Lessons from the Two Incidents

There are some lessons from these two incidents, the one with Ghaṭafān and the one with Nuʿaym ibn Masʿūd. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) negotiated with Ghaṭafān because they were there only for financial gain, but the Jews and Quraysh were fighting a war of ʿaqīdah. Their objective was to bring down Islam from its foundations, and therefore he didn't even attempt to negotiate with them. So the objectives of the enemy need to be known. Is the enemy fighting because of ʿaqīdah, or is the enemy fighting for another reason, or is it a combination of both? With Ghaṭafān, they were drawn into this because they were going to make money, and if they can make money off Muḥammad (peace be upon him), then so be it: "we'll leave." And they agreed. But the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) never attempted to do that with the Jews or with Quraysh, because they were fighting from a standpoint of ʿaqīdah. Quraysh were fighting to defend their religion and to take revenge on those men from Quraysh who became Muslim, and the Jews were also fighting from an ʿaqīdah point of view. So it's important to know, to try to study, the enemy.

Another lesson: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah and Saʿd ibn Muʿādh that the reason why he was making this offer is because he saw that the Arabs are as if they are shooting you from one single bow, meaning that they have unified against you, "and I want to break up that coalition": innī raʾaytu al-ʿAraba ramatkum ʿan qawsin wāḥidah. So the lesson here is that the Muslim leader needs to have ḥikmah, and if it's possible to neutralise a particular party, some of the enemies of Islam, rather than have them all to face at once, that can be part of the strategy. And the Muslims shouldn't try to make enemies, but they should try to neutralise the enemy, as long as this is done without giving up some of our principles. Why fight everybody at once? That was where the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was coming from. He was trying to break up this coalition. Ghaṭafān, we can deal with them later; let's deal with the priority now, which is Quraysh and the Yahūd.

Now, one can argue that this was before the ruling of Allah, wa qātilū al-mushrikīna kāffah, "now fight all of the disbelievers" (9:36).^*** But even then, if the Muslims don't have the capability of doing that, they can strategise and rank them according to how dangerous they are as enemies of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.

A further lesson: the leader should have the capability of taking advantage of the abilities of his soldiers. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) here didn't invite Nuʿaym to come over and just give him a sword and give him a spear and tell him, "Well, go and fight." No, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) knew where to use Nuʿaym ibn Masʿūd. So the leader needs to know the qualities of his followers and put each person in the right place: put the right person in the right place to do the right thing.