The Book of Jihad and Expeditions

Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Make matters easy and do not make them difficult, and give people glad tidings and do not drive them away."

Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When Allah gathers the first and the last on the Day of Judgment, a banner will be raised for every traitor, and it will be said: This is the betrayal of so-and-so, the son of so-and-so."

Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "War is deception."

Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "War is deception."

‘Abdullāh ibn Abu Awfa (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) during one of the days wherein he met the enemy, waited until the sun had declined. Thereafter, he stood up among them and said: "O people, do not wish to meet the enemy, and ask Allah for safety. And if you meet them, have patience and know that Paradise lies under the shadows of swords." Then, the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Allah, Revealer of the Book, Mover of the Clouds, Defeater of the Armies, Defeat them and help us against them!"

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that a woman was found killed in one of the expeditions of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), and so the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) denounced killing women and boys.

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that a woman was found killed in one of the expeditions of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), and so the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) denounced killing women and boys.

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "One of the prophets (peace be upon them) set out on a military expedition. He said to his people: 'Let not anyone accompany me who has married a woman and wishes to consummate his marriage with her but has not yet done so, or one who has built a house but has not yet erected its roof, or one who has bought sheep or pregnant she-camels and is waiting for their offspring.' Then he marched on and approached a village at the time of the afternoon prayer or close to that, so he said to the sun: 'You are commanded and so am I. O Allah, hold it back (from setting) for us,' and it was held back until Allah granted him victory. He gathered the spoils of war, and the fire came down to devour them but it did not devour them. He said: 'Some of you misappropriated the spoils of war, so one man from each tribe should give me his pledge of allegiance.' They all did so and the hand of one man stuck to his hand, so he said: 'Your tribe is guilty of misappropriation of the spoils of war. Let all the members of your tribe give their pledge of allegiance to me.' They did so and the hands of two or three men stuck to his hand. He said: 'You have taken something from the spoils of war illegally.' So they brought an amount of gold equal in size to the head of a cow. They placed it among the spoils so the fire approached and devoured them. The spoils of war were not made lawful for any people before us, then Allah made the spoils of war lawful for us when He saw our weakness and helplessness, so He made them lawful for us."

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with both of them) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) sent a detachment to Najd, and I went with the troops. We seized camels and sheep as spoils of war. Our shares amounted to twelve camels per fighter and the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) gave an extra camel to each of us.

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) used to grant some of those whom he sent in a detachment a special share of the war booty, beyond what he would grant members of the army in general.

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said: "My heirs should not take a dinar or dirham. Whatever I leave behind, excluding the provision for my wives and my employees, should be spent in charity."

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) divided the spoils, allotting two shares to the horse and one share to the man.

Ibn ‘Abbās (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: On the day of (the battle of) Badr, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) looked at the polytheists, who were one thousand (fighters), while his Companions were three hundred and nineteen. The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) turned towards the Qiblah, stretched his hands up, and started calling upon his Lord: "O Allah, fulfill for me what You have promised to me. O Allah, accomplish what You have promised to me. O Allah, if this small band of Muslims is destroyed, You will not be worshiped on earth." He continued his supplication to his Lord while raising his hands and facing the Qiblah until his mantle slipped down from his shoulders. So Abu Bakr came to him, picked up his mantle, and put it back on his shoulders. Then he embraced him from behind and said: "O Prophet, you have sufficiently prayed to your Lord, and He will fulfill for you what He has promised you." So Allah, the Exalted, revealed: {When you appealed to your Lord for help, He responded to your call (saying): I will help you with one thousand angels coming in succession} [Sūrat al-Anfāl: 9]. So Allah supported him with angels." Abu Zumayl reported that Ibn ‘Abbās told him: "On that day, a Muslim was chasing a disbeliever who was running in front of him, he heard the sound of a whip from above, and the voice of a rider, saying: 'Go ahead, Hayzūm.' He glanced at the polytheist, who had (then) fallen down on his back. When he looked at him, there was a scar on his nose, and his face was torn as if it had been lashed with a whip, and it all turned purple. The Ansāri (man from the Ansār came to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and related this (incident) to him. He said: 'You have told the truth. This was help from the third heaven.' On that day (the day of the battle of Badr), the Muslims killed seventy disbelievers and captured seventy as captives. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said to Abu Bakr and ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with both of them): 'What is your opinion regarding these captives?' Abu Bakr said: 'They are our kith and kin. I think you charge them a ransom (in return for releasing them), which (the ransom) will be a source of strength to us against the disbelievers. Perhaps, Allah will guide them to Islam.' Then the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'What is your opinion, O Ibn al-Khattāb?' He said: 'No, by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I do not agree with the opinion of Abu Bakr. I am of the opinion that you should hand them over to us so that we cut off their heads. Hand over ‘Aqīl to ‘Ali to cut off his head, and hand over such-and-such relative to me to cut off his head. These are the leaders of the disbelief and its veterans.' ‘Umar noted: 'The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) favored the opinion of Abu Bakr and did not favor what I had said. The next day, when I came to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) I found that both he and Abu Bakr were sitting and crying. I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, why are you and your companion crying? Tell me the reason. For I will cry, or I will at least pretend to cry in sympathy with you.’ The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘I cry for what has been offered to your companions of taking the ransom (from the prisoners). I was shown the punishment to which they will be subjected. It was brought to me as close as this tree.’ Then Allah, the Exalted, revealed: {It is not befitting for a Prophet that he should take prisoners until the force of the disbelievers has been crushed...} [Sūrat al-Anfāl: 67] {so eat of what you have gained of the spoils of war, (it is) lawful and pure} [Sūrat al-Anfāl: 69]. So Allah made war spoils lawful for them."

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) sent some cavalry towards Najd. They captured a man from the tribe of Banu Hanīfah called Thumāmah ibn Uthāl, and tied him to one of the pillars of the mosque. Then the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) went to him and said: "What do you think, Thumāmah?" He replied, "I have a good thought, O Muhammad! If you kill, you will kill someone with blood; if you do a favor, you will do a favor to a grateful person; and if you want money, then ask and you will be given whatever you wish." The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) left him until the next day, and then said to him: "What do you think, Thumāmah? He said: "As I told you before: if you do a favor, you will do a favor to a grateful person; if you kill, you will kill a person with blood; and if you want money, then ask and you will be given whatever you wish." The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) left him again until the following day and then said to him: "What do you think, Thumāmah?" He said: "I think what I have told you before: if you do a favor , you will do a favor to a grateful person; if you kill, you will kill a person with blood; and if you want money, then ask and you will be given whatever you wish." Thereupon, the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Release Thumāmah." Thereupon, he went to a place of water near the mosque, took a bath, and then entered the mosque and said: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. O Muhammad, by Allah! There was no face on the surface of the earth more hateful to me than yours; but now your face has become the most beloved of all faces to me. By Allah, there was no religion more hateful to me than yours; but now it is the most beloved religion to me. By Allah, there was no city more hateful to me than yours; but now it is the most beloved city to me. Your cavalry arrested me when I was intending to perform ‘Umrah. And now what do you think?" The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) gave him glad tidings and ordered him to go and perform ‘Umrah. So, when he went to Mecca, someone said to him: "Have you apostatized?" Thumāmah replied: "No, by Allah! I have embraced Islam along with the Messenger of Allah. Behold, by Allah, no single grain of wheat will come to you from Yamāmah unless the Messenger of Allah gives his permission for it."

‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) say: "I will certainly expel the Jews and the Christians from the Arabian Peninsula until only Muslims are left in it."

Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet of Allah (ﷺ) wrote to Khosrow, Caesar, the Negus, and every other tyrant, calling them to Allah Almighty. And this Negus was not the same one over whom the Prophet (ﷺ) performed the funeral prayer.

Abu al-Fadl Al-‘Abbās ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I witnessed the Day of Hunayn with the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him). Abu Sufyān ibn al-Hārith ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib and I stuck with the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and we did not leave him. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) was riding on his white mule. When the Muslims met the disbelievers on the battlefield, the Muslims retreated, but the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) began to spur his mule on towards the disbelievers. I was holding onto the Messenger’s mule’s bridle (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) restraining it from going very fast. Abu Sufyān who was holding the Messenger’s mule’s stirrup (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Al-‘Abbās, call out to the people of Samurah." Al-‘Abbās (who was a man with a loud voice) called out at the top of his voice: "Where are the people of Samurah?" Al-‘Abbās said: "And by Allah, when they heard my voice, they came back (to us) as cows come back to their calves, and they said: 'We are here, we are here!'" Al-‘Abbās said: “They began to fight the disbelievers. Then there was a call to the Ansār. Those (who called out to them) shouted: ‘O you people of the Ansār!' O people of the Ansār!‘ Banu al-Hārith ibn al-Khazraj were the last to be called. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) who was riding on his mule watched at their fight, stretched his neck forward, and said: ‘This is the time when the fight is raging hot.' Then the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) took (some) pebbles and threw them in the faces of the disbelievers and said: ‘By the Lord of Muhammad, they are defeated.'" Al-‘Abbās said: “I went round and saw that the battle was in the same condition that I had seen it. And, by Allah! It remained in that same condition until he threw the pebbles. I continued to watch until I saw that their force had faded and they began to retreat."

Salamah ibn al-Akwa‘ (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: We fought with the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) in Hunayn. When we encountered the enemy, I advanced and ascended a mountain pass. A man from the enemy turned towards me and I shot him with an arrow. He hid himself from me. I did not know what he did, but (all of a sudden) I saw that a group of people appeared from the other mountain pass. They and the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) met in combat, but the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) turned back and I too turned back in retreat. I had two mantles, one of which I was wrapping around the waist (covering the lower part of my body) and the other I was putting around my shoulders. My waist-wrapper got loose and I held the two mantles together. (In this downcast condition) I passed by the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) who was riding on his white mule. He said: "The son of Al-Akwa‘ has seen terror." When they (the disbelievers) gathered around him from all sides, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) got down from his mule, picked up a handful of dust from the ground, threw it at their faces and said: 'May these faces be deformed.' There was none among them whose eyes were not filled with dust from this handful. So they turned back fleeing. Allah, Exalted and Glorified, defeated them, and the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) distributed their booty among the Muslims.