrier of the holy city was levelled. And the treaty that the Quraysh had themselves drawn up was broken by them, by which they gave the Prophet ﷺ the legal and moral grounds for what he already knew was coming.
The Conquest of Khaybar
Khaybar was a fortress, an agricultural area and a political centre all at once. The Jewish tribes living there, among them the Banu Nadir who had earlier been expelled from Madinah with their leader Huyayy ibn Akhtab, had used Khaybar as a base for organising the coalition at Al-Khandaq. The promise of the Khaybar harvest had been the offer with which Huyayy persuaded the Ghatafan to march along. After Hudaybiyya, Khaybar was the last organised base of hostile activity outside Makkah, and the Prophet ﷺ marched on it in the seventh year after the Hijra.
The army reached Khaybar in the early morning. The inhabitants came out for their daily work and saw the army before them.
Inhabitants of Khaybar: (Shout and turn away) Muhammad! By Allah, Muhammad with his army!
Prophet ﷺ: Allahu Akbar, Khaybar is destroyed. When we descend upon the territory of a people, then evil is the morning of those who have been warned.
Khaybar consisted of several separate fortresses, each of which had to be taken individually. The first fortresses fell relatively quickly. The heaviest resistance came at the fortress of al-Qamus, the strongest fortress of the Banu Nadir.
On the morning of the decisive attack, the Prophet ﷺ called his Sahaba ﵃ together.
Prophet ﷺ: Tomorrow I will give the banner to a man who loves Allah ﷻ and His Messenger, and who is loved by Allah ﷻ and His Messenger. Allah ﷻ will give the victory through his hands.
(The next morning the Sahaba ﵃ all come forward in the hope of receiving the banner)
Prophet ﷺ: Where is Ali ibn Abi Talib?
Sahaba ﵃: He has eye pain, O Messenger of Allah.
Prophet ﷺ: Call him to me.
(Ali ﵁ is brought. The Prophet ﷺ spits in his eyes and prays over him)
Ali ibn Abi Talib ﵁: (His eyes are healed as if he had never had pain)
Prophet ﷺ: Take this banner and go. Call them first to Islam. Tell them what is incumbent upon them. By Allah, if Allah ﷻ guides one man through you, that is better for you than red camels.
Ali ﵁ marched on and the fortress of al-Qamus was taken. Marhab, the feared warrior of Khaybar known for his strength and his courage, was killed by Ali ﵁ in single combat which the narrations have preserved in detail.
After the conquest of the fortresses a serious incident was reported. A Jewish woman named Zaynab bint al-Harith had poisoned a roasted sheep and offered it to the Prophet ﷺ as a gift. The Prophet ﷺ took a bite but spat it out.
Prophet ﷺ: (To his Sahaba ﵃) Stop eating. This bone tells me that it has been poisoned.
(Bishr ibn al-Bara ﵁, who had already swallowed, died from the poisoning)
Prophet ﷺ: (To Zaynab) What moved you to this?
Zaynab bint al-Harith: You killed my father, killed my uncle and killed my husband. I said to myself: if he is a king, we will be rid of him, and if he is a prophet, he will know.
The Prophet ﷺ initially forgave her, but she was later put to death because of the death of Bishr ﵁. The narrations of Ibn Hisham and al-Tabari mention that years later, during his illness, the Prophet ﷺ said that he still felt the effects of what he had eaten that day at Khaybar.
With the fall of Khaybar, the last organised hostile power outside Makkah disappeared. The harvest of Khaybar was distributed among the warriors and provided the community with an economic base it had not had before. Safiyya bint Huyayy ﵂, the daughter of Huyayy ibn Akhtab who had played such a devastating role at Al-Khandaq in moving the Banu Qurayza to betrayal, was among the captives. The Prophet ﷺ offered her the choice.
Prophet ﷺ: If you choose Islam, I will keep you for myself. If you choose your religion, I will free you and you may return to your people.
Safiyya bint Huyayy ﵂: O Messenger of Allah, I longed for Islam and believed in you before you invited me. I have no desire for my religion.
The Prophet ﷺ married her. Her freedom was her bridal gift.
The Umrat al-Qada
In the seventh month of the year 7 after the Hijra, the Prophet ﷺ returned to Makkah for the promised Umrah. The treaty of Hudaybiyya had stipulated that the Muslims could enter the city the following year for three days, unarmed. The Quraysh withdrew into the hills around Makkah and looked on.
The Prophet ﷺ rode his camel into the city. Abdullah ibn Rawaha ﵁ walked before him reciting verses.
Abdullah ibn Rawaha ﵁: (Recites) Make way, O sons of the disbelievers, make way, we are better than you. O Allah, were it not for You we would not have been guided.
The Sahaba ﵃ performed the tawaf with their right shoulders bared and a vigorous step, as a sign of strength and health, because the Quraysh had earlier whispered that the fever of Madinah had weakened the Muslims. The Prophet ﷺ had heard this and instructed his Sahaba ﵃ to show that they were strong.
For the first time the adhan was heard in Makkah. Bilal ibn Rabah ﵁, the man who as a slave in Makkah had been tortured on the burning stones, stood on the Ka’bah and called out the adhan. The Makkans looked on from the hills.
For three days the Muslims performed their rites. On the third day representatives of the Quraysh came to the Prophet ﷺ with the reminder that the time had passed.
Representatives of the Quraysh: The time is up. Leave our land.
Prophet ﷺ: What would it matter to you if you let me hold the wedding feast here, so that you could eat with us at it?
Representatives of the Quraysh: We do not need your food. Leave.
The Prophet ﷺ left exactly as he had promised. The Umrat al-Qada was not merely a religious act. It was proof, to the Arab world, that the Islamic state kept its word, performed its rites and had its community in order. The Quraysh looked on from the hills and saw a man who three years earlier had fled from Makkah now calmly performing the tawaf in their holy city. The impression this left was not measurable in troops or weapons.
Shortly after the Umrat al-Qada, Khalid ibn al-Walid ﵁ and Amr ibn al-As ﵁ accepted Islam. Khalid ﵁ was the man who at Uhud had outflanked the Muslims and caused the near-fatal reversal. Now he stood before the Prophet ﷺ.
Khalid ibn al-Walid ﵁: O Messenger of Allah, I extend my hand for Islam.
Prophet ﷺ: Al-hamdu lillah who has guided you. I had already seen that there was intelligence in you and I hoped that this intelligence would lead you to what is good.
Khalid ﵁: O Messenger of Allah, pray for forgiveness for what I did in my opposition to you.
Prophet ﷺ: Islam wipes away what came before it.
The Breaking of Hudaybiyya
The treaty of Hudaybiyya had stipulated that the tribes of Arabia were free to ally themselves with the Muslims or with the Quraysh. The Khuza’a had chosen the Muslims. The Banu Bakr had chosen the Quraysh. Between the Khuza’a and the Banu Bakr existed an old feud that had been frozen by the treaty but not resolved.
In the eighth year after the Hijra, the Banu Bakr attacked the Khuza’a at a watering place called al-Watir, in the night. Men of the Quraysh, among them Safwan ibn Umayya and Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl, had given the Banu Bakr weapons and fought alongside them in the dark, in disguise. The Khuza’a fled to the sacred area but the attack went on. Some sought protection in the house of Budayl ibn Waraqa in Makkah itself.
A delegation of the Khuza’a led by Amr ibn Salim travelled to Madinah and stood before the Prophet ﷺ.
Amr ibn Salim al-Khuzai ﵁: (Recites standing before the Prophet ﷺ) O Allah, I call upon Muhammad by the ancient covenant of his father and ours. You are our father and we are your sons. The Banu Bakr have attacked us, O Muhammad, they killed us while we were bowing and in sujud.
Prophet ﷺ: You are helped, O Amr ibn Salim.
The Prophet ﷺ presented the Quraysh with a choice of three options: pay compensation to the families of the slain Khuza’a, withdraw their support from the Banu Bakr, or consider the treaty of Hudaybiyya as ended. The Quraysh chose the third option.
Abu Sufyan quickly understood that this was a mistake. He travelled himself to Madinah to renew the treaty and to limit the damage. He visited his daughter Umm Habiba ﵂, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, and tried to gain access through her.
Abu Sufyan: (Wants to sit on the mat of the Prophet ﷺ)
Umm Habiba ﵂: (Rolls up the mat)
Abu Sufyan: O daughter, is the mat too good for me, or am I too good for the mat?
Umm Habiba ﵂: It is the mat of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and you are an unclean polytheist. I do not want you to sit on his mat.
Abu Sufyan then sought out, in turn, Abu Bakr ﵁, Umar ﵁ and Ali ibn Abi Talib ﵁ with the request to plead his case with the Prophet ﷺ. None of them agreed to his request. Umar ﵁ was unequivocal.
Abu Sufyan: O Umar, plead my case with the Prophet ﷺ.
Umar ibn al-Khattab ﵁: By Allah, if I had only ants to set against you, I would do it.
Abu Sufyan finally went to the Prophet ﷺ himself.
Abu Sufyan: O Muhammad, plead for the people, extend the treaty and grant me protection.
Prophet ﷺ: (Remains silent)
Abu Sufyan: (Repeats his request)
Prophet ﷺ: (Remains silent again)
Abu Sufyan: (To Ali ﵁) O Abu al-Hasan, matters are difficult for me. Give me advice.
Ali ibn Abi Talib ﵁: By Allah, I know nothing that would help you. But you are the leader of the Banu Kinanah. Stand and grant them protection and then go back.
Abu Sufyan: Do you think this will help anything?
Ali ibn Abi Talib ﵁: I think not, but I know nothing else for you.
(Abu Sufyan stands up in the mosque and calls out) O people, I grant protection between the people.
(He returns to Makkah)
Leaders of the Quraysh: What have you brought, O Abu Sufyan?
Abu Sufyan: Nothing. I spoke with Muhammad but he did not answer me. I went to Ibn Abi Quhafa and Ibn al-Khattab but found no good with them. I went to Ali and he gave me this advice. I did it, but I do not know whether it will help.
Leaders of the Quraysh: By Allah, Ali has only fed you something useless.
Abu Sufyan returned to Makkah without what he had sought. The Prophet ﷺ began in silence his preparations for the march on Makkah. He asked Allah ﷻ to close the eyes of the Quraysh to his movements until he would fall upon them. The preparation proceeded in such silence that even most of the Sahaba ﵃ did not know where they were heading.
Only the outcome stood firm. The dream at Hudaybiyya, the peace that had created the space, the conquest of Khaybar that had secured the flanks, the Umrat al-Qada that had shown what the Islamic state had become, the breaking of the treaty that had laid the legal grounds: everything pointed in one direction. Makkah was near.