The Prophet's battles

The Prophet's battles

The biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him)

The trade of Quraysh to the Levant was passing from a road near Medina which means it passed near the borders of the new Muslim State.

The difference between Ghazwah (battle) and Sariyyah (battalion):

Ghazwah is the name of the battle in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) participated as a leader whether the battle is fought or not. The Great Battle of Badr was preceded by the Minor Battle of Badr which was the battle of Safwan.

Sariyyah is the name of the battalion which the Prophet (peace be upon him) sent without participating in. The first battalion in Islam was the battalion of Hamzah ibn `Abdul-Muttalib (may Allah be pleased with him) then the battalion of `Ubaydah ibn Al Harith ibn `Abdul-Muttalib ibn `Abdul-Muttalib then the battalion of Sa`d ibn Abu Waqqas.

Medina did not have an organized army to defend its borders, but there were some detachments roaming in the desert to check the borders to see whether there is an army, fighters, or highwaymen who want to attack Medina, then fighters go out to defend Medina.

Fighters used to gather in danger time voluntarily without taking wages or salaries for that. Moreover, they did not have headquarter to record their names or numbers, and when they won the war, a knight used to have triple the share of an infantry.

The people of Medina were not all Muslims, but Jews also existed and were plotting against Muslims. There were three groups and tribes of Jews in Medina: Banu Qaynuqa`, Banu An-Nadir, and Banu Qurayzhah who were more in number and more powerful in fighting; and all Jews had forts, money, and soldiers.

The rest of the people of Medina were not true Muslims because they were men like `Abdullah ibn Salul who embraced Islam with his tongue without believing with his heart. He was the head of hypocrites in Medina and was plotting against Muslims. He was from the tribe of Al Khazraj, and wars between Al Aws and Al Khazraj were continuous because of the Jews who were inciting enmity between them so as to make the Jews superior, then they established peace between them by the migration of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to Medina.

Ibn Salul was about to be the king of Al Aws and Al Khazraj, but when the Prophet (peace be upon him) reached Medina, Ibn Salul preferred the world to the Hereafter and leadership to faith, so he became the worst enemy of Islam.

Those were the conditions of Medina when the first Hijri year ended.

The second Hijri year has come after the establishment of the Muslim State. The trade of Quraysh was going and coming, camels were in thousands, and the money of Muslims was taken by the disbelievers aggressively and oppressively. When Suhayb (may Allah be pleased with him) migrated to Medina, the disbelievers ran after him to prevent him, so he took out his arrows and said to them: You know that I am a good archer and if you prevent me, I will throw arrows to kill a man by each arrow. Then I shall take out my sword and fight with it until I die. They said: Do you think that we shall leave you go to Muhammad? He said: What about giving you the gold which I own, will you be satisfied? They said: We will be satisfied. He said: Shall I guide you to it in my home at Makkah. They said: We are satisfied because we believe you and we have not recorded a single lie against a Muslim. He said: Under the pole of my house's door. So, they left him.

There is no doubt that the money of Suhayb and the money of other Muslims is part of the Qurayshi trade.

The Third Hijri year was full of great events: In which the Qiblah was turned from Baytul-Maqdis [Jerusalem] to the Ka`bah, the Prophet (peace be upon him) performed Salatul-`Eid, and the great Battle of Badr took place on the 17^th of Ramadan. [Excerpted from the book of the story of the Prophets]