Lessons from the Mission of Ḥudhayfah, and from the Trench

There are, briefly, some lessons from the story of Ḥudhayfah related above. First of all, the discipline. It is very important for the Muslim who is working in a jamāʿah to have discipline. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "Don't cause any trouble." So Ḥudhayfah, even though he had Abū Sufyān in his sights and he could have shot him and killed him, stopped because of the order of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). That is discipline. Number two: he didn't feel cold throughout this journey, and that's a karāmah. Number three: his fast response. As soon as Abū Sufyān said, "Let everyone check out the man next to him," Ḥudhayfah was the one who took the initiative and did that. And finally, the difference between theory and reality. That Tābiʿī was talking about theory, while Ḥudhayfah was talking about reality, and there's a difference between the two. So don't assume things until they happen. And don't have too much confidence in yourself and in your īmān until you are tested, because one can't know the results until after the exam is given.

Some lessons from Ghazwat al-Khandaq. Number one: for the Jews to ally themselves with the mushrikīn against the Muslims is contradictory. Why would they ally themselves with the mushrikīn when they are closer, in terms of similarity of religion, to the Muslims? But even though it is contradicting, one shouldn't be surprised. And that is still repeating until this day. Contradict… the democratic West, the West of the human rights, the West that claims to be fighting for the sake of spreading democracy, is allying itself with the most autocratic and oppressive regimes on the face of the earth — for the sake of what? For the sake of fighting Islam. So one shouldn't be surprised. That is number one.

Number two: make use of the available technology. A Muslim should make use of available technology. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) approved the idea of Salmān al-Fārisī, bringing in a foreign idea, an idea that belonged to the kuffār; it belonged to the Persians. But since it isn't an issue of religion, it's a matter of strategy, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) adopted that idea, which was novel to Arab warfare.