Introduction to the Study of The Holy Quran — Page 177
177 murderously attacking them, left them all for dead. Muhammad bin Maslamah, however, was only lying unconscious. Recovering consciousness he pulled himself together, returned to Medina and made a report. A few days later, an envoy of the Prophet on his way to the Roman capital was attacked and robbed by men of the Jurham tribe. A month later, the Banu Fazarah attacked a Muslim caravan and made away with much loot. It is possible that this attack was not prompted by religious antagonism. The Banu Fazarah were a tribe of marauders given to looting and killing. The Jews of Khaybar, the main factor in the Battle of the Ditch, were also determined to avenge the crushing defeat which they suffered in that battle. They went about inciting tribal settlements and officers of State on the Roman frontier. Arab leaders, therefore, unable to make a straightforward attack on Medina, were intriguing with the Jews to make life impossible for Muslims. The Prophet, however, had yet to make up his mind for a decisive fight. Arab leaders might make an offer of peace, he thought, and civil strife might end. The Prophet Leaves for Mecca with 1500 Companions During this time the Prophet saw a vision which is mentioned thus in the Quran: You will certainly enter the Sacred Mosque, if God will, in security, some having their heads shaven, and others having their hair cut short; and you will not fear. But He knew what you knew not. He has in fact ordained for you, besides that, a victory near at hand. 208 That is to say, God had decided to let Muslims enter the precincts of the Ka‘bah in peace, with heads shaven and hair cut (these being the external signs of pilgrims to the Ka‘bah), and without fear. But Muslims did not know exactly how God was to let this happen. Moreover, before Muslims performed their pilgrimage in peace, they were to have another victory, a precursor of the victory promised in the vision. In this vision God foretold the ultimate victory of Muslims, their peaceful march into Mecca and the conquest of Mecca without the use of arms. But the Prophet understood it to mean that Muslims had been commanded by God immediately to attempt a circuit of the Ka‘bah. The Prophet’s error in interpreting the vision was to become the occasion of the victory 'near at hand' promised in the vision. In error, therefore, the Prophet planned a march towards the Ka‘bah. He announced his vision and his interpretation of it to Muslims and asked them to prepare. "You will go," he said, "only to perform a circuit of the Ka‘bah. There were, therefore, to be no demon- strations against the enemy. " Late in February 628, fifteen hundred • • • • pilgrims, headed • • • • In this pilgrimage planned a year after the Battle of the Ditch, only one thousand five hundred men accompanied the Prophet sa. The number of Muslim combatants in the Battle of the Ditch could have been less but not more than this number. Historians who put the number of the Muslim combatants in the Battle of the Ditch at three thousand, therefore, are wrong. The number can quite reasonably be put at one thousand two hundred.