Letters in Three Days

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was constantly receiving information; he had spies all over. Al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was by now working for the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in Makkah, so he sent him a message which was carried swiftly in three days — impressive for the modes of transportation in those days, to cut the distance between Makkah and Madīnah in three days; that is pretty good, it is fast. So a letter was conveyed to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) telling him the details: an army of three thousand, they have seven hundred coats of mail, they have such and such a number of camels — he was elaborate in the details. So this was the first news that reached the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) of the plans of Quraysh, and the source of this information was al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (may Allah be pleased with him). When the news was delivered to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), he told Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who read the letter: "Keep this secret. Don't tell anybody about it." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent al-Mundhir to go and blend in within the army and get him information, and he came back with the same details that al-ʿAbbās had reported — so the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was corroborating the information from more than one source. Then he sent out Anas and Muʿāwiyah, likewise, to go inside the army of Quraysh and bring back news, and they came back with the same report. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) then went to one of the chiefs of the Anṣār, Saʿd ibn al-Rabīʿ, and visited him at his house, and told him that Quraysh were attacking them. He gave him some of the details and asked his opinion, and then, before he left, told him: "Keep this secret. Keep this information secret. It's classified."