22 July 2012

Seerah of Muhammed*

*: May the peace blessings and Mercy of Allah be upon him

TMQ: Translation to the nearest meaning of the Qur’an

Battle of Hunain - the tide turns as the Muslims Return to the Battle Field and to the Fierceness of the Fight

Except for a few core group of Sahabae, all the Muslim fighters ran away from the battlefield. Those who remained with The Prophet* were some Muhajirs, a few Ansars and the nearest of his family members like: Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, al-Abbas and his son al-Fadl, Abu Sufyan b.al-Harith and Usamah b. Zayd b. Haritha. When the stampede of the Muslims became quite uncontrollable, Abu Sufyan b. Harb remarked, “Their stampede will not stop until they reach the ocean!” Safwan b. Umayyah b.Khalaf said he preferred to be ruled by a man from the Quraysh than by the Hawazin. A rumour also spread that The Prophet* had been killed, creating more panic and terror among the Muslims.

When the Prophet* found that his call for support was in vain, he summoned his uncle al-Abbas (who had a very thunderous voice), to cry out very loudly for the Muslims to return and resume fighting. The Prophet* ordered his uncle Al-‘Abbas — who was a sonorous voiced man — to call out on the followers. As loudly as he could, Al-‘Abbas shouted: “Where are the lancers?” “By Allah,” Al-‘Abbas said, “Upon hearing my voice calling them back, they turned round to the battlefield as if they had been oryxes (wild cows) tending towards their calves.” "O Companions of the Tree! O Companions of the Acacia!" Immediately the summons was answered from all sides -Labbayk!, "Here at thy service" -as Helpers and Emigrants rallied to him. “Here we are, at your service. Here we are. ” They said. There you see them trying to stop their camels and reverse to the battle. He who was unable to force his camel to turn back, would take his armour, fling it round his neck, and hastily dismount his camel with his weapon in his hand letting his camel move freely and run towards the voice source. Voices would grow louder and louder till a hundred of them gathered round the Prophet* and resumed the fight. Those who were called out upon next were Al-Ansar, the Helpers, “O, folks of Al-Ansar! Folks of Al- Ansar!”

The last group to be called out upon were Bani Al-Harith bin Al-Khazraj. Muslims battalions poured successively into the battlefield in the same manner that they had left it. The stamina of both parties was superb. Both of them stoodfast and fought fiercely. They started to fight the enemy with new vigour and The Prophet* watched the fighting standing on his stirrup. The Prophet* was so eagerly and furiously watching the battle that he said: “Now the fight has grown fierce.” The enemy were preparing a fresh onslaught, and he prayed: "O God, I ask of Thee Thy promise!" Then he told his foster-brother to give him some pebbles, and taking them in his hand he flung them in the face of the enemy as he had done at Badr. Picking up a handful of earth, he hurled it at their faces while saying: “May your faces be shameful.” Their eyes were thick with dust and the enemy began to retreat in utter confusion. The tide of the battle suddenly turned for no apparent reason -or rather, it was not apparent to the believers, but it was apparent to the enemy, as it had been previously to their scouts; and afterwards there came the Revelation that Allah helped them.

Reverse Of Fortunes And The Enemy's Utter Defeat:

Few hours had elapsed since the earth-handful was hurled at the enemy’s faces, when they were shatteringly defeated. It was later mentioned by one of those who fought the Prophet* that it felt like stones in a tin shield or metal pan grating inside him when the dust was thrown.

Then it is described that a black striped garment descended from the sky; it looked like a mass of black ants from a distance. These were the angels descended from heaven to help the Muslims, the Prophet* said. With the help of those angels the Muslims finally defeated the B. Hawazin. About seventy men of Thaqif alone were killed, and the Muslims plundered all their riding camels, weapons and cattle. Allah, Glory is to Him, alluded to this sudden change in the Qur’an when He said: “…and on the Day of Hunain (battle) when you rejoiced at your great number but it availed you naught and the earth, vast as it is, was straitened for you, then you turned back in flight. Then Allah did send down His Sakinah (calmness, tranquillity, and reassurance, etc.) on the Messenger [The Prophet* ] and on the believers, and sent down forces (angels) which you saw not, and punished the disbelievers. Such is the recompense of disbelievers.” [9:25,26]

Individual stories from the battle

The Muslims had lost many men at the outset of the battle, in particular the Bani Sulaym who had borne the brunt of the initial ambush. But after the first onslaught relatively few had been killed. One of these few was Ayman, Usamah's elder brother, who was struck down at the side of the Prophet.

A group of Muslims headed by Abu ‘Amir Al-Ash’ari, were despatched to chase the enemy, some skirmishes took place during which Abu ‘Amir was killed. Abu Amir was shot at his knee with an arrow which a man from Jushm had shot and fixed into his knee. I went to him and said, "O Uncle! Who shot you?" He pointed me out (his killer) saying, "That is my killer who shot me (with an arrow)." So I headed towards him and overtook him, and when he saw me, he fled, and I followed him and started saying to him, "Won't you be ashamed? Won't you stop?" So that person stopped, and we exchanged two hits with the swords and I killed him. Then I said to Abu 'Amir. "Allah has killed your killer." He said, "Take out this arrow" So I removed it, and water oozed out of the wound. He then said, "O son of my brother! Convey my compliments to the Prophet and request him to ask Allah's Forgiveness for me." Abu Amir made me his successor in commanding the people (i.e. troops). He survived for a short while and then died. (Later) I returned and entered upon the Prophet at his house, and found him lying in a bed made of stalks of date-palm leaves knitted with ropes, and on it there was bedding. The strings of the bed had their traces over his back and sides. Then I told the Prophet about our and Abu Amir's news and how he had said "Tell him to ask for Allah's Forgiveness for me." The Prophet asked for water, performed ablution and then raised hands, saying, "O Allah's Forgive 'Ubaid, Abu Amir." At that time I saw the whiteness of the Prophet's armpits. The Prophet then said, "O Allah, make him (i.e. Abu Amir) on the Day of Resurrection, superior to many of Your human creatures." I said, "Will you ask Allah's Forgiveness for me?" (On that) the Prophet said, "O Allah, forgive the sins of 'Abdullah bin Qais and admit him to a nice entrance (i.e. paradise) on the Day of Resurrection." Abu Burda said, "One of the prayers was for Abu 'Amir and the other was for Abu Musa (i.e. 'Abdullah bin Qais).

While this was going on, Ali b. Abi Talib attacked a leading man from Hawazin, who was fighting fiercely with his lance. Ali hamstrung this man’s camel. The Muslims jumped over him and cut off his foot and half of his shank. This Hawazin man still kept on fighting and finally died.

Khalid b. Walid, killed some women and children of the polytheists. The Prophet* reprimanded Khalid for resorting to such act and said that no-fighting women and children should not be harmed on the battlefield.

During this time, the Prophet* met a pregnant woman, Umm Sulaym bt Milhan the wife of Abu Talhah. She advised the Prophet* to kill those Jihdists who flee the battlefield just in the same manner as the Prophet* kills his enemy combatants. But the Prophet* was not very enthusiastic over this and said that Allah was enough for him. On that day she and her husband had come fully armed to kill as many polytheists as they could and to take their booty. Her husband, Abu Talhah, took the spoils of twenty men he had killed himself.

The Prophet* had said, 'Whoever kills someone can have his effects’, and so the Sahaba soldiers then took the armours, coats of mail, and personal valuables from the enemy soldiers that they had killed with their own hands. One Sahaba (Abu Qatada) said that he had killed an enemy and was claiming his armour but no-one could vouch for him. Then a Quraishi man claimed it was he who killed the person; to which Abu Bakr said that it was not right to gives what belongs to a lion from the lions of Allah to a hyena! Later, Abu Qatada said that with that wealth he bought his first real estate from the proceeds of such booty.

Chasing the fleeing enemy

The rout was tremendous: Malik fought with bravery, but finally retreated with the men of Thaqif to their walled city of Ta'if. The main part of Hawazin was pursued with much slaughter as far as Nakhlah. From there they returned to their camp at Awtas; but the Prophet* sent a force to dislodge them, and they took to the hills.

The Awtas group then took shelter in their camp. Later, they were eventually defeated in a severe fight. A similar battalion of horsemen pursued the idolaters who threaded the track to Nakhlah and caught up with Duraid bin As-Simmah, the old wise warrior who was sitting in a howdage (palindrome) on a camel hiding there as a woman – or being infirm. He was then caught and told to get down from the camel. When Duraid asked the young Sahaba, Rabiah b. Rufai, what he intended to do with an old man like him, Rabiah said that he wanted to kill him. When Rabiah struck his sword on Duraid it did not kill him. Duraid laughed at the poor mastery of weapon by the young Sahaba. He gave his own sword to Rabiah and instructed him how to perform a slaughter. When he died Rabiah noticed that he had thighs like leather (from riding his animals bareback). Then Duraid told Rabiah that after killing him he should go back to his mother (Rabiah) and inform her about the slaying; for he (Duraid) had previously saved many of their women. After slaying Duraid, Rabiah returned to his mother and told her about what he had done. His mother said, “By God, he set free three mothers of yours.”

The Prophet's 'sister'

Among the divisions of Hawazin was a contingent from the Bani Sa'd ibn Bakr, the clan with whom the Prophet* had spent his infancy and early childhood; and one of the older captives rebuked her captors saying: "By God, lam the sister of your chief." They did not believe her, but none the less brought her to the Prophet. "O The Prophet*, I am thy sister," she said. The Prophet* gazed at her wonderingly: she was an old woman, of seventy or more. "Hast thou any sign of that?" he said, and she at once showed him the mark of a bite. "Thou didst bite me," she said, "when I was carrying thee in the valley of Sarar. We were there with the shepherds. Thy father was my father, and thy mother was my mother." The Prophet* saw that she was speaking the truth: it was indeed Shayma', one of his foster-sisters; and spreading out his rug for her, he bade her be seated. His eyes filled with tears as he asked her for news of Halimah and Harith, his foster-parents, and she told him that they had both died in the fullness of years. After they had talked he offered her the possibility of staying with him or returning to the Bani Sa'd. She said she wished to enter Islam, but chose to return to her clan. The Prophet* gave her a rich present, and intending to give her more he told her to remain with those of her people who were in the camp, saying that he would see her again on his return. He then set off with the army for Ta'if.

Huge Spoils

The Hawazin women and children who had been behind the lines were all made captive. The booty was six thousand captives, twenty four thousand camels; over forty thousand sheep and four thousand silver ounces. The Prophet* gave orders that booty should be confined at Al-J‘iranah and ordained Mas‘ud bin ‘Amr Al-Ghifari to be in charge of it about ten miles from Mecca.

After collecting the booty, the Prophet* left for Ta’if to face the greatest number of the defeated idolaters.

Fiqh:

Asking for questions related to the Fiqh of Fasting / Ramadhan. Some questions raised (that we will talk through next week (I/A), included:

-       Can we use toothpaste

-       Does biting nails break the fast

-       Can we use inhalers

Main Topic:
We have intellectually brought a convincing argument for the existence of God. We must also examine if this agrees with mans nature. Man has certain instincts and organic needs, the satisfaction of which he constantly strives for.
The organic needs are for:

• food and drink,
• sleeping,
• breathing,
• going to the toilet

These needs are essential without which man will die.
Instincts can be categorised as three:

• Survival or self-preservation,
• Procreation or sexual/family, and
• Religiousness/worship.

Lack of fulfilling instinct won’t kill a person but will affect how they function.
We can see clearly certain manifestations or traits in man reflecting his desire to satisfy these instincts. Thus man acquires goods and nice objects, likes to own property, wants a job and income, can be greedy, and may save for the future, in attempting to satisfy his instinct for survival. Similarly compassion, affection, love, marriage, and sexual tendencies are expressions of the procreational instinct in man. The desire to worship, sanctify, revere or approach something of greater power or influence are part of man's instinct of religiousness.
Before talking about how these different needs and instincts are met and satisfied and who is the right to decide on these we spent a few minutes talking about where laws tend to come from.  Certainly, in western countries it is accepted that people make the laws.  In England traditionally it was the Royal family who have the right to make the laws and so they are considered to be sovereign over the people.  Constitutionally, the current situation is that the head of the Royal family (the monarch/the Queen) as passed the right to legislate (make the laws) to Parliament -- but the Queen still has to rubber stamp every enacted law.  Modern democratic countries may vary the process of how the laws on made but the principal remains that it is the people who have the right to make the laws.  This is very different to the situation in Islam where it is universally accepted that only Allah has the right to make the laws and that Allah is sovereign over the Muslim people.
This important difference will be expanded upon in future study circles.  Furthermore, we will explore how all these elements of belief link with the Qur'an and Shariah over the coming weeks, InshaAllah.

Feedback:
Children's Charity Update
Ramadhan

Homework:
Seerah ~ What weapons were used in the seige of Taif?
Fiqh ~ questions related to the Fiqh of Fasting
Main topic ~ bring examples of how the instincts of personal survival and worship may have changed (or are the same) over the ages