In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
Treasures of the Prophetic biography (Seerah).
The defeat of the Thaqif tribe.
The battle concluded.
The Muslims emerged victorious at its end.
It happened just as the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had foretold.
That they would be victorious.
Most of the Thaqif fled to Ta'if.
Some went to a place called Nakhlah.
And a group went to a place called Awtas.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, sent a detachment to Awtas.
Led by Abu 'Amir al-Ash'ari.
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
When the Prophet, peace be upon him, finished the campaign of Hunayn,
He dispatched Abu 'Amir with an army to Awtas.
He killed Durayd ibn al-Simmah.
And Allah defeated his companions.
He sent me along with Abu 'Amir.
A man from the Jusham tribe shot him with an arrow.
It lodged firmly in his knee.
I said, "O uncle, who shot you?"
He pointed to him and said,
"That is the one who killed me [with that shot]."
Abu Musa said:
I pursued him and caught up with him.
When he saw me, he fled.
I followed him.
I began saying to him,
"Are you not ashamed? Will you not stand and fight?"
He stopped.
We exchanged two sword strikes.
I killed him.
Then I said to Abu 'Amir,
"Allah has killed your assailant."
He said,
"Pull this arrow out."
I pulled it out.
Water [fluid] flowed from it.
He said,
"O son of my brother,
Convey my greetings to the Prophet, peace be upon him,
And ask him to seek forgiveness for me."
Then Abu 'Amir appointed me as his successor over the people.
I returned and entered upon the Prophet, peace be upon him, in his house.
He was on a bed made of woven palm fibers.
With a mattress over it.
The bed had left marks on his back and side.
I informed him of our news and the news of Abu 'Amir.
And I told him what Abu 'Amir had said.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, called for water.
He performed ablution.
Then he raised his hands and said,
"O Allah, forgive your servant Abu 'Amir."
I saw the whiteness of his armpits,
Meaning he raised his hands very high.
Then he said,
"O Allah, make him on the Day of Resurrection above many of Your creation among the people."
Abu Musa said:
"And for me, seek forgiveness."
He said,
"O Allah, forgive 'Abdullah ibn Qays his sins,
And admit him to a noble entrance on the Day of Resurrection."
Abu Burdah ibn Abi Musa said:
One of these was for Abu 'Amir,
And the other for Abu Musa.
Meaning the supplication that the Prophet, peace be upon him, made.
Treasures of the Prophetic biography (Seerah).
Some etiquette of supplication.
His statement:
"He called for water and performed ablution,"
"Then raised his hands,"
Indicates several matters.
Among them:
First,
That the Prophet, peace be upon him, used to supplicate for his Companions,
Especially when they requested it of him.
Second,
It indicates that it is the Sunnah, if one wishes to remember Allah, Blessed and Exalted be He,
Through supplication or otherwise,
To perform ablution.
Third,
It indicates that the Sunnah in supplication is to raise the hands.
Fourth,
The permissibility of requesting supplication from others.
This first group
Pursued the polytheists to Awtas.
And the second group
Pursued those who took the path to Nakhlah.
They caught whom they caught and killed them.
Treasures of the Prophetic biography (Seerah).
Collecting the spoils and the siege of Ta'if.
As for the spoils,
They were something extraordinary.
They reached six thousand captives,
Twenty-four thousand camels,
Forty thousand sheep,
And four thousand ounces of silver.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, ordered them to be collected.
Then he held all the spoils in al-Ji'ranah.
He did not distribute them until he went to Ta'if, peace be upon him.
Among the captives was
al-Shayma',
The Prophet's sister through nursing.
The polytheists entered Ta'if under the leadership of Malik ibn 'Awf.
And they fortified themselves within it.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, followed them and besieged them.
The siege lasted forty days.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, set up, as is well known,
A catapult against the people of Ta'if and struck them with it.
Then a herald for the Prophet, peace be upon him, called out,
Meaning: Any slave who descends from the fortress and comes out to us is free.
Twenty-three slaves came out to him.
Among them was Abu Bakrah al-Thaqafi.
The people of the fortress had prepared for this.
They had enough supplies to last them a year, as it is said.
At that point, the Prophet, peace be upon him, announced to the people:
"We are departing tomorrow, if Allah wills."
This weighed heavily upon them.
They said, "O Messenger of Allah,
Are we leaving without conquering the fortress?"
"How can that be?"
The Prophet, peace be upon him, said,
"Set out for battle in the morning."
They went out to battle and sustained injuries.
Then the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said,
"We are departing tomorrow."
They were pleased with that.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, smiled.
It was said, "O Messenger of Allah,
Supplicate against the Thaqif."
He said,
"O Allah, guide the Thaqif and bring them [to Islam]."
Treasures of the Prophetic biography (Seerah).
The conversion of 'Urwah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him.
When the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, returned from Ta'if,
'Urwah ibn Mas'ud came to him,
Followed him, and accepted Islam.
This 'Urwah
Is the one who came to the Prophet, peace be upon him,
And spoke with him shortly before the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.
He is the one who said after returning to the people of Makkah:
"I have entered upon the kings of Persia and Rome,
And I have entered upon the companions of the Negus in his kingdom and others,
Yet I have never seen anyone revere anyone
As the companions of Muhammad revere Muhammad, peace be upon him."
Ibn Ishaq said:
When the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, departed from Ta'if,
'Urwah ibn Mas'ud followed his tracks,
Until he caught up with him before he entered Madinah.
He accepted Islam.
He asked him to return to his people with Islam.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said,
"Are you not afraid that your people will kill you?"
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, knew they had a pride that would resist.
'Urwah said,
"O Messenger of Allah,
I am dearer to them than their own firstborns."
He was indeed beloved and obeyed among them.
So he went out calling his people to Islam,
Hoping they would not oppose him,
Due to his status among them.
When he appeared to them on an upper room of his,
Having called them to Islam,
And having openly displayed his religion to them,
They shot him with arrows from every direction.
An arrow struck him and killed him.
It was said to 'Urwah,
"What do you think of your blood?"
He said,
"It is an honor Allah has bestowed upon me,
And a martyrdom that Allah has driven toward me.
There is nothing in me but what is in the martyrs
Who were killed with the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
Before he departed from you.
So bury me with them."
And they buried him with them.
Treasures of the Prophetic biography (Seerah).
Distribution of the spoils.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, returned
From the siege of the Thaqif in Ta'if to al-Ji'ranah.
He stayed there for over ten nights without distributing the spoils,
Waiting for the Hawazin to come in repentance,
So he could return their wealth to them.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, gave
Abu Sufyan ibn Harb
Forty ounces and one hundred camels.
He gave Hakim ibn Hizam one hundred camels.
He gave Safwan ibn Umayyah one hundred camels,
Then another hundred, then another hundred.
He gave al-Harith ibn Kaldah one hundred camels.
He gave others fifty camels each.
All of this was to reconcile their hearts.
Some of them were Muslims who had accepted Islam at the Conquest,
And some were those who still remained in polytheism.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, used to
Reconcile them with this wealth.
He gave some fifty and others forty,
According to their status among their people.
The Bedouins crowded around him, demanding wealth.
They pressed him back against a tree.
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said:
"O people, by Him in whose hand is my soul,
if I possessed as many sheep as the trees of Tihamah,
I would distribute them all among you.
You would not find me to be a miser, a coward, or a liar."
"O people, by Allah, I have no share of your spoils,
not even this much—pointing to a hair—except for the one-fifth,
and even that one-fifth is returned to you."
Al-Bukhari narrated to us the actions of some Bedouins
toward the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said:
Ali Ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, sent
to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
some gold ore still in its raw, unrefined state.
It had not yet been separated from its earth.
He divided it among four men:
'Uyaynah Ibn Badr,
Al-Aqra' Ibn Habis,
Zayd al-Khayl,
and the fourth was either 'Alqamah
or 'Amir Ibn al-Tufayl.
A man among his Companions said,
"We are more deserving of this than they are."
This reached the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and he said:
"Do you not trust me,
when I am trusted by the One who is in heaven?
The news of heaven comes to me morning and evening."
Then a man stood up with sunken eyes,
prominent cheekbones,
a bulging forehead,
a thick beard,
a shaved head,
and his lower garment tucked up.
He said, "O Messenger of Allah,
fear Allah."
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said to him,
"Woe to you!
Am I not the most deserving of all people on earth to fear Allah?"
Then the man turned away.
Khalid Ibn al-Walid said,
"O Messenger of Allah,
shall I strike off his head?"
He said, "No,
perhaps he is someone who prays."
Khalid replied,
"How many people pray and say with their tongues what is not in their hearts?"
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said,
"I have not been commanded to pry into the hearts of people,
nor to split open their bellies."
Then he looked at him as he was leaving and said,
"From the offspring of this man will emerge
a people who recite the Book of Allah with their tongues,
but it will not go beyond their throats.
They will pass through the religion just as an arrow passes through its target.
If I were to live to see them, I would surely destroy them as the people of Thamud were destroyed."
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari said:
I was with the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
while he was stationed at al-Ji'ranah,
and Bilal was with him.
A Bedouin came to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and said,
"Will you not fulfill what you promised me?"
He said to him, "Rejoice."
The man said,
"You have said 'rejoice' to me too many times."
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, turned
toward me and Bilal, appearing as if he were angry,
and said,
"Accept the good news."
"Do you two accept?"
They replied, "We accept."
Then a vessel containing water was brought,
and he washed his hands and face in it,
rinsed his mouth in it, and then said,
"Drink from it, pour it over your faces and chests, and rejoice."
They took the vessel and did as he said.
Umm Salamah called out from behind the curtain,
"Leave some for your mother!"
So they left some for her.
This is how the Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, acted.
As for those hypocrites,
or those whose hearts faith had not yet entered,
because of the harshness and harm they inflicted upon the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
they are the Khawarij,
who rebelled against the Ummah of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
They do not care;
they strike both the righteous and the wicked among them.
[The text ends here].