Abū Bakrah

When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was laying siege to al-Ṭāʾif, an announcement was made that whoever surrendered would be freed, even if they were slaves. So one of those who came down was Abū Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who became one of the scholars and narrators of the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Abū Bakrah: a bakrah is the wheel of iron that a rope runs over as it comes down — and he was given that title on the day of al-Ṭāʾif because he came down from the wall using a rope, so he was given the nickname Abū Bakrah. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) freed him, so he was freed after this incident; and some others also surrendered on that day. Abū Bakrah says that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say: man iddaʿā ilā ghayri abīhi wa huwa yaʿlamu fa-al-jannatu ʿalayhi ḥarām — anyone who claims someone other than his real father as his father, while knowing the truth, will be denied Paradise (al-Bukhārī 4326). So this is a warning to anybody who claims that someone other than his real father is his father: it is a sin to do so. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that such a person will be denied Paradise.

Al-Ṭāʾif was the last ghazwah the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) fought against the Arabs. This was the end of the wars with the Arabs; after that there were small skirmishes, but there were no more ghazawāt. Now a new front would open, a new frontier, and that is the frontier with the Roman Empire — and that is the Ghazwah of Tabūk.