Expeditions of the Sixth Year

Some other events occurred during that year: these are small sarāyā, dispatches. In Rabīʿ al-Awwal of that year, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent ʿUkkāshah ibn Miḥṣan with a force of forty men to al-Ghamr, the Ghamr of Marzūq. The enemy fled from him, and he encamped at their wells. He then sent some men in pursuit of them and took two hundred of their camels, which he led back to Madīnah; these were taken as ghanīmah. Also that year was the dispatch of Abū ʿUbaydah to Dhū al-Qaṣṣah; he had with him forty men. He made for them on foot, reaching them in the morning while it was still dark. They fled from him into the mountain heights. He captured one of their men and brought him to the Messenger of Allah.

And then there was the dispatch of Muḥammad ibn Maslamah with a force of ten men. The enemy hid from him until night, and then all of the men of Muḥammad ibn Maslamah were killed, except that he escaped, but wounded. Al-ayyāmu duwal: one day you win, the next day you lose; that is the sunnah of Allah (swt) in the dunyā. So one cannot stop the struggle just because of a setback. Muḥammad ibn Maslamah was the only one of this group who escaped alive.

And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent Zayd ibn Ḥārithah to al-Jamūm. He also sent Zayd ibn Ḥārithah to Banū Thaʿlabah, and he sent Zayd ibn Ḥārithah to al-ʿĪṣ. Here Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (may Allah be pleased with him) was sent to lead three sarāyā within one year. This shows us the level of trust the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had in Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, who had been his slave: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) freed him, and then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) married him to a woman who belonged to the nobility of Makkah, Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (may Allah be pleased with her), whose story was told. And this shows us again the trust the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had in Zayd ibn Ḥārithah — a man who, without Islam, would never have imagined in his life that he would lead an army. He would not even have imagined that he would be a free man, honoured in society, let alone lead an army that had in it some of the great men of Quraysh, or of al-Khazraj, or of al-Aws. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would appoint him some time later, as will be told, to lead in one of the great battles of Islamic history, Ghazwat Muʾtah — only to be honoured by Allah (swt) and to die as a shahīd.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib to Banū Saʿd ibn Bakr. They were sent because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had heard that these people were planning to give the Jews of Khaybar some assistance, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wanted to prevent that. So he sent ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib to them. They did not fight; they fled from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. He captured one of their men, and this man admitted to being a spy for them, and they retrieved some information from him. So it can be seen from this story that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was very aware of what was happening around him. He had very strong intelligence about everything that was going on in Arabia. He had, for example, Khuzāʿah acting as intelligence officers for him, getting information from Quraysh; he had information from the areas in which the Jews were living; he had intelligence coming to him about what was happening in Ghaṭafān. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not taken by surprise; in fact, he would take his enemies by surprise. Not only were the Muslims strong on the battlefield; they were very strong in reconnaissance and in gathering information.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf (may Allah be pleased with him) was sent to Dūmat al-Jandal, and the instructions were: go and invite them to Islam, and if they accept Islam, then offer to marry the daughter of their king. And that did happen: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf (may Allah be pleased with him) married the daughter of their king, al-Aṣbagh al-Kalbī. Her name was Tumāḍir, and she was married to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf (may Allah be pleased with him). These are some scattered events that occurred in the sixth year of the hijrah.