The slander, and the treaty that looked like a defeat

Hearing that al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Ḍirār was gathering men against Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ moved first and met them at al-Muraysīʿ; the battle was short. On the way back a Muhājir and an Anṣārī quarrelled at the water and each called his people, and ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy said the words Sūrat al-Munāfiqūn records: 'When we return to Madinah the mightier will drive out the weaker.' His own son offered to deal with him and was refused. The Prophet ﷺ marched the army all day to tire the talk out of them. He married Juwayriyah رضي الله عنها bint al-Ḥārith رضي الله عنها, and the Muslims freed a hundred families of her tribe as in-laws of the Prophet ﷺ.

• 63:7–8 — The words of the hypocrites on the road back.

• Tribal loyalty was pulled up by the root the moment it reappeared.
• One marriage freed a hundred households — the Companions acted on it themselves.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4905; Ibn Hishām; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī

Returning from an expedition, ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها was left behind searching for a lost necklace and was brought back by Ṣafwān ibn al-Muʿaṭṭal. ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy spread the accusation and some believers repeated it. She fell ill, wept for nights, and when confronted said she could only say what Yaʿqūb عليه السلام said: 'Beautiful patience.' Revelation then cleared her, set the burden of four witnesses, and legislated the ḥadd for slander.

• 24:11–20 — The ifk passage: 'Do not think it bad for you; rather it is good for you.'

• Repeating a rumour is treated as participating in it — 'you took it on your tongues'.
• The standard set is: why did the believers not think well of their own and say 'this is a clear lie'?

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4750; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2770

Fourteen hundred set out in iḥrām for ʿumrah and were blocked at Ḥudaybiyah. Under the tree they gave the Pledge of Riḍwān. The terms agreed: return this year without ʿumrah, ten years of truce, anyone leaving Makkah for Muḥammad ﷺ is returned, anyone leaving him is not. ʿUmar رضي الله عنه objected openly; the Companions hesitated to shave until Umm Salamah رضي الله عنها advised the Prophet ﷺ to do it first, and they followed. Sūrat al-Fatḥ came down on the return naming it a manifest victory — and in the two years of truce more entered Islam than in all the years before.

• 48:1–18 — 'Indeed We have granted you a clear victory' and the Pledge of Riḍwān.

• The Qur'an renames the event: an apparent concession is 'a clear victory'.
• Peace opened the door that war had not — daʿwah advances fastest when the fighting stops.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2731–2732; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1783

In the truce he sent envoys with sealed letters. Heraclius questioned Abū Sufyān — then still an opponent — about the Prophet's ﷺ lineage, whether he had ever lied, whether his followers were increasing, and concluded that a prophet was due. Chosroes tore his letter. The letter to Heraclius is preserved at the opening of Bukhārī.

• 3:64 — 'O People of the Scripture, come to a word common between us and you.'

• Abū Sufyān's hostile testimony is itself evidence: he could not name a single lie.
• The message was addressed to the whole world from a small city — the horizon was never local.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 7; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1773