TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

For example, one condition of the Agreement was that if an inhabitant of Makkah embraced Islam and came to Madinah, he would have to be sent back to Makkah. In contrast, if an inhabitant of Madinah went to Makkah, the Makkans would have the right to detain him. Similarly, there was another condition, that in the year of the Agreement, the believers would return from Hudaibiyah to Madinah without entering Makkah for the Umrah or Minor Pilgrimage. The Hudaibiyah Agreement was written on a parchment. Ali ibn Abi Talib was the scribe. Under the instructions of the Prophet, he wrote the first sentence as: This is binding on Muhammad, the messenger of God. The representative of the opposing party, Suhayl ibn Amr, objected to this. He said that they did not accept Muhammad as God’s messenger and insisted that only ‘Muhammad ibn [son of] Abdullah’ be written instead. Thereupon, the Prophet instructed Ali to erase the term ‘Rasul Allah’ (‘Messenger of God’) and to write ‘Muhammad ibn Abdullah’ in its place. Ali declined to delete the words ‘Rasul Allah’, and so, the Prophet himself erased these words from the agreement. After the finalization of this Treaty, the Prophet and his Companions returned to Madinah. Prior to the Treaty, a state of war had prevailed between the two parties. As a result, the dawah mission (calling people to God) of Islam had to be abandoned. But after the Treaty, a state of complete peace was established between them. The Prophet and his Companions now made a new plan for dawah work. They started with dawah work in an organized manner in the surrounding areas of Madinah. Delegations were despatched to the various tribes settled in different parts of Arabia. Dawah delegations were also sent to the nations outside Arabia. The treaty allowed the Muslims who were still in Makkah to practise Islam publicly. The Muslims of Madinah could now once again interact with their relatives in Makkah, and the call of tawheed (monotheism) spread in Makkah. As a result of these dawah activities in a peaceful atmosphere, a large number of people began entering the fold of Islam. This happened on such a large scale that in just two years, the numerical strength of the believers was enough for Islam to be victorious without the need for any war. Then, it happened that the Quraysh violated a term of the Treaty. Under a confidential plan, the Prophet Muhammad together with 10,000 of his Companions marched towards Makkah and without any fighting, Makkah was overpowered. The voice of tawheed is the voice of human nature. In a climate of normalcy, peaceful dawah alone is enough to overwhelm people’s