Makkah had fallen without any fighting worth the name. Ten thousand men had taken a city that for twenty years had been the heart of the opposition to Islam. The victory was so swift and so complete that a danger arose more subtle than any army the Muslims had ever faced: complacency. One of the Companions ﵃, on entering Makkah, had said aloud that the Quraysh could no longer be defeated this day. It was no statement of arrogance but of a man who used his eyes and added up what he saw. But Allah ﷻ does not let victory rest on numbers. Hunayn was the lesson that followed at once.
The Prelude
Before the Prophet ﷺ had even left Makkah, news reached him that the Hawazin, a great tribe of central Arabia, had formed a coalition to confront the Muslims. The Hawazin were a proud and warlike tribe with branches across a large part of the Arabian Peninsula. They had seen the opening of Makkah as a threat to their own position and had decided to seek the confrontation before the Islamic state could tighten its grip on Arabia further.
Their commander was Malik ibn Awf al-Nasri, a young man of sharp mind and ambition. He had taken an unusual decision: not only would the warriors march out, but also the women, the children and the cattle of the tribe. The thought was that a man who knows his family is behind him fights more fiercely than a man risking only his own life.
One of the elders of the Hawazin, Durayd ibn al-Simma, a blind old man who had spent his whole life in war and whose judgement carried great weight, protested.
Durayd ibn al-Simma: O Malik, you have become the commander of your people. This is a day of consequence, a day that will shape the days that follow. Why do I hear the sound of camels, donkeys, women and children?
Malik ibn Awf: I want every man to have his family and possessions behind him so that he fights to protect them.
Durayd ibn al-Simma: By Allah, you are a shepherd. Has anything ever held back a fleeing man? If the battle goes for you, your men are surrounded by their families and that weakens them. If it goes against you, you have lost your people and their families. Send the women and children back to their homes.
Malik ibn Awf: No. You have grown old, and your judgement has grown old.
Durayd ibn al-Simma: You will see what I mean.
Malik ibn Awf marched out to the valley of Hunayn, east of Makkah, and positioned his men in the narrow mountain passes leading down into the valley. He chose the moment of early dawn, in the half-light, to attack.
The Ambush
The army of the Prophet ﷺ at that time numbered twelve to fourteen thousand men, the largest force the Muslims had ever assembled. Among them were the newly converted Makkans, the Tulaqa, those who at the opening of Makkah had received the amnesty and accepted Islam. They were still new in the religion, and their hearts were not yet fully shaped by faith.
When the vanguard of the army rode into the mountain pass at Hunayn, the Hawazin came down upon them from the rocks on either side. Arrows, stones and warriors came at them from every side at once. The vanguard turned in flight, and panic spread like a wave through the army. Men who only the day before had taken Makkah were now running away.
A Companion ﵃: (As the flight begins) Magic has overcome them today.
Abu Sufyan: (Who had been a Muslim only a short time) The flight will not stop until it reaches the sea.
The Prophet ﷺ stood upon his white mule and did not ride away. Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib ﵁, who had a powerful voice, stood at his side.
Prophet ﷺ: (To al-Abbas ﵁) Call out: O Companions of the Tree! O people of Surah al-Baqarah!
Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib ﵁: (Calls out at the top of his voice)
Companions ﵃: (Hearing the voice, they turn their camels and horses around and answer) Labbayk, labbayk!
The Ansar called to one another and those who had fled returned. The Prophet ﷺ dismounted from his mule, bent down and took a handful of dust from the ground.
Prophet ﷺ: (Throws the dust in the direction of the enemy) May the faces be put to shame.
Later the Companions ﵃ said that they could find no eye into which the dust had not entered.
The Reversal
The Companions ﵃ who returned formed up again and the battle turned. The Hawazin, who at first had held the initiative, saw their advantage slip away as more Muslims came back and regrouped. Malik ibn Awf withdrew to the nearby fortress of al-Ta’if. The women, children and cattle of the Hawazin, everything that Durayd ibn al-Simma had said they should leave at home, fell into the hands of the Muslims.
Durayd ibn al-Simma himself, the blind old man who had warned, was found upon his camel. A young Muslim warrior who did not recognise him struck him down. Durayd had lived through so many battles in his long life that the scars on his back surprised the young man.
Young warrior: (After the battle, astonished at the scars) Who was this man?
Bystanders: Durayd ibn al-Simma.
Young warrior: By Allah, he has killed me even as I thought to kill him.
The spoils of Hunayn were enormous. Four thousand prisoners, twenty-four thousand camels, more than forty thousand sheep and great quantities of silver. All was brought together at al-Ji’ranah, where the Prophet ﷺ would distribute it.
The Trial of the Distribution
The distribution of the spoils at al-Ji’ranah became a trial of another kind. The Prophet ﷺ gave the Tulaqa, the newly converted Makkans, an unusually large share. Abu Sufyan received a hundred camels. His sons Yazid and Mu’awiyah received a hundred camels each. Other leaders of the Quraysh and the Hawazin who had accepted Islam likewise received great gifts. It was a deliberate choice: to win over the hearts of those who were not yet deeply rooted in the faith through generosity.
The Ansar looked on, and some among them could not hide their displeasure.
Some of the Ansar ﵃: (Among themselves) By Allah, this is strange. Our swords still drip with their blood, and our spoils go to them.
The news reached the Prophet ﷺ. He had the Ansar gathered together and addressed them in a speech which the traditions have preserved almost in full.
Prophet ﷺ: O Ansar, I have heard what you say. Was I not lost, and did Allah ﷻ not guide me through you? Was I not poor, and did Allah ﷻ not enrich me through you? Were your hearts not divided, and did Allah ﷻ not unite them through me?
Ansar ﵃: Yes, Allah ﷻ and His Messenger are more generous and more noble.
Prophet ﷺ: Why do you not answer me, O Ansar?
Ansar ﵃: With what should we answer, O Messenger of Allah? Generosity and honour belong to Allah ﷻ and His Messenger.
Prophet ﷺ: By Allah, if you wished, you could have said: you came to us rejected, and we believed you; you came poor, and we supported you; you were driven out, and we gave you a home. Are you displeased over goods of this world by which I have won the hearts of a people so that they may take root in Islam, while I entrust you to your Islam? O Ansar, are you not content that the people depart with camels and sheep while you depart with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to your homes? By the One in Whose hand my soul is, were it not for the Hijrah I would be a man of the Ansar. If the people went into one valley and the Ansar into another, I would go into the valley of the Ansar. O Allah, have mercy on the Ansar, the sons of the Ansar and the grandsons of the Ansar.
(The Ansar wept until their beards were wet)
Ansar ﵃: We are content with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as our share and our portion.
The Delegation of the Hawazin
After the battle the tribe of Hawazin sent a delegation to the Prophet ﷺ to ask for the return of their prisoners. Among the captives was Halimah al-Sa’diyyah ﵂, the woman who had nursed and raised the Prophet ﷺ as an infant. She had already passed away, but her descendants were among them.
The Prophet ﷺ received the delegation and put a choice before them.
Prophet ﷺ: The people who are with me have seen what you have seen. The most beloved thing to me is the truth. Choose between two things: your prisoners or your possessions.
Delegation of the Hawazin: We choose our prisoners.
Prophet ﷺ: As for me and the Banu Abd al-Muttalib, we give back our share. Whoever wishes to give back his share willingly, let him do so. Whoever does not wish, we shall give him his right and he may claim it back later.
(The Companions ﵃ give back their shares)
Four thousand prisoners were set free.
The Lesson of Hunayn
Allah ﷻ opened Surah At-Tawbah with a direct reference to what had happened at Hunayn.
لَقَدۡ نَصَرَكُمُ ٱللَّهُ فِي مَوَاطِنَ كَثِيرَةٖ وَيَوۡمَ حُنَيۡنٍ إِذۡ أَعۡجَبَتۡكُمۡ كَثۡرَتُكُمۡ فَلَمۡ تُغۡنِ عَنكُمۡ شَيۡـٔٗا وَضَاقَتۡ عَلَيۡكُمُ ٱلۡأَرۡضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتۡ ثُمَّ وَلَّيۡتُم مُّدۡبِرِينَ
Allah has helped you in many places, and on the day of Hunayn, when your numbers made you proud but they availed you nothing, and the earth, despite its vastness, was straitened for you, and you turned and fled.
Surah At-Tawbah: 25
The victory at Hunayn was not the victory of ten thousand men. It was the victory of a handful of men who stood firm around the Prophet ﷺ while the rest fled, and of the voice of al-Abbas ﵁ that cut through the valley and called the Companions ﵃ back. Numbers do not bring victory. That had been the lesson of Badr, the lesson of Al-Khandaq, and now once again the lesson of Hunayn. Victory comes from Allah ﷻ, and Allah ﷻ gives it to those who rely on Him, not to those who rely on their own strength.