The Battle of Muʾtah

The book records a few small missions early in the year, including Shujāʿ ibn Wahb al-Asadī رضي الله عنه with twenty-five men against Hawāzin in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, where there was no resistance. Then came Muʾtah, in Jumādā al-Ūlā, which the book calls the fiercest battle of the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime. He had sent al-Ḥārith ibn ʿUmayr al-Azdī رضي الله عنه with a letter to the ruler of Buṣrā. On the way Shuraḥbīl ibn ʿAmr al-Ghassānī, governor of al-Balqāʾ and an ally of the Byzantine emperor, had him tied and beheaded. Killing an envoy was among the worst crimes known to the Arabs, and amounted to a declaration of war.

The Prophet ﷺ gathered three thousand men, the largest Muslim army yet apart from the trench. He named Zayd ibn Ḥārithah رضي الله عنه as commander; if Zayd رضي الله عنه was killed, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنه; and if Jaʿfar رضي الله عنه was killed, ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah رضي الله عنه. Zayd رضي الله عنه was given a white banner. They were to go to where al-Ḥārith رضي الله عنه had been killed and call the people to Islam, fighting only if they refused. He told them to fight in Allah's name, not to break agreements or betray, not to kill a child, a woman, an old man or a monk, and not to cut down trees or destroy houses.

As the army left, ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah رضي الله عنه wept. He said it was not love of this world, but a verse he had heard the Prophet ﷺ recite: that every one of us will pass over the Fire, a decree from your Lord that must be fulfilled. That is 19:71.

At Maʿān, on the edge of Syria, news came that Heraclius had gathered a hundred thousand troops, with another hundred thousand from the allied Arab tribes of Lakhm, Judhām and Balqayn. The Muslims spent two nights deciding what to do; some wanted to write to the Prophet ﷺ for orders. ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah رضي الله عنه told them that what they now feared, martyrdom, was what they had come out for, that they did not fight by numbers or equipment but by the faith Allah had honoured them with, and that either victory or martyrdom was good. They went on to Mashārif and then camped at Muʾtah.

Three thousand faced an army many times their size. Zayd رضي الله عنه fought until he fell. Jaʿfar رضي الله عنه took the banner, got down from his horse and fought on foot. When his right hand was cut off he held it with his left, and when that was cut off he held it with his arms until he was killed. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī records more than fifty wounds on him, none in his back. He became known as Jaʿfar of the two wings, because Allah gave him two wings in Paradise. Then ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah رضي الله عنه took the banner and fought until he too was killed.

Thābit ibn Aqram رضي الله عنه picked up the banner and called on the Muslims to choose a leader, and they chose Khālid ibn al-Walīd رضي الله عنه. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī reports that nine swords broke in his hand that day. He rearranged the army, moving the right and left wings and bringing men forward from the rear, so that the Byzantines thought fresh troops had arrived. Then he withdrew the army gradually and in order. Fearing a trap in the desert, the Byzantines did not follow, and the army came home with twelve dead. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī also reports that the Prophet ﷺ told the people in Madinah of the three commanders' deaths, with his eyes full of tears, before any news arrived, and said that a sword from among the swords of Allah had then taken the banner.

Ar-Raḥīq records twelve Muslim deaths and says the Byzantine losses were not known. Although the expedition did not achieve its aim of avenging the envoy's killing, the book describes a change in the Muslims' standing: they had faced a major imperial power and returned. It connects this with the acceptance of Islam by tribes including Banū Sulaym, Ashjaʿ, Ghaṭafān, Dhubyān and Fazārah, and treats Muʾtah as a beginning of later encounters with Byzantium.

The book's very large enemy totals and its reconstruction of the withdrawal are historical reports, not an independently established census or one authenticated eyewitness account. The commander succession and Khālid's رضي الله عنه broken swords have their own cited reports.