Muhammad’s Year of Sadness: 619

Muhammad had been pushed beyond his original preconceptions and had come to the end of his own natural resources. He had the greatest mystical experience in the year 620, very close to the experience of mysticism in the Jewish tradition, which flourished from the second to the tenth century CE. They would fast, read special hymns that induced receptivity, and use special physical techniques. They had discovered a new path to God and risked personal danger while doing so. The Night Journey showed that Muhammad was more than just a humble Warner of the Quraysh. This religious experience has been immensely important in the evolution of Islamic spirituality. It is celebrated each year and over the centuries, mystics, philosophers and poets have speculated its significance.   

Mohammed Appeals to the Medina Bedouins

Muhammad began to preach to the Bedouin pilgrims who came for the annual hajj, hoping to find a more permanent protector among them. When Muhammad presented himself to the pilgrims from Medina during the hajj of 620, they immediately saw he would be a much more impartial leader. They were not shocked by his monotheistic message. They had lived for so long beside the Jews that they were used to the idea that there was only one God. For a very long time they had felt inferior to the Jews because they had no scriptures of their own and were ‘a people without knowledge’. They were thrilled to Muhammad’s claim that he was a prophet for the Arabs

Emigration to Medina – Pledge of War – The Helpers

During July and August 622, about seventy Muslims set off with their families for Medina.  The emigration was not just a geographical change. The Muslims of Mecca were about to abandon the Quraysh and accept the permanent protection of a tribe to whom they were not related by blood.

The Muslims of Medina promised that they would give protection and help on a permanent basis to people who were not kin to them. Henceforth they would be known as the Ansar, the people who gave help to the Prophet and his Companions. ‘Ansar’ is usually translated ‘the Helpers’, which meant that you had to be ready to back up your ‘help’ and support with force if necessary.

Muhammad was aware that people were plotting against his life. The Muslims of Medina made a pledge known as the Pledge of War: ‘We pledge ourselves to war in complete obedience to the apostle, in weal or woe, in ease and hardship and evil circumstances; that we will not wrong anyone; that we will speak the truth at all times; and that in God’s service we will fear the censure of none.’ The Pledge of War did not mean that Islam had suddenly become an aggressive and martial religion; it was simply required by the step Muhammad was about to take. The Koran teaches that war is always abominable. Muslims must never open hostilities, for the only just war is a war of self-defense, but, once they have undertaken a war, Muslims must fight with absolute commitment in order to bring the fighting to an end as soon as possible.

Relations with the Jews

He reached out eagerly to the Jews in the oasis. The Koran adopted the Aramaic name that the Jews gave to Medina. Muslims now turned toward Jerusalem three times a day in prayer, they had the same aims as the People of the Book.

At first the Jews had been prepared to give Muhammad the benefit of the doubt, especially since he seemed so clearly inclined towards Judaism. Muhammad never asked them to accept his religion of Allah unless they particularly wished to convert.

They vociferously refused to accept Muhammad as a genuine prophet and jeeringly exclaimed how odd it was that a man who was supposed to have revelations from God could not even find his camel when it went missing. These snide criticisms upset the Muslims so much that fighting often broke out and there were disreputable scenes in which the Jews were forcibly ejected from the mosque after some particularly vicious jibe.

PrayTowards Mecca

Muhammad found a way of rebutting the Jews. In late January 624, Muhammad was leading the Friday prayers in the mosque. Muhammad made the whole congregation turn around and pray facing Mecca instead of Jerusalem. The change of direction was a sign of a proud new Muslim identity. Now, wherever they were, they would all prostrate themselves three times a day in the direction of Mecca. This new independence was made at a time when the Muslims were in an embattled position, surrounded by enemies on all sides.

The Jews of Medina interpreted the change of direction as an act of defiance. They became determined to get rid of Muhammad; Medina was expecting an attack from the powerful city of Mecca.

No radical social and political change has ever been achieved without bloodshed, and, because Muhammad was living in a period of confusion and disintegration, peace could be achieved only by the sword. The Koran began to urge the Muslims of Medina to participate in a jihad.

The Koran was beginning to evolve a theology of the just war: it might sometimes be necessary to fight to preserve decent values. But the revelation should not be taken to imply that Muhammad was envisaging a full-scale war with Mecca at this early stage. That would have been pure madness.

About a thousand men marched out of Mecca and took to the road of Badr. When Muhammad heard of this frightening news, he called a council of war. The Muslims were strictly disciplined and desperate and had been carefully drilled by Muhammad. Suddenly he emerged as a good military tactician. He had lined them up in close formation and they began by bombarding the enemy with arrows, drawing their swords for hand-to-hand fighting only at the last moment.

Despite their superior numbers, the Quraysh soon found to their astonishment that they were getting the worst of it. They fought in the old Arab style with careless bravado and each chief led his own men, so the army lacked a unified command. By midday, the Quraysh who had expected to only have to make a show of force, panicked and fled in disarray, leaving about fifty of their leading men dead on the field.

Victory for Muhammad

The Muslims were jubilant. They began to round up prisoners and, in the usual Arab fashion, started to kill them, but Muhammad put a stop to this. A revelation came down saying that the prisoners of war were to be ransomed. He also stopped the Muslims squabbling over the booty, and the camels, horses, armor and equipment were divided up equally. Muhammad had no wish to eliminate the Quraysh. Somehow he would have to win them over; to this end, even in the first flush of victory, he treated the Quraysh prisoners fairly.

The Koran developed a humane policy towards prisoners of war. It decreed that they must not be ill-treated in any way and must be either released or returned for ransom. If there were no ransom forthcoming, the prisoner must be allowed to earn money to buy his freedom: his captor is urged to help him with the payments out of his own resources and the freeing of captives praised as a virtuous and charitable act. The humane and fair treatment paid off. Some of the prisoners were so impressed by life in the umma that they converted to Islam.

The victorious army began the trek home. For years Muhammad had been the butt of scorn and insults, but after this spectacular and unsought success everybody in Arabia would have to take him seriously. This unexpected victory of a sudden reversal of fortune seemed like an act of God, filling the people with new confidence and conviction.

Not all the Helpers were enthusiastic about his enhanced prestige. Despite the euphoria and pride in the victory, most thoughtful Muslims knew very well that it might not be so easy to defeat the Quraysh another time. The Quraysh would have to retaliate to retrieve their honor and prestige, on which their success was based.

Jews Support Quraysh

The army was welcomed ecstatically when it marched into Medina, to the great discomfiture of the three main Jewish tribes. The Jewish tribes were horrified by Muhammad’s new standing in Medina and saw Mecca as a natural ally. The Jewish tribes were formidable. They had sizable armies and impressive fighting power and, in the event of a Meccan attack, might well join the Quraysh to get rid of the upstart.

Siege of Medina, 627

In March 627, the Quraysh left Mecca with an army of 10,000. Muhammad could muster only about 3,000 men from Medina and his Bedouin allies. The Muslims barricaded themselves into their city. Medina was not difficult to defend. It was surrounded on three sides by cliffs and plains of volcanic rock and it was relatively easy to man the roads that ran through this difficult terrain into the oasis. It was from the north that Medina was most vulnerable, and Muhammad hit on an expedient, which his contemporaries found extraordinary.

They were to gather the crops from the outlying areas, so that the besieging army would find no fodder as they had last time, and then work to build a huge trench around the northern part of the oasis. The trench effectively stymied the whole massive offensive. The cavalry was completely useless because the horses cold not get over the trench.

The Quraysh leaders decided to try a more wily method and get the Jewish tribe in the south of the oasis, to let them into the city. When the Jewish tribe saw the huge army that the Quraysh had brought to Medina, they agreed to help the Quraysh.

It was always difficult to maintain a siege in Arabia; the Quraysh exhausted their provisions, and men and horses became hungry. Their resolve snapped when the weather suddenly changed. The Koran speaks of the drop in the temperature, the wind and rain as an act of God. When the Muslims peered over the top of the escarpment the next morning, the vast plain was entirely empty.

Judgement of the Jews

But what was Muhammad to do about the Jews who had brought the umma to the brink of destruction? This is a grim and horrible story and has hideous overtones for most of us today. Muhammad summoned the Muslim army to the village. When they heard Muhammad was advancing on their territory, the Jews duly barricaded themselves into their fortress and managed to hold out against the Muslims for twenty-five days. They knew that as unfaithful allies they could expect no mercy.

The Jews finally agreed to accept Muhammad’s judgment and opened their gates to the Muslim army. The Jews begged Muhammad to be merciful. Muhammad asked them if they would accept the decision of one of their own leading men, Sa’d, and they agreed.

Sa’d judged that all the 700 men should be killed, their wives and children into slavery and their property divided among the Muslims. Muhammad cried aloud: ‘You have judged according to the very sentence of Allah above the seven skies!’ Muhammad ordered a trench to be dug. They were tied together in groups and beheaded; their bodies were thrown into the trench. One woman was executed.

In Perspective

It is probably impossible for us to dissociate this story from nazi atrocities and it will inevitably alienate many people irrevocably from Muhammad. This was a very primitive society – far more primitive than the Jewish society in which Jesus had lived and promulgated his gospel of mercy and love some 600 years earlier. At the time of Muhammad, Medina was a mighty slayer of the enemies of God and who on one occasion massacred two hundred Philistines, castrated them and sent the grisly pile of foreskins to their king.

The Jews had nearly destroyed Medina. If Muhammad had let them go they would have swelled the Jewish opposition at Khaybar and would have organized another offensive against Medina. The summary executions impressed Muhammad’s enemies. Nobody seems to have been shocked by the massacre, and the Jews themselves seem to have accepted its inevitability. The executions sent a grim message to the Jews at Khaybar, and the Arab tribes noted that Muhammad was not afraid of any friends or allies of Mecca.

In January 630, Muhammad set out at the head of the largest army ever to leave Medina. Along the road, their Bedouin allies joined the expedition, bringing the numbers up to 10,000 men. The Muslim army entered Mecca without striking a single blow. Muhammad’s red tent was pitched near the Kaaba.

He had come to Mecca not to persecute the Quraysh but to abolish the religion which had failed them. Mounted on Qawsa, he rode around the Kaaba seven times, touching the Black Stone each time and crying ‘Allah Akbar!’ The shout was taken up by his 10,000 soldiers and soon the whole city resounded with the words that symbolized the final victory of Islam. Next Muhammad turned his attention to the 360 idols around the shrine. Crowded on the roofs and balconies, the Quraysh watched him smash each idol. Lastly, Muhammad issued a general amnesty.

By conquering Mecca, Muhammad had vindicated his prophetic claim. This conquest had been achieved without bloodshed, and Muhammad’s peaceful policy paid off.

Death of Muhammad, June 8, 632

His son fell ill at the beginning of 632 and it was clear that he would not recover. Muhammad was with his son when he died and, weeping bitterly, took him into his arms at the last moment. Not long afterwards, Aisha felt that he was lying more heavily in her lap and that he seemed to be losing consciousness. Carefully she laid his head on the pillow and began to beat her breast, slap her face and cry aloud in the time-honored Arab way.

The shock of Muhammad’s death was one of the gravest crises that the Muslim community had ever had to face. There was a real danger that Arabia would lapse into its old tribal divisions.