Matters Will Be Judged By Their Purposes (2/2)

The Armistice of Hudaybiyya, which the Prophet (Peace be upon him) concluded with the Meccan idolaters in the nineteenth year of his prophecy, provides a useful illustration of how matters can only be fully evaluated in the context of their purposes and outcomes. The precedent set by this accord contrasts sharply with the human tragedy common to many armed conflicts when resistance and intransigence become ends in themselves and prevail against reason, peace, and the preservation of public welfare.

Initially, the Armistice of Hudaybiyya appeared to be a defeat for the Muslims and an incomprehensible setback for their cause, but its outcome soon revealed the Prophet’s (Peace be upon him) purpose and showed the treaty to be one of his greatest achievements. At the time of the treaty, the Meccan idolaters had become weak, and the Prophet (Peace be upon him) was in an unrivalled position of strength; he could have easily defeated the Meccans militarily. Instead, he concluded a ten-year pact of peace with them. The Meccans insisted, however, upon putting disrespectful language and demeaning concessions in the treaty. For many of the Prophet’s (Peace be upon him) Companions, his acceptance of the treaty came as an immense shock. They took it to be an insufferable insult to the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and Islam; for many of them, the treaty severely tried their faith. But the Qur’an proclaimed the armistice a manifest victory. (See Qur’an, Surah Al-Fath, 48:1).

One of the Companions approached the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and asked: “Messenger of God, is it truly a victory?” He (Peace be upon him) replied: “Yes. By God, in whose hand is my soul, it is a victory.”

The Armistice of Hudaybiyya created an atmosphere of reconciliation and released all clans from earlier tribal alliances.

The Arabs were now free as individuals to listen to the Prophet’s (Peace be upon him) message and assess their personal stances toward it without the danger of violating kinship loyalties. The treaty also granted the Muslims access to Mecca, which gave their faith greater legitimacy in Arab eyes. Within months, the consequences of the armistice revealed the farsightedness of the Prophet’s (Peace be upon him) decision. It established a pax islamica in Arabia and began Islam’s meteoric rise. Al-Zuhri, one of the teachers of Imam Malik, wrote:

“No victory in Islam prior to Hudaybiyya was anything like it. Before, people would fight whenever they met.”

After the armistice, war was suspended. People were no longer afraid of each other. They would meet, speak, and argue at great length. No one with the power to reason was spoken to about Islam but that he embraced it. In those two years before the Meccans broke the armistice, the people who entered the faith were equal to the number of all those who had embraced it during the preceding nineteen years.[1]

As much as any other operational mechanism, the maxim “matters will be judged by their purposes” constitutes a clear directive that Muslims live Islam with purpose. It sets a standard by which present activities in the Muslim community must be reassessed and future undertakings planned and carried out.