The ʿUmrah of Fulfilment

ʿUmrat al-Qaḍāʾ. The time had arrived for the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to go and make ʿUmrah: one year had passed since the signing of the treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyah. So the Muslims who had been with him at al-Ḥudaybiyah joined him now to make ʿUmrah. The agreement he had with Quraysh was that he would carry with him only the weapons of the traveller — swords in their sheaths. But the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) brought with him other weapons: bows, arrows, spears. And when they came close to Makkah, the news was carried that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had brought arms other than swords, so he must be preparing for war. Quraysh said: we have done nothing wrong; we did not break any of the agreements or the terms of the conditions of the agreement; why is Muḥammad attacking us?

So some of them went to Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and told him: O Muḥammad, you were never known, young or old, for treachery. You want to enter with weapons into the Ḥaram against your people, when you gave them the condition that you would enter only with the weapons of the traveller — the swords, and the shields. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: innī lā adkhuluhā bi-silāḥ — I will not enter with these weapons. Mikraz said: hādhā alladhī tuʿrafu bihi, al-birr wa al-wafāʾ — this is what you are known to be: a man of your word. Al-birr is goodness and honesty; al-wafāʾ is keeping one's word.

So here one can notice that this was the reputation of Muḥammad (peace be upon him), and this is the shahādah, the witness, of the kuffār: that he was a man of truth and a man of his word. And this is an important thing to practise. There is a Muslim character; there are Muslim morals; there is a Muslim standard of conduct. We should uphold these virtues in our dealings with Muslims and non-Muslims, because we do it for the sake of Allah, and this is ʿibādah. This is what the kuffār knew about Muḥammad (peace be upon him): that he was a man of truth — al-Ṣādiq al-Amīn, the truthful and the trustworthy. And in peace and war, the conduct of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the same. His character was that of a Muslim, the virtues of Islam; he was the living Qur'an. And it is important for us to live up to the standard of morals in Islam.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) brought these weapons with him because he needed them as a protection, a safeguard; but he was going to leave them outside Makkah and enter Makkah only with the swords. They entered Makkah, and the people of Quraysh had this hatred, jealousy and animosity in their hearts; they could not even stand being around the Muslims. So they vacated Makkah for three days to let Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and the Muslims in; they did not want to be with them. But they were on top of the mountains surrounding Makkah, looking at the Muslims, and saying among themselves that now the Muslims were going to come, and they would be weak and feeble because of the fever of Madīnah. Madīnah, as mentioned before, was famous for the endemic diseases that existed there. So the people of Quraysh were saying: yadkhulu ʿalaynā Muḥammadun wa al-muslimūna wa qad wahanathum ḥummā Yathrib — the fever of Yathrib has made them weak.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) cared about the reputation of the Muslims, and he wanted to give an image of strength. So he told the Muslims to uncover their right shoulders, and not to walk around the Kaʿbah as was the custom, but to do what is called raml. Raml is walking fast, with strength; it is like marching. So the Muslims would do that — but between al-Rukn al-Yamānī and al-Ḥajar al-Aswad, because there they would be concealed from the kuffār and the kuffār could not see them, they would walk normally.

So if one goes to ʿUmrah or Ḥajj, one will notice that the sunnah is that in the first three rounds one walks very fast, in what is called raml — it is like marching — but between al-Ḥajar al-Aswad and al-Rukn al-Yamānī one walks normally. Why? Because that was the area where the Kaʿbah would cover the Muslims from the eyes of the kuffār. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not want to exhaust the Muslims, but at the same time he did not want the kuffār to get the impression that the Muslims were weak. So he had them do this raml around three corners, or three sides, of the Kaʿbah, while on the fourth side they would walk. And if it were not for the fact that it would truly exhaust the Muslims, he would have had them do it for the seven rounds. Even though it was done with that objective, the sunnah remained, and it is still done to this day.