Ḥudhayfah Sent into the Enemy Camp

He said, "Nephew, I swear I see us now with the Messenger of Allah at al-Khandaq. And after he had prayed for part of the night, he turned to us and asked, 'Who will volunteer to go and see what the enemy is doing and then come back?' The Messenger of Allah stipulated that if the volunteer would come back, he would ask Allah that the man be his companion in Paradise. But so severe was the fear, cold and hunger, that not one person volunteered."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is asking for a volunteer, and this volunteer will be with him in Jannah. All that he has to do is go and visit the camp of the enemy and come back. Ḥudhayfah said: none of us stood up; none of us volunteered. Why? Because we were so terrified; it was cold; we were so hungry. And when you are in a situation like that, you can't think straight. So none of us stood up.

Ḥudhayfah then said, "Since no one had risen, he called upon me, and once he had done so, I had no alternative but to do so." So now the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not asking for a volunteer. He said, "Ḥudhayfah, you go." "He then told me, 'Ḥudhayfah, go and infiltrate the enemy; go and see what they are doing, but don't cause any trouble; then return to us.'"

Ḥudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "So I did. The gale and Allah's soldiers were greatly damaging them, leaving them no fire, nor pots, nor tents upright." The wind was so strong it was blowing everything. "Abū Sufyān arose and said, 'Quraysh, every man check out the person sitting next to him.'" Abū Sufyān was worried that in such a condition, where the wind is blowing so fiercely, the enemy could possibly try to infiltrate them, so Abū Sufyān said, "Let everyone check the person next to him." Ḥudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "At this, I took the hand of the man next to me and asked him his name." So Ḥudhayfah acted very quickly: rather than have somebody ask him, he asked the man next to him. A very smart move; it saved him his life. "He told me who he was.

"Abū Sufyān then said, 'We're not in a permanent camp; our horses and camels are dying, and Banū Qurayẓah are at odds with us, and we've heard things about them that we don't like. You can see what we've lost due to the gale, how our cooking pots won't stay upright, and we can't keep fires burning and our tents standing. You should leave, as I am about to do.'" That's it; they were giving up. "He then went to his camel, which was hobbled, mounted it, and struck it so that it arose on three legs, since he only unhobbled it when it was standing. If it hadn't been for the promise that the Messenger of Allah made me make not to cause trouble, I could have shot him with an arrow." Because, remember, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "Don't cause any trouble; just go, gather information, and come back."

Ḥudhayfah went on: "So I returned to the Messenger of Allah and found him standing in prayer, shrouded in a wrap belonging to one of his wives. When he saw me, he asked me to come in to sit at his feet and threw an end of the wrap over me. He then bowed and prostrated while I was under it. When he was finished, I related the news to him. When Ghaṭafān heard what Quraysh had done, they hurried off home." So now everybody left. This is the narration of Aḥmad.