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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

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Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

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A Summary of the Prophetic Biography (Seerah),

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Authored by Shaykh Musa ibn Rashid al-'Azimi,

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May Allah preserve him.

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The Expedition of Khabat (Tree Leaves).

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*Al-Khabat* refers to the leaves that fall from trees

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By striking and shaking the branches.

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The two Shaykhs (al-Bukhari and Muslim) narrated in their *Sahih*s,

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And the wording is from Muslim,

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On the authority of Jabir ibn 'Abdillah (may Allah be pleased with them both) who said:

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The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) dispatched us,

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And appointed Abu 'Ubaydah over us as leader,

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To intercept a caravan belonging to Quraysh.

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He provided us with a leather bag of dates,

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Finding nothing else for us.

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Thus, Abu 'Ubaydah used to give us one date each, one by one.

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I asked, "How did you manage with just one date?"

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He said, "We would suck on it just as a child sucks,

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Then we would drink water over it,

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And it would suffice us for the day until nightfall.

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We would also strike tree leaves (*khabat*) with our sticks,

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Then wet them with water and eat them."

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He continued, "We set out along the seashore,

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And there appeared to us on the coast something like a huge sandhill.

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We approached it and found it to be a creature called *al-'Anbar* (a sperm whale),

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Which is a large marine creature.

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Abu 'Ubaydah said,

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'It is carrion.'

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Then he reconsidered and said, 'No!

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Rather, we are the envoys of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him),

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And we are in the cause of Allah.

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Since you have been forced by necessity, eat of it.'

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He said, 'So we stayed near it for a month,

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While we were three hundred men,

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Until we gained weight.

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I remember us scooping out oil from its eye socket with large jugs,

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And cutting chunks of meat from it as large as a bull,

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Or equal to the size of a bull.

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Abu 'Ubaydah took thirteen men from among us

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And seated them inside its eye socket.

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Then he took one of its ribs and set it upright,

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Then saddled the largest camel among us,

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And it passed right underneath it.

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We also provisioned ourselves with dried strips of its meat (*washa'iq*).'

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*Al-Washa'iq* is the plural of *washiqah*,

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Which refers to meat that is taken,

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Parboiled slightly without being fully cooked,

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And carried along on journeys.

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'When we arrived back in Medina,

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We came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

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And mentioned that to him.

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He said,

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"It is a provision that Allah brought forth for you.

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Do you have any of its meat with you to give us some to eat?"'

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He said,

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'So we sent some of it to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and he ate from it.'"

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According to another wording in the two *Sahih*s,

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Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

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"There was a man among us

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Who, when the hunger became severe, slaughtered three camels,

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Then another three camels,

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Until Abu 'Ubaydah (may Allah be pleased with him) forbade him."

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Al-Hafiz said in *Al-Fath*:

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"This man

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Was Qays ibn Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah (may Allah be pleased with him)."

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Benefits from the Expedition of Khabat:

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Al-Hafiz said in *Al-Fath*:

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"From it is derived:

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The permissibility of eating sea carrion,

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Whether it died naturally or through hunting,

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Which is the opinion of the majority of scholars."

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Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said:

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"In it is evidence for the permissibility of scholarly reasoning (*ijtihad*) regarding events during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him),

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And his approval of that.

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However, this occurred in a situation of dire need for *ijtihad*,

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Where they were unable to consult the text directly.

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Indeed, Abu Bakr and 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) exercised *ijtihad* in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

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Regarding several occurrences,

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And he approved of both of them doing so.

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But this was only in specific individual cases,

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Not regarding general rulings or universal sacred laws,

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For such a thing never occurred from any of the Companions in his presence at all."

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Regarding the timeline of this expedition according to scholars of military history (*al-maghazi*):

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The majority of scholars of *al-maghazi* held

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That the Expedition of Khabat took place in Rajab of the eighth year after the Hijrah.

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However, there is doubt regarding this view.

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Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir said:

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"The implication of most of these narrations

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Is that this expedition took place before the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyyah."

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Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said:

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"This context indicates that this military dispatch took place before the truce

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And before the 'Umrah of al-Hudaybiyyah.

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For ever since he made peace with the people of Mecca at al-Hudaybiyyah,

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He did not lie in wait for any of their caravans;

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Rather, it was a time of security and peace until the Conquest of Mecca.

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It is highly improbable that the Expedition of Khabat occurred in this exact manner twice:

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Once before the treaty and once after it.

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And Allah knows best."

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He also said:

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"Section regarding the legal understanding (*fiqh*) of this story:

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In it is

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The permissibility of fighting during the sacred month,

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If the historical mention of Rajab in it is accurately preserved.

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However, what is apparent—and Allah knows best—

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Is that it is an error and not preserved,

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Since it is not reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

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That he fought during a sacred month,

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Nor that he launched a raid during it,

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Nor dispatched an expedition during it."

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Al-Hafiz said in *Al-Fath*:

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"Intercepting the caravan of Quraysh

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Cannot be conceived to have occurred at the time mentioned by Ibn Sa'd, namely Rajab of the year 8 AH,

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Because they were under a peace treaty at that time.

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Rather, what is dictated by what appears in the *Sahih*

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Is that this expedition was in the year 6 AH

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Or prior to it, before the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyyah."

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An Important Note:

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I say:

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There occurs in *Sahih Muslim* a military expedition led by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

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Whose events closely resemble those of the Expedition of Khabat,

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And it is also narrated on the authority of Jabir ibn 'Abdillah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with them both),

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Who narrated the story of the Expedition of Khabat alongside Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah (may Allah be pleased with them both).

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Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

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"We marched with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the Expedition of Batan Buwat,

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While he was searching for al-Majdi ibn 'Amr al-Juhani.

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A single water-carrying camel was shared alternately by five, six, or seven of us."

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Until he said:

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"The daily sustenance for each man among us was a single date.

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He would suck it and then tie it up in his garment.

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We used to strike tree leaves with our bows and eat them

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Until the sides of our mouths became sore."

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Until he said:

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"The people complained of hunger to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him),

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So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

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'May Allah feed you.'

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So we reached the seashore,

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And the sea surged with a great surge—

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Meaning its waves rose high—

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And threw up a huge sea creature.

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So we lit a fire beside one side of it,

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And we cooked, roasted, and ate until we were full.

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Then I, along with so-and-so and so-and-so—

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Until he counted five people—

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Entered into its eye socket,

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And no one could see us

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Until we came back out.

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Then we took one of its ribs and bent it,

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Then we called for the largest man in the caravan,

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And the largest camel in the caravan,

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And the largest camel-saddle in the caravan,

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And he passed underneath it without even lowering his head."

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Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir mentioned the events of the Expedition of Khabat led by Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah (may Allah be pleased with him),

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Then he said:

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"In some narrations of Muslim,

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It is mentioned that they were with the Prophet (peace be upon him) when they found this whale.

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Some scholars said:

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'This was a separate incident.'

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While others said:

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'Rather, it was a single event;

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However, they were initially with the Prophet (peace be upon him),

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Then he dispatched them on an expedition led by Abu 'Ubaydah (may Allah be pleased with him),

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So they found this creature during that expedition of theirs with Abu 'Ubaydah (may Allah be pleased with him).'

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And Allah knows best."

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Al-Hafiz said in *Al-Fath*:

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"The apparent context of this story

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Requires it to be distinct from the story mentioned in the chapter,

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Which is also from the narration of Jabir.

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To the extent that 'Abd al-Haqq said in *Al-Jam' Bayn al-Sahihayn*:

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'This is a separate incident from that one,

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For this one took place in the presence of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).'

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However, what he mentioned is not explicit evidence for that,

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Due to the possibility that the particle *fa* in the statement of Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him)—

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'So we reached the seashore'—

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Is the explanatory *fa* (*al-fahiyyah*),

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Succeeding an omitted phrase, estimated as:

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'So the Prophet (peace be upon him) sent us with Abu 'Ubaydah,

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And so we reached the seashore.'

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Thus, the two stories would be one and the same.

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And this is the preferred view in my assessment,

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As the default principle is non-duplication of events.

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Among the matters to be pointed out here as well

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Is that al-Waqidi claimed that the story of Abu 'Ubaydah's dispatch occurred in Rajab of the year 8 AH,

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Which in my view is an error,

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Because in the authentic report itself,

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It states that they went out to lie in wait for a caravan of Quraysh,

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Whereas Quraysh, in the eighth year,

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Were bound by a peace treaty with the Prophet (peace be upon him).

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I have already drawn attention to that in *Al-Maghazi*,

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And suggested the possibility that this took place before the truce,

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In the sixth year or earlier.

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Then it became clear to me now that this is strengthened

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By the statement of Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) in this narration of Muslim:

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That they set out on the Expedition of Buwat.

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And the Expedition of Buwat took place in the second year after the Hijrah, prior to the Battle of Badr,

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When the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

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Set out with two hundred of his Companions

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To intercept a caravan belonging to Quraysh in which Umayyah ibn Khalaf was present.

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He reached Bawat, but encountered no one, so he returned.

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It is as if he dispatched Abu Ubaydah alone alongside his detachment

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to keep watch for the aforementioned caravan.

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That this occurred early on is supported by the extreme poverty and hardship described in the account.

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The reality is that by the eighth year after the Hijrah,

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their circumstances had broadened significantly through the conquest of Khaybar and other victories.

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The hardship mentioned in this narration clearly fits the very beginning of the Islam period.

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This gives weight to the view I have mentioned, and Allah knows best.

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*Al-Mukhtasar fi al-Seerah al-Nabawiyyah* (The Abridged Prophetic Biography)

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Though longing between lovers may grow deep and long,

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The boundlessness of our longing for you can never be encompassed.

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May peace and blessings of Allah be upon you whenever the call to prayer is raised,

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And whenever lips move to utter the enduring words of remembrance.