The Succour of God

The Succour of God

1991 8 August 11-13 The Succour of God (847) In the sixth year of Hijrah a 10 year peace treaty was concluded at Hudaybiyyah, one article of which specified that any person emigrating to Muhammad’s camp without permission of his guardian would have to be returned to Mecca; whereas any Muslim emigrating from Muhammad’s camp to Mecca would not have to be returned. When the details of the treaty were about to be finalised, Suhayl ibn Amr was delegate of the Quraysh. The treaty was still being written when Suhayl ibn Amr’s son, Abu Jandal arrived. He had accepted Islam, but the Meccans had imprisoned him. He had walked all the way in chains from Mecca to Hudaybiyyah (present Shamisi) 13 miles distance, in a state that when he reached the camp his feet were still shackled and his body showed the bruises and injuries of beating and assault. He pleaded pathetically with the Muslims to save him from the fate of being returned and imprisoned again by the unbelievers who would continue to persecute him for his faith. The sight of the horrible suffering of their Muslim brother greatly increased the Muslims’ resentment and their dissatisfaction with the pact. But Suhayl ibn Amr, Abu Jandal’s father, said although the writing of the pact had not yet been concluded the conditions had already been decided amongst them.

“Therefore Abu Jandal must be surrendered to us. The Prophet accepted his argument and handed over Abu Jandal to him. The Prophet spoke to Abu Jandal thus: O Abu Jandal, have patience and be disciplined, for God will soon show you and your other persecuted colleagues a way out of your suffering. We have entered into a peace treaty With the Quraysh and the other.” Abu Jandal returned to the Quraysh in compliance with the demands of this treaty, and returned to Mecca weeping. Similarly, other Muslims like Abu Baseer, who had managed to free themselves, from the imprisonment of the Quraysh and had come to Medina went on being returned to the Quraysh according to the pact.

But, on the other hand, in the matter of Muslim women this principle was not adhered to. This verse was revealed in the Quran on this occasion:

Believers, when believing women seek refuge with you, test them. Allah best knows their faith. If you find them true believers do not return them to the infidels. (60:10)

In this connection such incidents are recorded as when Umm Kulthum bint Uqbah bin Abi Muyat freed herself from the clutches of the Quraysh and came to Medina, the Quraysh demanded her return according to the terms of the pact. Two brothers of Umm Kulthum, Walid ibn Uqbah and Ammara ibn Uqbah, came to Medina to take her back. In spite of this she was not returned. Apparently this was a violation of the pact. And the Quraysh had found a great opportunity to defame the Prophet on this score. But the Quraysh, in spite of being dire enemies, had fallen silent on this issue. They did not even protest against it.

How did this come about? We do not find any satisfactory reply in the books of Seerah and commentaries on the Quran. Qazi Abu Bakr Ibn Arabi writes that the Quraysh became quiet, and stopped making protests because God had miraculously silenced their tongues. There is no doubt about it that it was a miracle of God. But not in the sense in which the word miracle is normally used.

We can arrive at the truth by perusing the wording of this particular ‘condition of the pact. Here we quote the version of Bukhari which may be taken to be the most authentic: “You will have to return any of our men who come to you even if they have accepted your faith.”

So we can understand that the word ‘any of our men’ (rajul) gave Muslims the opportunity of excluding women from the application of this condition.

This condition of the treaty had not been put forward by the Muslims, but was included by the Meccans and Suhayl, the delegate of the Quraysh had dictated the actual wording. It seems that while dictating the word rajul, Suhayl’ had in mind a word meaning “any person” which referred to both men and women, but while putting this conception into words he uttered the word rajul, which is used in Arabic only for men. Most probably this was the reason the Prophet could legitimately refuse, (according to the narration of Imam Zuhri) to hand over Umm Kulthum bint Uqbah to her brother when he came to the Prophet and de manded her return. The Prophet said on this occasion ‘The condition applied to men and not to women (Tafsir Razi). It seems that before this incident took place, the Quraysh themselves erroneously understood this article of the treaty to apply to both male and female emigrants. But after the Prophet had pointed out to them that the article specified ‘man’ they conceded the weakness of their stand. Thus God, by means of one word, saved Muslim women from being humiliatingly returned to their oppressors.