Sunnah Hudaybiya

After the Prophet of Islam received prophethood he worked to propagate the message of monotheism for the initial period of thirteen years in Makkah. Makkah was his hometown, but the Makkans turned his direst enemies. They inflicted all sorts of persecution upon him and ultimately, they decided to kill him in order to remove him from their path. At this juncture the Prophet and his companions left Makkah for Madinah at the command of God. This amounted to being exiled, for, apparently, there was no hope of the Makkan people ever letting him enter Makkah again. It was under such difficult circumstances that the Prophet had a dream in Madinah that he, along with his companions, was entering Makkah peacefully and was freely performing umrah (minor pilgrimage) sacrifices.

In accordance with this dream the Prophet and his 1500 companions set off for Makkah from Madinah on the first of Dhu Al-Qada in 6 A.H. As this caravan headed towards Makkah everyone felt great excitement. But when it reached a place known as Hudaybiya near Makkah, the Makkans stopped them from going forward. They said that at all costs they would prevent the Muslims from entering Makkah.

The Prophet and his companions stayed at Hudaybiya for two weeks. During this period negotiations went on and, finally it was settled that the Prophet and his companions would not enter Makkah that year. Instead they were to return from Hudaybiya to Madinah and come the following year for a stay of only three days, during which they were to quietly perform umrah and then go back without delay. According to this treaty the Prophet and his companions, in spite of the Prophet’s dream, left Hudaybiya for Madinah. The following year they came again and performed umrah as stipulated by the treaty of Hudaybiya.

This incident of Hudaybiya tells us a special sunnah of the Prophet, that is, not clashing with others unnecessarily; refraining scrupulously from turning any difficult situation into a prestige issue; rather taking the problem as it is and keeping oneself free, from any complexes; attempting to understand matters by rising above sentiments and emotions, and solving problems wisely by giving concessions to the other party.

This policy can also be termed status quoism. This does not simply mean accepting the status quo without attempting to change it. Status quoism is not passivity or inaction, but rather the highest form of action. Whenever a confrontational situation builds up between two parties, the controversy comes to a standstill at a certain point. Now apparently there is only one way to proceed for both the parties, and that is, to break the status quo and find a way to go ahead.

On such occasions, the foolish turn such matters into a prestige issue. They believe that accepting the status quo would amount to losing face. To protect their egos, they take to the path of confrontation. But one who is God-fearing never turns anything into a prestige issue. Taqwa for him becomes a guarantee of keeping himself away from any such confrontation as will result in nothing but destruction.

When the individual refrains from making a controversial matter into one of prestige, this gives rise to serious thinking. This non-emotional thinking helps him to understand that if he were to walk out of the point of controversy, he would find all other paths open to him. The same was the case in Hudaybiya. The Prophet of Islam wanted to enter Makkah, but the Quraysh did not allow him to do so. Yet the Prophet did not let the obstructiveness of the Quraysh become a matter of prestige. His own positive approach enabled him to lead Muslims away from the field of war to the field of dawah, a far vaster arena for their struggle in the cause of Islam.

By unilaterally accepting all the conditions of the opponents of Islam, the Prophet of Islam made a no-war pact called the Hudaybiya Peace Treaty in 6 A.H. On account of his unconditional acceptance of the enemy’s terms, some Muslims held it to be a humiliating pact (Seerah ibn Hisham, Vol. 2, p. 317). But after this treaty was finalized, the chapter in the Quran, called ‘Victory’ (Al-Fath) was revealed, in which this peace treaty was called ‘a clear victory.’ (The Quran, 48:1)

The reason for this difference in assessment was that human beings looked at it from the angle of the present, while God looked at it from the angle of the future. It is this reality, which has been pointed out in the Quran in these words:

God knew what you did not. (The Quran, 48:27)

At its beginning, the Hudaybiya peace treaty appeared to mean nothing but surrender and humiliation. But God saw it from the point of view of its practical result in the future. That is why the Quran called it a clear victory. The well known taabii, a disciple of the companions, Ibn Shihab Az Zuhri says:

Never before in Islam had there been such a great victory before Hudaybiya. Whenever Muslims and non-Muslims met one another, before Hudaybiya they came to the point of confrontation. But when peace prevailed and war was stopped under the treaty, people became safe from one another. In this peaceful atmosphere, they interacted with one another and began exchanging their thoughts. Then whoever had an occasion to hear about Islam, and had sound judgement, entered its fold. After the peace treaty, within a period of two years, as many people or even more accepted Islam as had done so before, only over a much longer period of time. (Sirah Ibn Hisahm, Vol. 2, p. 322)

Ibn Hisham, the Prophet’s biographer, says that Zuhri’s observation is proved true by the fact that, according to the tradition narrated by Jabir ibn Abdullah, there were only 1400 men with the Prophet on his journey to Hudaybiya. But two years after that, when the Prophet set out for the conquest of Makkah, he was accompanied by ten thousand companions.

The Hudaybiya sunnah is the sum total of the actions of the Prophet of Islam which resulted in the ‘clear victory’ as recorded in the Quran, which, led the Islamic movement to the age of revolution and ultimate ascendancy. Consequently, such opportunities were opened up for Islam as had never hitherto presented themselves. What is Sunnah Hudaybiya? It is, to put it briefly, to ignore the problems in order to buy time in which to avail of the opportunities.

God has made this world in such way that, here, according to the Quran, difficulty is always accompanied by ease (The Quran, 94:5-6). By the very system or law of nature itself, it happens that in this world there are always favourable opportunities alongside problems. By availing of these opportunities, great progress can be made. The reason for failure in life is often traceable to the fact that people become embroiled in controversy. They think that unless all obstacles and hurdles are removed, the onward journey can never he made.

But the Sunnah of the Prophet of Islam is totally different. That is, one should refrain from tackling difficulties by confrontational methods. Instead we must find ways and means of availing of the existing opportunities by avoiding the problems. If necessary, this principle should be observed to the extent of our being willing to accept the unilateral conditions of the opponents, treating them as representing a temporary phase.

The incident that took place in Hudaybiya is a specific instance. Apparently, it is regarded as only one of the many such incidents recorded in seerah. But, in reality, it is not just one happening like many others. In actual fact, the spirit of Hudaybiya pervades the entire life of the Prophet. It would not be wrong to say that this was a very well-considered policy of the Prophet, which he adopted throughout his life.

The Hudaybiya policy, in fact, is that in any set of circumstances, problems have to be ignored and opportunities, despite all difficulties, have to be availed of. We find a number of examples of this policy in the life of the Prophet. The Prophet followed this same principle in his Makkan as well as Madinan period. The only difference between Hudaybiya and other similar incidents is that on the occasion of Hudaybiya this policy was adopted following a bilateral declaration, while at other times it was followed by a unilateral decision.

The method of the Prophet was to study the prevailing sets of circumstances dispassionately and objectively and then follow that course on his own, without any external pressure. This is what we have called the Hudaybiya policy. For instance, in the early phase in Makkah, the Prophet communicated his dawah message secretly. This did not mean that the Prophet had a meeting with the idolaters of Makkah, and then as a matter of bilateral decision-making engaged not to propagate his message publicly but in secret. It was rather that by making concessions to circumstances, he on his own adopted the method of secret propagation, without waiting for any social compulsion.

Similarly, when he gave the call of monotheism publicly, it did not happen that the Prophet and the idolaters of Makkah met and talked about it and then arrived at the decision that the idols placed in Kabah would not be harmed and that the Prophet would disseminate his message by following the peaceful dawah method. Rather what happened was that the Prophet himself set this limit for his dawah activity. That is he gave the verbal call to abandon the worship of anything other than God, but refrained completely from any practical confrontation with the worshippers of idols placed in the House of God.

Similarly, when the Prophet of Islam reached Madinah, he found Jews also settled there. But he did not first have bilateral exchanges with the Jews and then reach an agreement that the Muslims (living in Madinah) would not force the Jews to adopt their ideology but would permit them to enjoy freedom of religion. Instead, after assessing the situation prevailing in Madinah, the Prophet himself set an acceptable limit for his own missionary work in order not to come into unnecessary clash and confrontation with the Jews. Therefore, these words were enshrined in the well-known charter of Madinah. For the Jews, the religion of the Jews, for the Muslims, the religion of the Muslims. (Seerah ibn Hisham, Vol. 1, p. 503)

The essence of the Hudaybiya spirit is to completely refrain from entering into any controversy with the other party and to concentrate all one’s efforts on achieving one’s goal in non-controversial fields. This policy can be followed only when the dayee is willing to give concessions to the other party unilaterally—the concession, which the other party at that point in time considers its right. The Hudaybiya policy cannot be followed without such unilateral concession-making. A study of the seerah shows that the Prophet always followed the same policy. That is the reason why it became possible for him to minimize his losses and maximize his benefits.

Al-Furqan is a chapter of the Quran, which was revealed in Makkah at a time when the Prophet was commanded to perform dawah alone, and he used to engage himself day and night in discharging the duty assigned to him. At this stage the Prophet was enjoined in the Quran not to “so do not yield to those who deny the truth, but strive with the utmost strenuousness by means of this [Quran, to convey its message to them].” (The Quran, 25:52).

The Quran does not consist of bombs and bullets. Therefore, it is clear that these verses do not speak of armed struggle but of peaceful ideological struggle. This means that dawah work is to be performed with the help of the teachings of Islam. We must make the Quran understandable to people by exploiting all kinds of peaceful means. People’s hearts and minds have to be conquered by the veracity of the Quran.

This verse evidently indicates the superiority of dawah as compared to armed jihad. According to it there are two kinds of jihad-minor jihad and major jihad, armed struggle being the minor jihad and peaceful struggle being the major jihad.

Hudaybiyah provides a great example of this great jihad in the history of Islam: After migration the Muslims faced an armed on-slaught from their opponents. Several armed dashes between the believers and non-believers took place. But these produced no decisive results, for, at that time, the real target was for Makkah to be brought once again, into the fold of monotheism: this target could not be realized by all these wars. Ultimately, in the 6th year of hijrah, the Prophet of Islam finalized the Hudaybiya peace treaty between the believers and unbelievers. This treaty sought to change the arena of struggle from one of violence, to one of peace. Here the Hudaybiya method proved very effective. Within two years of this treaty, Makkah was conquered, and the believers found the opportunity to convert the city of Makkah, a city which had become a centre of idolatry for centuries—into a center of monotheism.

There is great guidance for us in this sunnah of the Prophet. Careful study shows that in present times we are faced with the same state of affairs as prevailed at the time of Hudaybiya in the first phase of the Islamic revolution. Here the Prophet’s sunnah shows us the way to follow this prophetic policy in today’s circumstances and be held deserving by God of a ‘clear victory’ once again.

The Muslims of present times have waged jihad with other nations for more than a hundred years. They have received nothing in return save death and destruction. Now the demand of sunnah of the Prophet is to put all such confrontations to an end unilaterally and engage all our efforts in the positive construction of Islam and Muslims. There is simply no other path to success for present-day Muslims.

The Hudaybiya principle is not jut a sunnah in the simple sense of the word. Rather it is an eternal law of nature. If this law were to be put into practice not only by Muslims but also by non-Muslim nations, they would reap the same benefits in their respective fields.

One example of this is provided by modern Japan. By the time of the Second World War Japan was of the view that it could fulfill its national goals by means of military action. But it suffered a severe defeat in this war. Its economy was destroyed. After the war, a new thinking surfaced amongst the Japanese. Removing themselves from the field of war and confrontation they centered all their efforts on the fields of education, commerce and industry. The result of this change was that an annihilated Japan could stand up once again and become an international economic power.

The event of Hudaybiya is explained in the Quran in chapter 48 which is called ‘al-Fath. We can understand the Hudaybiya spirit by studying this verse:

While those who deny the truth made it a prestige issue [in their hearts]—the bigotry of the days of ignorance—God sent His tranquillity down on to His Messenger and believers and firmly established in them the principle of righteousness, for they were indeed better entitled to it and more worthy of it. God has full knowledge of all things. (The Quran, 48:26)

This verse revealed on the occasion of the peace treaty of Hudaybiya, (like other verses of the Quran) also has a general and extended application. In this respect we find in it an eternal teaching of Islam, relevant, like other teachings of Islam to all later times.

Looked at from this angle, we find that the point made in this verse is that in the present world, for various reasons, individuals and communities often clash and come into confrontation with one another. This verse of the Quran guides us as to what course we must adopt in such situations.

In accordance with this verse, there are only two possible modes of behaviour in such controversial situations, for individuals as well as for nations—one being based on godliness and the other on ungodliness (an insolent attitude). Success is reserved only for those who adopt a god-fearing attitude on such occasions. For those who are fearless of God, nothing but failure awaits them in this world.

What would an ungodly attitude be on such occasions? It is called hamiyat-e-jahiliyya in the
Quran. The truth is that people generally become provoked in a controversial situation. Negative feelings within them are activated. They are not in a position to look at the matter with a cool mind and arrive at a settlement solely on the basis of principle. Those who give in to such a negative attitude fall prey to hamiyat-e-jahiliya, as the Quran calls it.

The opposite attitude is that which is called god-fearing in the Quran. The god-fearing are those who adhere strictly to the path of principled approach for they fear the retribution of God. They hold fast to the path of truth and justice, even in the face of extreme provocation. Their judgements and decisions are not the result of reaction, but rather of careful deliberation.

According to the Quran, the ungodly attitude as mentioned above is wholly against the spirit of Islam. Those who opt for ungodly ways can never succeed in this world of God. On the contrary those who opt for godly ways will certainly be successful. It is the decree of the Creator of the universe that they will succeed. The incident of Hudaybiya in the first phase of Islam provides a practical example. In this matter one course was that opted for by the non-Muslims of Makkah. The other was that which the believers opted for, in following the leadership of the Prophet. Now in the light of this incident everyone can judge his actions for himself. Those who opt for the ungodly path in the thick of controversy are practically joining the group of non-Muslims, while opting for the godly course in such a situation amounts to joining the body of believers.

Chapter 48 of the Quran begins with these words: We have granted you a clear victory. In this context it means that God has decreed victory in this world only for those who adopt a godly attitude, while those who adopt an ungodly course of action are destined to remain in a state of subjugation.

The incident of Hudaybiya provides a historic example of conduct appropriate to the situation. The believers on that occasion, in taking up a godly attitude, entitled themselves to victory, while the Quraysh who took up an ungodly attitude had consequently to suffer defeat and failure.

The incident of Hudaybiya is not simply a chapter of past history. It is a living historical example. It tells believers in every age as to which course in controversial situations is a sure guarantee of success. This involves refraining from making a controversial matter into one of prestige, rather trying to seek a solution in the spirit of taqwa (God-fearing spirit).