In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Mawaddah Association is pleased
to present to you portraits from the lives of the Companions,
by Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,
may Allah have mercy upon him.
Al-Ala' Ibn al-Hadrami, may Allah be pleased with you.
The warriors, those seeking martyrdom, moved their camels forward,
and resumed their bitter struggle against the Dahna desert in the Empty Quarter,
until, by the permission of Allah and in His cause, they conquered its scorching sands,
subdued its deadly wilderness,
and terrified its ferocious beasts.
They made the desert complain of their footsteps more than they complained of it.
Whenever they were on the verge of exhaustion,
their brilliant and peerless commander, Al-Ala' Ibn al-Hadrami, would appear before them,
pouring into their hearts a spirit that filled them with resolve and determination,
and imbuing them with a firmness and courage that ignited their zeal and boldness.
He reminded them of Allah’s favor and mercy upon them in the Dahna desert,
which increased them in faith upon their faith.
The army of believers continued to press on, through the fatigue of the night and the day,
until they reached Bahrain and encamped in its outskirts.
The inspired commander did not waste a single moment of his time;
he dispatched his scouts everywhere to gather intelligence for him,
and to investigate the conditions.
He learned that no sooner had the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
passed to the side of his Lord, than the callers of evil arose, saying:
"If Muhammad were a prophet, he would not have died."
Consequently, the people of Bahrain all apostatized from their religion,
and surrendered their leadership to al-Hutam Ibn Dubay'ah.
Not a single person among them remained upon Islam,
except for the people of one village: the village of Juwatha.
As for the news of this faithful village,
there was among them a man from the elite Companions of the Messenger, peace be upon him,
namely al-Jarud Ibn al-Mu'alla.
He had visited the Great Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and drank from his guidance as much as Allah willed for him to drink.
Then he returned to his people,
and remained among them, calling them to Allah the Almighty,
and teaching them the upright religion.
When he saw that his people were inclined to apostatize with the apostates,
he gathered them and said:
"O my people,
I am going to ask you about a matter, so tell me if you know it."
They said, "Ask."
He said:
"Do you know that Allah had prophets before Muhammad?"
They said, "Yes."
He said:
"Then where are they?"
They said:
"They died."
He said:
"Then Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
has died just as they died.
And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah,
and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,
and that Allah is Ever-Living and does not die."
They said:
"You are the best of us, the wisest of us, and our leader,
and you have spoken nothing but the truth."
Then they remained steadfast upon Islam,
opposing all of their fellow tribesmen in doing so.
At that, al-Hutam besieged them with his soldiers,
tightened the noose around them,
and cut off their food supplies,
leaving them to die of hunger without war or combat.
Yet that severe siege did not shake their faith.
Their poet said,
seeking help from al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, from afar:
"Convey to Abu Bakr a complaint,
and to the youth of Medina, all of us.
Will you not help a noble people,
sitting in Juwatha, besieged?
We have placed our trust in the Most Merciful, for we
have found patience for those who trust."
No sooner had Al-Ala' Ibn al-Hadrami reached Bahrain
than he sent a disguised messenger to Juwatha,
ordering him to inform al-Jarud of the arrival of the Muslim army,
to strengthen his resolve and the resolve of his people,
and to ask them to prepare for the decisive moment
when the Muslims would decide to strike at their enemy.
Al-Ala' Ibn al-Hadrami realized that he had no power
to fight al-Hutam and his men,
due to their great numbers and his small army,
their strength and his weakness,
and their abundance of equipment and supplies versus his scarcity of resources.
So he dug a trench for his army to take cover in,
and al-Hutam did the same,
because his fear of the Muslims
was no less than the Muslims' fear of him.
The seasoned Muslim commander armed himself with patience,
and took every precaution and care.
The two parties remained for a whole month, engaging in
light skirmishes during the day,
and returning to their trenches at night.
Throughout this, Al-Ala' was sharp of hearing,
keen of sight,
and intensely attentive to everything happening behind the enemy's trenches,
waiting for the opportunity that would allow him
to pounce on his enemy during one of their moments of negligence.
One night,
the Muslim scouts and spies
heard a commotion in the enemy camp,
and saw unusual movement from afar.
Al-Ala' said to his men:
"Who will bring us news of the people?"
A man named Abdullah Ibn Hadhf stood up to him
and said:
"I will bring you their news, O Commander."
He commissioned him for that task,
warned him, advised him,
and entrusted him to Allah.
Abdullah Ibn Hadhf went toward the enemy trenches,
hidden by the cover of darkness,
and crossed the trenches with agility and caution.
When he was inside their camp,
they noticed him and captured him.
At that moment,
he began to cry out for help, calling:
"O Abjar! O Abjar!"
The Abjar he called upon
was a man from the Banu 'Ijl,
of high standing in al-Hutam's army.
Abdullah's mother was from the 'Ijl tribe.
Abjar came to him and asked about his lineage,
so he identified himself and said to him:
"You are my maternal uncles."
He recognized him and granted him protection,
and inquired about his situation.
He said:
"I lost my way,
and landed among your soldiers,
so they took me prisoner."
Abjar said to him:
"By Allah, I think you
have come to your maternal uncles."
Abdullah said to him:
"Leave that aside,
and feed me, for hunger has killed me."
He offered him food,
and he began to eat it slowly and deliberately,
to learn about the state of the people,
and to uncover the secrets of their news.
When he had achieved what he wanted, he said:
"Provide for me, give me a mount,
and grant me passage until I reach my people's camp."
So he provided for him, gave him a mount,
and sent someone with him to escort him until he reached safety.
When he arrived at the Muslim camp,
he informed Al-Ala' that the people were celebrating
one of their occasions,
that they had scattered jars of wine everywhere,
and were drinking from them greedily,
until drunkenness overcame them,
leaving them between sleeping, stuporous,
and rowdy, not knowing what they were doing,
and that his 'Ijli relative was among the latter group.
Al-Ala' did not waste a single minute of time,
so he sent word to al-Jarud ordering him to attack
the enemies from the rear,
while he himself launched his army toward them from the front,
moving like arrows in the dimness of the darkness.
He stormed the drunken army's
fortified trenches from every side,
and set his swords upon the necks of the enemy soldiers without mercy.
The battle ended in a dire catastrophe for the apostate army
and its leader, al-Hutam.
As for the army's commander,
he was asleep when the Muslims descended upon his camp like a thunderbolt,
and nothing awakened him from his stupor
but the clashing of swords and the thrusting of spears,
and the sounds of *tahlil* and *takbir*.
He jumped up in panic and mounted his horse,
but the stirrup of his saddle snapped,
so he began to call out:
"I am al-Hutam! Who will fix my stirrup for me?"
One of the Muslim soldiers approached him and said:
"Raise your leg, O Commander, so I may fix it for you."
When he raised his leg,
he struck him with his sword and severed it from his body completely.
He fell to the ground, blood gushing from him,
and the pain searing his liver.
At that, he began to ask everyone who passed by to finish him off,
to be rid of his pain,
and to escape the trampling of the feet of the defeated who were passing over him.
He remained in this state
until one of the Muslim soldiers killed him,
without knowing who he really was.
As for the army,
it suffered a crushing and terrible defeat.
One group fell dead in the trenches they had dug with their own hands,
which became their graves,
and another group was taken prisoner by the Muslims.
However, the bulk of the army
fled to the ships anchored on the shores,
and turned their backs, escaping to the island of Darin.
Al-Ala' Ibn al-Hadrami had liberated Bahrain,
and restored it to the fold of Islam.
But do you think that a hero and mujahid like him could ever rest,
Nor can he close his eyes in sleep,
as long as the apostates roam freely and securely in his vicinity,
entrenched on the island of Darin.