"A Fox in a Hole"

Al-Wāqidī says: lammā maḍat khamsa ʿashrata min ḥiṣāri al-Ṭāʾif, istashāra Rasūlu Allāhi Nawfala bna Muʿāwiyata al-Dīlī, fa-qāla: yā Nawfal, mā tarā fī al-muqāmi ʿalayhim? Qāla: yā Rasūla Allāh, thaʿlabun fī juḥr, in aqamta ʿalayhi akhadhtah, wa in taraktahu lam yaḍurrak. The siege carried on for fifteen days, and they were getting nowhere, and the people of al-Ṭāʾif were still firm and strong in their resistance to the siege; al-Ṭāʾif was a fortified city surrounded by a wall, so they were well protected. And after fifteen days the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sought the shūrā, the advice, of Nawfal ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Dīlī. He said to him: what do you think about staying and continuing the siege? So Nawfal said: O Messenger of Allah, they are a fox in a hole — just like a fox in a hole: if you stay at it, you will take it, and if you leave it, it will not harm you. What Nawfal was saying is that eventually it would fall, but you would have to carry on the siege; but if you left it, it would not harm you, because they were just like a fox in a hole: they had been weakened so much, and all the people surrounding them had become Muslim, that even if you left them alone they would not have any ability to harm the Muslims.

In al-Bukhārī (4325), Ibn ʿUmar narrates: lammā kāna Rasūlu Allāhi bi-al-Ṭāʾif qāla: innā qāfilūna ghadan in shāʾa Allāh — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: tomorrow, in shāʾ Allāh, we will leave. Fa-thaqula ʿalayhim — this was heavy news for the Companions; it was like a burden on them, and they said: O Messenger of Allah, we leave without opening it? Lā nabraḥu aw naftaḥahā — we should not leave until we open the city. They had just come out of victory after victory: they had the victory of Fatḥ Makkah, and they had the victory over Hawāzin, and now they wanted to win this third victory, the opening of al-Ṭāʾif, and they still had the patience and the willingness to carry on. So they did not like the idea of leaving. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: fa-ghdū ʿalā al-qitāl — then go out early tomorrow to fight. Ghadw is setting out in the early hours of the day; go and fight. These were the instructions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

Qāla: fa-ghadaw fa-qātalūhum qitālan shadīdan, wa kathurat fīhim al-jirāḥāt — so the next day they went out, and it was a very hard fight, and many of them were wounded. On this day the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: innā qāfilūna ghadan in shāʾa Allāh — we will leave tomorrow, by the will of Allah. Qāla: fa-sakatū — Ibn ʿUmar said: they were silent and quiet. Fa-ḍaḥika Rasūlu Allāh — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) laughed. He laughed because the day before they had said, we do not want to leave; and today, because they were wounded in that stiff fighting, they liked the offer of retreating.