The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) – Volume III — Page 168
Seal of the Prophets - Volume III 168 with Makkah, other nations of Arabia were still at war with Islām) what form did the growth of Islām take on? This would be an exceedingly sublime analysis by which every just researcher and clear-sighted individual can attain a very good criterion by which to compare Islām’s power of peace and war. It is obvious that a record of Islām’s first census is not available. For this reason, we must estimate the rate of Islām’s growth by the number of people which participated in the early Islāmic wars. This method is quite satisfactory in ascertaining approximate growth. Therefore, leaving out smaller intermedi - ary events, we see that in the first Islāmic war, i. e. , at the occasion of the Battle of Badr which took place in 2 A. H. , with a difference of narration, the number of Muslim soldiers equalled 310 to 319. 1 After this, the Battle of Uḥud took place in 3 A. H. , and the number of Muslims that participated in it was 700. 2 After Uḥud, the Battle of the Ditch was a major war, which took place in 5 A. H. In this war although the total number reached 3000 3 if the children and elderly who were assigned to digging the ditch, etc. are also included, because this war as if took place in Madīnah and it was not a question of leaving the city; howev - er, perhaps practically during wartime only 1,000 Muslims participated. 4 After this in 6 A. H. the expedition of the Treaty of Ḥudaibiyyah occurred, in which the number of Muslims is recorded as 1,400. 5 This is a total of 19 years, because approximately 13 years of the Makkan life and about 6 years of life in Madīnah up to the Treaty of Ḥudaibiyyah equals a total of 19 years. The growth in this number of the Muslims can be gauged by the number that participated two years after the Treaty of Ḥudaibiyyah, i. e. , in 8 A. H. , at the occasion of the Fall of Makkah. This number was definitively 10,000. 6 In other words, during a time of war where 19 long years of effort and striving produced only 1,400 Muslims, 1 * Ṣaḥīḥul-Bukhārī, Kitābul-Maghāzī, Bābu ‘Iddati Aṣḥābi Badrin, Ḥadīth No. 3957 * Sharḥul-‘Allāmatiz-Zarqānī ‘Alal-Mawāhibil-Ladunniyyah, By Allāmah Shihābuddīn Al-Qusṭalānī, Volume 3, p. 64, Ghazwatul-Khandaqi Wa Hiyal-Aḥzāb, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996) 2 Sharḥul-‘Allāmatiz-Zarqānī ‘Alal-Mawāhibil-Ladunniyyah, By Allāmah Shihābuddīn Al-Qusṭalānī, Volume 2, p. 400, Ghazwatu Uḥudin, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996) 3 * Aṭ-Ṭabaqātul-Kubrā, By Muḥammad bin Sa‘d, Volume 2, p. 282, Ghazwatu Rasūlillāhi sa Al- Khandaqa Wa Hiyal-Aḥzāb, Dāru Iḥyā’it-Turāthil-‘Arabī, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996) * As-Sīratun-Nabawiyyah, By Abū Muḥammad ‘Abdul-Mālik bin Hishām, p. 397, Ghazwatul- Khandaqi Fī Shawwālin Sanata Khamsin, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (2001) 4 Tārīkhul-Khamīs Fī Aḥwāli Anfasi Nafīs, By Ḥusain bin Muḥammad bin Ḥasan, Volume 1, p. 480, Ghazwatul-Khandaq, Mu’assasatu Sha‘bān, Beirut 5 Ṣaḥīḥul-Bukhārī, Kitābul-Maghāzī, Bābu Ghazwatil-Ḥudaibiyyah, Ḥadīth No. 4154 6 Ṣaḥīḥul-Bukhārī, Kitābul-Maghāzī, Bābu Ghazwatil-Fatḥi Fī Ramaḍān, Ḥadīth No. 4276