The Conquest of Makkah

There are conquests that go down in history as bloody turning points: cities that burned, peoples enslaved, and victors establishing their power through the violence they displayed. The opening of Makkah was none of these. A city that for twenty years had been the enemy of the Prophet ﷺ, that had driven him out, that had tortured and tormented his Companions ﵃, that had three times sent out an army to destroy the Islamic state, was taken without a slaughter following. That was no strategic calculation. It was a choice, and the choice tells us everything about who the Prophet ﷺ was and what he had received.

The Preparation in Silence

After the breach of the Treaty of Hudaybiyya by the Quraysh, the Prophet ﷺ began his preparations in a silence that was almost complete. He prayed Allah ﷻ to blind the Quraysh to his movements until he reached them, and Allah ﷻ answered that du’a. Even most of the Companions ﵃ did not know where they were going.

One man tried to break that silence. Hatib ibn Abi Balta’a ﵁, a Companion who had fought at Badr and whose family still lived in Makkah, sent a letter through a woman to the Quraysh informing them that the Prophet ﷺ was on the march. He hoped thereby to protect his family. Revelation informed the Prophet ﷺ of the letter before it could arrive.

The letter never reached the Quraysh. The preparation went on.

The March to Makkah

The army the Prophet ﷺ assembled was the largest the Islamic state had ever sent out: ten thousand men. The Companions ﵃ set out from Madinah, and the Muzaynah, the Aslam, the Ghifar and other tribes that had accepted Islam joined them along the way. When the army reached the outskirts of Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ ordered every man to light a fire.

From the hills around the city the Quraysh saw a sea of fires. Abu Sufyan, who together with al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib ﵁, the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, was trying to gauge the size of the army, was struck dumb.

The Prophet ﷺ granted Abu Sufyan a special status that gave him and his house protection, and offered the Makkans a way out.

Al-Abbas ﵁ also asked the Prophet ﷺ for something for Abu Sufyan, who was a man of standing and needed a sign that his position was acknowledged.

The Entry

The Prophet ﷺ divided his army into four columns that would enter Makkah from different directions. The orders were unambiguous: no blood was to be shed unless they were attacked. Khalid ibn al-Walid ﵁ led the column from the south and met resistance from a group of Makkans under Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl and Safwan ibn Umayyah. A small number of Makkans were killed before they fled. The other columns entered Makkah without a fight.

The Prophet ﷺ himself rode his camel into the city with his head bowed, as a sign of gratitude to Allah ﷻ. He recited Surah Al-Fath as he entered the city of his birth, the city that had driven him out.

He alighted at the Ka’bah. The Ka’bah was filled with the idols of the Arab tribes, three hundred and sixty figures placed in and around the sanctuary. The Prophet ﷺ pointed to them one by one with his staff and recited:

وَقُلۡ جَآءَ ٱلۡحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ ٱلۡبَٰطِلُۚ إِنَّ ٱلۡبَٰطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقٗا

And say: the truth has come and falsehood has perished. Indeed, falsehood is bound to perish.

Surah Al-Isra: 81

Each idol fell upon its face.

Then the Prophet ﷺ had the Ka’bah opened. He entered, prayed two rak’ahs and made a long du’a. Bilal ibn Rabah ﵁, the man who in that very city had been laid as a slave on the burning rocks while his torturers ordered him to acknowledge the idols and he kept saying: Ahad, Ahad, One, One, now climbed onto the roof of the Ka’bah and called the adhan over the city.

The General Amnesty

After the Ka’bah had been cleansed, the Makkans gathered. They did not know what awaited them. The Prophet ﷺ stood in the doorway of the Ka’bah and looked out over the people standing before him. Many of them had personally done him harm. They had tortured his Companions ﵃, mutilated his uncle Hamza ﵁, insulted his daughters, killed his envoy. Now they stood before him, helpless.

It was a single sentence. No conditions, no humiliation, no list of demands. The city that had driven him out received a general amnesty.

But the amnesty was not without limits. There was a small list of people for whom no protection applied, men whose deeds were so grave that even the cloak of general forgiveness could not cover them. Among them were Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl, Abdullah ibn Khatal, who had two singing women who sang mocking songs about the Prophet ﷺ, and a few others.

Abdullah ibn Khatal was found clinging to the cloths of the Ka’bah. He was killed on the spot. Of his two singing women, one was found and killed, the other fled and later sought amnesty, which was granted her. Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl fled to Yemen. His wife Umm Hakim ﵂ accepted Islam and asked the Prophet ﷺ for protection for her husband. It was granted. Ikrimah returned, accepted Islam, and later died as a martyr at the Battle of Yarmuk. Safwan ibn Umayyah fled to the coast. For him too, on request, amnesty was granted, and he eventually accepted Islam.

The logic was clear: the general amnesty applied to those who had fought out of tribal pride, superstition or ignorance. It did not apply to those who had crossed the limits of what was acceptable by mocking the religion, betraying the community or killing the innocent. Mercy has a boundary, and that boundary is not set by human sentimentality but by what is just.

The Cleansing of the Ka’bah

The Prophet ﷺ ordered all the figures and images in the Ka’bah to be removed. There were also paintings on the inner walls, including those of Ibrahim ﵇ and Isma’il ﵇, depicted with arrows in their hands. The Prophet ﷺ pointed to them.

He ordered all the images to be erased before he entered the Ka’bah for prayer. The keys of the Ka’bah were held by Uthman ibn Talha of the Banu Abd al-Dar, a family that had held the guardianship of the Ka’bah for generations. After the prayer, the Prophet ﷺ called him.

Uthman ibn Talha later accepted Islam. The guardianship of the Ka’bah remained with his descendants.

The Following Day

The morning after the opening of the city, the Makkans climbed the steps of the Ka’bah to give the bay’ah to the Prophet ﷺ. The men came first, then the women. Hind bint Utbah, the wife of Abu Sufyan who at Uhud had cut out the heart of Hamza ﵁ and chewed upon it, came forward with her face covered, out of shame.

The Prophet ﷺ accepted her bay’ah.

Makkah was open. Not by the sword alone, but by a combination of power and mercy that left the city no choice but to surrender, and after the surrender no reason but to remain. The people entered Islam that day in groups. Ibn Hisham related the words of one of the former adversaries who pronounced the shahadah on that day: he had never seen a face more beautiful than that of the Prophet ﷺ on the day he entered Makkah, his head bowed upon his camel, giving thanks to Allah ﷻ.