Three Commanders for Muʾtah

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) appointed an army three thousand strong to attack the lands of the Romans in al-Shām. This was to be the first encounter between the Muslims and the Romans, and also the first encounter between Muslims and Christians. There was something unique this time in the appointment of the umarāʾ of this army, its leaders. Usually the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would appoint one amīr for the army, and that was it. This time it was different. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: the amīr is Zayd ibn Ḥārithah; if he is killed, then Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib; if he is killed, then ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah (al-Bukhārī 4261). Allah knows best: it could be that the risk and the danger of this encounter demanded that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) take the additional step of appointing two umarāʾ as backup for the first; or it could be because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) knew beforehand that they would be killed — Allah knows best. But nowhere else in the sīrah does the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) appoint backup umarāʾ in case the first is killed. So this is something unique about what is referred to as the Ghazwah of Muʾtah.

There is something else unique about Ghazwat Muʾtah. This is the only time in the sīrah that an army not led by the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is called a ghazwah. Usually a ghazwah is an army in which the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) participates, and a sariyyah is an army in which he does not participate; that is how it is in the books of sīrah. So whenever one sees ghazwah, one knows that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was there; and whenever one sees the title sariyyah, dispatch, one knows that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not there. Muʾtah is called a ghazwah in all the books of sīrah: that is what al-Bukhārī calls it, what Ibn Hishām calls it, Ibn Isḥāq, al-Wāqidī — they all agree on calling it a ghazwah, even though the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not there. So why? What is the reason? Some scholars said that because of its huge importance it was given this honorary title of ghazwah, even though the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not there. And it is the largest of all the sarāyā, because the sarāyā, as seen in the past, were small in number — a few hundred at most; sometimes a sariyyah would be as small as four or five. But here there were three thousand.