The Excellent Exemplar - Muhammad — Page 62
THE EXCELLENT EXEMPLAR — MUHAMMAD 62 of the Treaty of Hudaibiyya. Without warning or cause, they sent a force with the Banu Bakr tribe, with whom they were in alliance, to attack the Khuza’a, a tribe in alliance with the Muslims, and killed many of their people. The Khuza’a immediately dispat ched a party of forty fast riders to Medina to give the Prophet intimation of this treacherous attack and to call upon him to redress the breach of the treaty. The Meccans, perturbed at this piece of news, sent Abu Sufyan to Medina to patch up the matter. Nobody there paid any attention to him and he returned to Mecca, where he reported that though he had not succeeded in securing a new agreement, neither had he observed any warlike preparations in Medina. Abu Sufyan and the Meccans were soon undeceived, ho wever, and were taken completely by surprise when they found the Prophet only a day’s march from Mecca at the head of a force of ten thousand, composed partly of Muslims from Medina, but mainly of Muslims from among the tribes in alliance with the Prophet. The Meccans, feeling helpless, sent Abu Sufyan and two others to the Prophet’s camp to see whether anything could be done to save the situation. They found the Prophet much distressed over the wanton breach of the treaty by the Meccans and the slaughter am ong the Khuza’a that they and their allies had perpetrated. Abu Sufyan, recalling all that the Meccans had done to and attempted against, the Prophet and the Muslims, feared the worst. He passed a night in the Prophet’s camp and was deeply impressed by the love and devotion which the Muslims entertained for the Prophet. Realizing that there was no way of escape for the Meccans, he asked the Prophet whether the Meccans could have peace if they did not draw the sword. The