Victory of Islam

Seerah as a Movement was their sorrow, that when they shaved their heads afterwards, it seemed as if they were going to cut one another’s throats. But this truce, the terms of which appeared so unfavourable to the Muslims, was destined to reap incalculable benefits for them later. The treaty of Hudaybiyyah was however a temporary solution. The Prophet knew that the Quraysh would one day violate the treaty. Therefore, this matter demanded a permanent solution. The Prophet’s intuition told him to wait until they broke the treaty before doing battle with them. Knowing the negative sentiments that spurred the Quraysh on in their fight against the Muslims— jealousy, hate, greed and arrogance—the Prophet reckoned that they would stop short of no immoral or unreasonable action in pursuit of their aims. His estimate proved correct. In Sha’aban 8 a.h., fighting erupted between the tribes of Khuza’a and Banu Bakr. The Banu Bakr were allied to the Quraysh and the Khuza’ah to the Muslims. In blatant contradiction of the terms of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the Quraysh provided their allies with clandestine support, thus enabling them to attack the Khuza’ah. This incident occurred just two years after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. During this time the number of people with the Prophet had risen from 1500 to 10,000. Along with them, the Prophet secretly set out for Makkah. So wise and diplomatic was his strategy that Makkah was conquered with next to no bloodshed: “God has promised you many future gains, and thus He has given you this beforehand, and He has restrained the hands of men from you.” (Quran, 48:20) At the time the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was signed, the Prophet had been preaching for twenty years and the message of Islam had spread throughout the Arabian peninsula. In every tribe, there were people in whose hearts the Prophet’s religion had found a place. But they still looked up to the Quraysh as their leaders, and, for fear of arousing their ire, many who realized the truth of Islam were unable to proclaim their faith. They knew that their public acceptance of Islam would have amounted to a declaration of war against the mightiest tribe in Arabia. Now they heard that