Chapter:1.

8
Battles fought by the Prophet(S)
a) The battles fought by the Prophet and his followers
after the Hijrah:

The Battle of Badr.

The Quraish were severely displeased and jealous of the growing

power of the Prophet (SAW). Their caravans were being threatened

by the Muslims of Madinah and after the incident at Nakhla where a

member of the Quraish was killed by a Muslim, they refused to

back down.

Abu Sufyan was returning from Syria when he realized that the

Muslims were planning on intercepting the caravan and thus called

for backup. Although he managed to return without any harm from

the Muslims, the army he had sent for, saw this as an opportunity

and marched on. With a thousand well-equipped men, they

marched on and they gave the Muslims enough time to only collect

three hundred and thirteen people to fight back with. Both the

armies camped at Badr. The night before the battle, rain was sent

down which smoothed the ground for the Muslims and unstabilized

the ground for the Quraish. Before the battle begun, the Prophet

(SAW) threw a handful of sand at the enemy which resulted in a

great psychological effect on them- instilling fear within their

hearts.

The battle begun with a one-on-one combat between three people

 from each side. All three of the Quraish were slain. The general

fighting followed and Allah sent down aid for them which resulted

in their clear cut victory. Much booty was captured.

The result of the battle raised the morale of the Muslims and gave

them new hopes. The Bedouin tribes too were impressed and began

to make alliances with the Muslims. All the prominent leaders of

the Quraish were killed. The Jewish tribe of Banu Qainuqa was

banished for their lack of help despite what the Treaty of Madinah

stated.

 Battle of Ohud:
The battle of Badr intensified the hate within the hearts of the Quraish and

to avenge their dead, they began forming an army. Abu Sufyan swore not

to have a bath until he had gotten revenge for the Quraish casualties at

Badr.

An army of three thousand marched forth and was met with a Muslim

army of a thousand- out of which three hundred hypocrites backed out last

minute under the leadership of Abdullah bin Ubay. Fifty archers on the

Muslims side were posted to guard a pass and were instructed not to

move. The general fighting began in which the Muslims were winning-

putting the archers under the impression that the war was won, causing

them to leave their post and join in collecting the booty. Khalid bin Walid

used this as an opportunity to attack through the pass, causing total

chaos. A rumor spread about the death of the Prophet (SAW) which

further caused disruption but in a matter of minutes, they regrouped and

started to fight vigorously. The Quraish retreated.

The Makkans challenged them to a war the following year. The defeat has

lowered the morale and prestige of the Muslims but had also taught them

an important lesson. Banu Nadir- who had conspired against and openly

sided with the Quraish- were banished and went to encamp at either

Khayber or Syria.

Battle of Ditch/ Trench

In accordance with the challenge of the Quraish, the fight continued on.
The victory at Uhud had made the Quraish believe they could take on the
Muslims easily and saw this as a good opportunity to end the growing
influence of the Muslims once and for all. They seized the moment and ten
thousand men marched forward to Madinah.
Following the suggestion of Salman Al-Farsi, the Muslims chose to dig a
trench around Madinah instead of combatting the Quraish face to face.
The Quraish received a huge shock and in their confusion, there was an
exchange of arrows. Banu Quraizah tried to help them but the Prophet
(SAW) used a man from the Ghatafan tribe to sow seeds of distrust
between the allies and thus that too broke the spirit of the enemy. Time
went by, slowly shortages began and animals started to die off. Eventually,
a strong wind ended this drawn out battle and uprooted the Quraish who
were forced to return.
This superior strategy improved the stature of the Muslims and Islam
began to spread rapidly among neighboring tribes. It was a great blow to
the Quraish and their ally. Banu Quraizah was dealt with according to their
own scriptures by beheading all the men and taking the women and
children as slaves.

Battle of Khaiber
Khayber had become a land of conspiracies and severe threat to the
Muslims. They mistook the Treaty of Hudaibiyah as a sign of Muslim
weakness and started preparing to attack Madinah. When the Prophet
(SAW) heard of this, he decided to attack first- catch them by surprise. He
succeeded in this when he sent an army of sixteen hundred to lay siege on
 the Jewish forts. The siege lasted twenty days but one after another, all of
them were eventually defeated- Hazrat Ali captured the last one.
However, the Jews were forgiven and allowed to stay at Khayber in
exchange for half their produce.

b)The reasons the Prophet chose to fight the battles.

1. In order to make the enemy feel that they have enough power to fight.

Some wars of the prophet (PBUH), especially sariyyas that were perfomed before
the Battle of Badr, aimed to show polytheists and Madinah Jews who had hostile
feelings against Islam and its followers, and Meccan polytheists who were waiting for
an opportunity to attack Muslims that Muslims were strong and to set an area of
freedom for conveying the message of Islam and to protect Muslims' existence
against attacks.

2. Preventing the financial sources of attacks.

Some wars of the prophet (PBUH) were fought for the purpose of controlling the ways of
commerce of Meccan polytheists and weaken them in terms of economy since they had
started setting an army in order to fight the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Muslims by
using the goods of Muslims of which they had to leave behind during the migration from
Mecca and captured by polytheists after that.

3. Defending against attacks.

While all battles of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had a defensive quality in terms of
their reasons and main purposes, the number of defensive battles in terms of strategy is
few in number. Some battles of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) occurred as a result of
the attacks of the enemy in order to harm Muslim’s existence

4. Gathering information about the enemy.

Some ghazwas and sariyyas of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were carried out for the
purpose of gathering information against the enemy that were watching for an
opportunity to attack at any moment. Muslims had to be always on the alert against all
enemies, especially polytheists. For these reasons, after ensuring the security of
Madina, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) aimed to be more cautious against Meccan
polytheists by making agreements with nearby tribes.

5. Helping Muslims that are persecuted.

Some of the wars were fought in order to end the pressure on the freedom of religion
and belief applied by the tribes and states that oppressed and tortured Muslims. The
tribes and states that were full of the feeling of enmity against Muslims displayed their
enmity whenever they had an opportunity. This enmity was shown in the form of
oppressing and torturing the Muslims who lived in other states as a minority.

6. Punishing those who mistreated and killed the envoys

The Messenger of Allah sent envoys to the rulers of the countries in the region after the
Treaty of Hudaybiyya with the intention of calling them to Islam. Some of those rulers
replied the call positively; however, others replied the call negatively and insulted the
envoys and the Prophet (pbuh).

c) The importance of the battles for the establishment of Islam.

Since establishment of Islam is the primary duty of the Prophet (pbuh), the aim is to
make Allah known all over the world in the medium of peace. The duty of establishment
of Islam was not ignored even in the situations when the enemy forced Muslims to fight.
23 As a necessity of this responsibility, the Prophet (pbuh) sent delegates of tabligh to
the tribes and states around Madinah. When the reasons behind the ghazwas and
sariyyas that were claimed to have been carried out due to tabligh are examined, it will
be seen that they took place because the delegates had to defend themselves when
they were attacked. In other words, wars were fought not because the addressees did
not accept Islam but because they attacked Muslims. Therefore, the Prophet (pbuh)
fought in order to eliminate the barriers that prevented tabligh not to make people accept
Islam by force.

The Prophet (pbuh) sometimes sent delegates to some tribes and states when he was
asked and he sometimes sent delegates with the intention of conveying the message of
Islam without being asked. Some of these delegates whose aim was nothing but to
convey the message of Islam were ambushed and betrayed; they were martyred. The
following sariyyas were attacked and the Muslims that participated in them were
martyred: the sariyyas of Raji', Bi'r al-Mauna, Sons of Sulaym, Dhat al-Atlah, Dhat ath-
Thalathil, Sons of Jazima, Uman, Bahrayn and Dumatul-Jandal.

Some tribes demanded delegates of tabligh stating that they tended to be Muslims and
promised that they would protect the delegates of tabligh; however, they ambushed and
martyred the delegates; these attacks caused the formation of some sariyyas and
ghazwas. The delegates that aimed nothing but to inform people about the religion that
would bring salvation to humanity were attacked treasonously and ambushed. The
Prophet (pbuh) struggled against those people who attacked Islam in order to defend
Islam. The ghazwa of Dhat ar-Riqa' and the sariyyas of Jamum, Mayfaa, Sons of Amir,
the Second Sayf al-Bahr and Khaybar asked were performed in order to counteract the
attacks against the peaceful delegates.