The Prophet in the Quran

No it is rather a broad path. (Seerah ibn Hisham, Vol. 2, p. 282) On this journey the Prophet was accompanied by ten thousand of his companions. If they had attempted to go along this path walking several abreast, it would certainly have been difficult to do so, due to its narrowness. But because they went along it in single file, despite its being narrow, it was easy to do so. It was this practical wisdom, which the Prophet pointed to in his reply. We find an important secret of life in this incident: the necessity to adapt our strategy to the circumstances. This practice relates to all matters in life. By our being adaptable all life’s difficulties maybe resolved. Strategic Retreat During the life of the Prophet, in 8 A.H. the battle of Muta took place on the border of Syria, which at that time was under Byzantine rule. The Muslim army, totalling only three thousand, was greatly outnumbered by the enemy forces. Many commanders from the Muslim side fell in the battle. In the last stage Khalid bin Walid, having great military experience, reorganized the Muslim ranks in such a way as to give the impression that massive reinforcements from Madinah had arrived to join the battle. Awed at this, the Romans decided to abandon the battlefield. Finding it pointless to continue the battle, Khalid decided to withdraw, on the principle of tactical retreat, and left for Madinah. The brave Arabs, always ready to fight to the finish, saw the retreat as a dishonour to them. They failed to understand the wisdom of tactical retreat and accused the Muslims of fleeing in the face of the enemy. They called them O Furrar, that is, those who take flight. When the Prophet heard this, he corrected this wrong impression by telling them that those people had not fled but had simply withdrawn in order to advance again at some future date, God willing. (Seerat ibn Hisham, 3/438) This saying of the Prophet teaches us that the right step is that which is result-oriented. Fighting to die for honour and prestige is not a desirable act in Islam. If the enemy’s numbers are so great as to turn the tide of battle in their favour, hostilities should not be engaged in. Even if a confrontation does take place, tactical retreat should be resorted to, so that preparations may be made for taking the next result-oriented steps. The Policy of Gradualness in Reform Aisha, the Prophet’s wife, has been recorded as saying that “the first chapters of the Quran to be revealed, those making mention of heaven and hell, were short ones. It was only when people became conditioned to accept Islamic teachings that verses dealing with what is lawful and unlawful began to be revealed. And if injunctions like: ‘Do not drink wine,’ and ‘Do not commit adultery,’ had been revealed first, people would have refused to abandon these practices.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 4993) This tradition tells us of a very important policy of the Prophet. It is the same practical wisdom, which is called gradualness. The reform of human beings is a very difficult and complex task.