A People the Daʿwah Had Already Reached

The first lesson: it is allowed to attack a people without advance notice if daʿwah has already reached them. So they do not have to tell them, or give them a chance to become Muslim.

Usually the Muslim armies would give the enemy three days, and they would give them three choices if they are People of the Book, and two choices if they are not. The three choices for the People of the Book are: to become Muslim — that is number one; if they refuse, then they pay jizyah; if they refuse, then there will be fighting. If they are mushrikīn, then number one, they become Muslim; if they refuse, then there will be fighting. And they are given three days to make up their minds. They are not given years and years of continuous daʿwah; it is only three days. That is the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and that was the way of the khulafāʾ after him.

But here they weren't even given a moment's chance to think about it. Why? Because daʿwah has already reached them. They live in Arabia; they already know about Islam; they heard about the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); so it's not something new. So ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said — this is in al-Bukhārī — "I attacked them while they were unaware and their livestock were drinking water, so I killed some of their men, and I took their families as slaves" (al-Bukhārī 2541).^‡ This is in al-Bukhārī.

They would use battle cries. So in this battle their battle cry was Yā Manṣūr, amit, amit, which means, "O conqueror, kill, kill." That was their battle cry.