The Objectives These Ghazawāt Served

And these ghazawāt served a lot of different objectives. It was surveillance of new territory: the Muslims would learn about this new territory; they would travel through it and learn about the topography and the paths and the people who are along the way, the different tribes. It was physical training for them. These ghazawāt represented lessons in discipline. They also served the purpose of bonding of this ummah outside the realm of family and tribe — that was everything for the Arab, family and tribe. Now there was this new bond developing between an ummah, and such journeys were an opportunity for this bonding to develop, because they spent more time together — as we have seen, for example, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was talking with Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh (may Allah be pleased with him), having that conversation with him during the ghazwah of Dhāt al-Riqāʿ. Also, he was establishing political presence, making agreements with different tribes along the way. It was an expression of strength: people would hear about that; the news would spread all over that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) travelled this long distance to go and meet an enemy 450 kilometres away from Madīnah.

And it also shows that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was very daring and willing to take risk in these ghazawāt, but at the same time they were very well planned and executed. So there is a difference between being daring and willing to take risk, and being rash. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would plan out very elaborately these ghazawāt, and would take the necessary risk. He is travelling a long distance, and he is getting far away from Madīnah, so if an enemy heard about that, they could attack Madīnah. But the thing is that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) planned it out very well, so it was very stealthy and quiet, and even his enemy didn't even hear about it, let alone the other people in Arabia.