Dr. Michael Hart’s well-known book, The 100, was perhaps first introduced to the Muslim world through our Urdu monthly Al-Risala in October 1978. In it, the author selected one hundred of the most distinguished people in history and added accompanying articles about their lives and achievements. He placed the Prophet Muhammad at the top of his list. He wrote that Muhammad was the most supremely successful man in history.
After the publication of this article in Al-Risala, we received many letters from Muslims enquiring about a source from where they could order this book. A number of them even inquired whether an Urdu translation was available. On reading their letters, it was obvious that they were interested only in the supremely successful man, rather than in the secret of his supreme success as well.
Our entire knowledge of human history tells us that people find it much easier to give up their lives, than to suspend their egos.
There is a general tendency on the part of present-day Muslims to continue this sort of hero worship. Present-day Muslims have accorded the Prophet and his companions the status of heroes rather than taking them as examples to be followed in their lives. This is precisely the psychology of those who have failed to achieve anything substantial in their lives. Such people find solace in the glorious description of historical personalities. History is often the refuge of those who have done little themselves worth celebrating.
When the Muslim community is in a vibrant state, the Prophet’s life serves as an example to them. The Muslims of today are in a state of stagnation. For them, the Prophet of Islam has become a symbol of pride. And this feeling of pride can be perpetuated only when one’s hero is acknowledged as supremely successful. The Quran has presented the Prophet of Islam as an example rather than as a cause for pride, and it has this to say:
You have indeed, in the Prophet of God, a good example. (THE QURAN 33:21)
Present-day Muslims explain it differently, claiming that they have in the Prophet of God a great source of pride.
According to the teachings of the Quran, what is most important for us is to find out the secret of the supreme success of the Prophet of Islam. Only by learning this secret can we take Islam once again to the position of supreme success. When we read the Quran with this question in mind, we first come across Chapter 48 ’Al-Fath’ (Victory). The first verse of this chapter reads:
We have granted you a clear victory. THE QURAN 48:1
What Dr. Hart called supreme success, the Quran calls a clear victory. How did the Prophet of Islam achieve this supreme success or clear victory? This verse of the Quran tells us that this extraordinary success was achieved through the Hudaybiya Peace Treaty. The Quran tells us that the secret of this success lay in the particular method that was employed—the ‘Hudaybiya Method’.
The Prophet of Islam actually returned from Hudaybiya without achieving his objective. So when the chapter ‘Victory’ was revealed on his way from Hudaybiya to Medina, one of the companions remarked, “This is no victory. We were even stopped from entering the House of God.” The Prophet replied, “It is indeed the greatest victory.”
Muslims have accorded the Prophet and his companions the status of heroes rather than taking them as examples to be followed in their lives.
Albara ibn Aazib, a companion of the Prophet, said to Muslims of later times, “you regard the conquest of Makkah as a victory, but we (the companions of the Prophet) regard Hudaybiya as the real victory.” Ibn Shahaab Zuhri said that the Hudaybiya Agreement has the status of a great victory. (As-Seerat an-Nabawiya, Ibn Kathir, 3/324)
All of these accounts make it clear that the secret of great success achieved by the Prophet and his companions lay in the Hudaybiya Peace Treaty. The ’Hudaybiya Method’ is the only way for Muslims to attain supreme success or a great victory.
Let us now consider what the Hudaybiya Method is. This method entailed the greatest of all sacrifices. The Prophet of Islam, along with his companions, decided to make a pilgrimage to Makkah. The Quraysh prevented the Muslims from entering the city, even though they wore the garb of pilgrims and bore no arms. To resolve the tension, the Prophet of Islam agreed to a treaty between the Quraysh and the Muslims that was heavily in favour of the Quraysh. He also agreed to return to Medina without completing the pilgrimage and to make the pilgrimage the next year.
Accepting a clearly unfair treaty was a difficult sacrifice to make, but most of the Prophet’s companions returned with him to Medina, on his express insistence. These were the very companions who sacrificed their lives and their wealth during the battles of Badr and Uhud, without hesitation.
The question is what the difference is between the issues at Badr and Uhud, and Hudaybiya. Why did these dedicated companions, who were willing to make sacrifices at Badr and Uhud, find it so difficult to make such sacrifices on the occasion of Hudaybiya?
Instead of using the Prophet as an example, Muslims claim the Prophet as a symbol of pride.
The answer is that during Badr and Uhud, people had to put their lives at stake, whereas at Hudaybiya, they had to sacrifice their prestige and their ego. Our entire knowledge of human history tells us that people find it much easier to give up their lives than to suspend their egos. This is because people recognize that sacrificing their lives will make them heroes, whereas sacrificing their prestige doesn’t seem to get them anything. The achievement of heroism is considered a victory, whereas the loss of it is defeat. Dying for a cause is considered a matter of honour, whereas losing ground or prestige is disgraceful. The sacrifice of life, made to further a cause believed to be just, is an act willingly undertaken, whereas the sacrifice of prestige, appearing to be an act of retreat, is balked at and not willingly undertaken.
It is a matter of axiomatic knowledge that the greater the sacrifice, the greater the success. Since the Prophet and his companions made the greatest of sacrifices, they deserved the greatest of successes.
What was the special power of the Hudaybiya Method that unlocked the doors to a clear victory? The Prophet’s march to Makkah eight years after he moved to Medina gives us a clue. When the Prophet had undertaken the journey to Makkah two years earlier, he was accompanied by 1,400 companions. This time, however, he was accompanied by 10,000 companions. On the occasion of his first journey, the Makkans had forced him to return to Medina; they did not allow him to pass beyond Hudaybiya. On the occasion of this second journey, the Makkans were so awestruck upon seeing the huge number of the Prophet’s people that they accepted defeat and put up no resistance.
The secret of supreme success, or clear victory, of the Prophet lies in the Hudaibiya Method.
From this incident we learn that the Hudaybiya Method is the pacifist method of conquering people. The military option or the violent method causes death and destruction, while the Hudaybiya Method conquers the hearts of people. What characterizes the method of war is hatred, while what characterizes the Hudaybiya Method is love.
The events of Hudaybiya took place twenty years after the Prophet Muhammad attained prophet hood. Why was there a delay in adopting this method? The companions of the Prophet were told that God could have given them His permission to wage war upon the Quraysh, and that they would have been victorious. However, they were denied this permission on account of the innocent people of Makkah who would have been in danger. The Quran says:
It was they who were bent on denying the truth, and who debarred you from the Sacred Mosque and who prevented your offering from reaching its place of sacrifice. And had it not been for the believing men and believing women [in Makkah] whom you might unwittingly have trampled underfoot, and on whose account you might have, unknowingly, become guilty, [God would have commanded you to fight it out with them; but He ordained it thus] so that He may bring whoever He will into His mercy. If they [the believers] had been clearly separated, We would have punished those who were bent on denying the truth with a painful punishment. (THE QURAN 48:25)
These innocents, potential Muslims, would have been killed along with the Quraysh. Verse 27 says:
God knew what you did not. (THE QURAN 48:27)
In the light of this divine knowledge, this guidance was given to the Muslims on the occasion of Hudaybiya—they had to arrive at a peace agreement, even if they had to accept all the conditions of the Quraysh leaders. This was to give the potential Muslims an opportunity to declare their allegiance to Islam.
What characterizes the method of war is hatred, while what characterizes the Hudaybiya Method is love.
The Arabs were a simple people. Even their polytheistic beliefs were not deep-rooted. This is why, in the early period of Islam, we find innumerable instances where someone comes to the Prophet, asks some simple questions and then, immediately or a short while later, accepts the truth of his message, recites the kalima (Islamic creed) and accepts Islam before the Prophet.
For example, Amr ibn Abasa, a companion of the Prophet, came to see the Prophet before he had accepted Islam. He said to the Prophet, “Tell me of what God has told you.” The Prophet gave him the message of monotheism, gentleness, kindness, good character, etc. He immediately said, “O, how good are the things which God has told you” (Hayat asSahaba, 1/72), and accepted Islam.
There are many such instances in the books of Hadith and Seerah (the Prophet’s biography). These show that the perversion in the ancient Arabs was only superficial. Their real personality was unspoilt and they had not lost the ability to recognize the truth.
It was as a result of the simplicity of the ancient Arabs that, except a few tribal leaders, most of the Arabs accepted the Prophet. The denial of the Prophet by the Arabs was mostly based on misunderstanding, rather than on insolence or arrogance. This is proved by a prayer they said before the battle of Badr (THE QURAN 8: 32). We learn from history that the Makkans, before leaving for Badr to wage war against the Prophet and his companions, visited the House of God (the Kabah) and while holding its cloak they prayed, “O God, grant victory to whichever one out of the two religious groups that is rightly guided” (Aljame le Ahkam al-Quran, 7/387). When the two groups went to war—and the believers were victorious and the Quraysh were defeated—the Quran, addressing the Makkans, said:
If you were seeking a judgement, a judgement has now come to you. If you desist, it will be the better for you. (THE QURAN 8:19)
Due to this uniqueness of the battle of Badr, it has been called “the Decisive Day” (THE QURAN 8:41). With this clear-cut distinction between who was right and who was wrong, the Arabs, except a few leaders, had grave doubts about whether or not they were on the right path. They seriously considered that they did not have the truth on their side.
The truth is that the Arabs were already potentially of the faith, thanks to their simple lifestyle. On the occasion of Badr, when their entreaties to God proved counter-productive their inclination towards Islam turned into a strong urge. They were at the threshold of Islam.
The greater the sacrifice, the greater the success.
Only one problem remained, and that was the obstinacy of the tribal leaders of the Quraysh. They had waged war with the Prophet of Islam only to maintain their superiority and leadership and were unwilling to end the war without putting an end to the monotheistic mission of the Prophet. It was this fear of the arrogant Makkan leaders that made the Arabs of Makkah and the surrounding areas afraid to accept Islam. The militancy on the part of the Quraysh was a floodgate preventing the river of guidance (Islam) from rushing into people’s hearts.
Continuing the war would have meant continued bloodshed. Putting an end to the war would require a sacrifice, of prestige, instead of soldiers. War can never be brought to an end on a bilateral basis. The Hudaybiya Peace Treaty was a far-sighted solution based on the idea that peace was more important than prestige and gave the Arabs the opportunity to embrace Islam.
The situation that prevailed at the time was that the Muslims had a genuine grudge in their hearts against the Makkan leaders, who had expelled them from their homes, appropriated their houses and property, waged war against them, and made their women widows and their children orphans. The Makkans did not even allow them to enter Makkah to perform their pilgrimage. This grudge encouraged them to fight with the Quraysh.
The Muslims had to forgive and forget the Quraysh for their actions and sign the peace treaty. In the environment of peace that would follow, the work of spreading the message of Islam would proceed rapidly. Those who had developed a soft corner in their hearts for Islam could now enter the fold of Islam, finding no obstacles in their way. Qital, meaning war, is to defend Islam by putting one’s life at stake. The Hudaybiya Method has become symbolic of opening the doors of God’s religion for God’s servants by sacrificing one’s honour. This goes to prove that the sacrifice of honour is far greater than that of life.
History is often the refuge of those who have done little themselves worth celebrating.
Imam Muslim recorded a saying narrated by Abu Hurayrah, the Prophet’s Companion that the Prophet of Islam once said, “I wish to see my Ikhwan (brothers).” The companions said, “Are we not your brothers, O Messenger of God?” The Prophet replied, “You are my companions.
Our Ikhwan will come later.” Ad-Darimi, a traditionist of the 9th century, narrated that Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah once asked of the Prophet, “O Messenger of God, are there any of the Muslims better than us? We believed in you. We did Jihad with you.” The Prophet replied, “Yes, those Muslims are better who will believe in me without even seeing me.” (Jame Al-Usool fi Ahaadith Ar-Rasool, 9/206-7)
The expression he used for such people was lam yarauni, meaning ‘they who did not see me.’ But this cannot be taken in just the literal sense. For when a prophet becomes a legendary personality in later periods of history, believing in just the existence of such a glorious personality cannot be a matter of great credit. Therefore, it is necessary to take these words in the sense of their contemporary relevance. This means that while the people of the Prophet’s time accepted his mission by seeing and listening to him, the Ikhwan would accept his mission without meeting him personally.
History is now repeating itself for the Muslims. There are a large number of people today in non-Muslim environments, who are nevertheless ready to accept the religion of truth. Conflict between Muslim and nonMuslim factions, however, is rife all over the world. Without a state of peace such as the one that followed the Treaty of Hudaybiya, it is not possible for non-Muslims to look at Islam with open unbiased minds.
The sacrifice of honour is far greater than that of life.
Muslims today have to make the same sacrifice which the companions of the Prophet made on the occasion of Hudaybiya, when they had to forget the grudges they held. The only way to establish normal relations between Muslims and non-Muslims today is to adopt this admirable and far-sighted policy of forgiveness and peace.
The companions of the Prophet made a sacrifice by remaining patient as the Prophet asked them to. Muslims today have to make this same sacrifice by remaining patient in their belief in the truth and light of the life and teachings of the Prophet, without having seen him. If the Muslims of today can make such a sacrifice, according to the Prophet’s tradition, they will be held deserving of being acknowledged by God as the Ikhwan of the Prophet. Without a doubt, for Muslims, there can be no greater blessing on Judgement Day than being acknowledged as the brothers of the Prophet.
