Episode 46: Between Badr and Uhud
Rise of the Munafiqin:
Because the Muslims now gained honour and respect, the number of the Munafiqin (hypocrites) also increased.
Abu Sufyan’s Oath of Revenge:
In the month of Shawwal, in the third year of Hijrah, the Battle of Uhud occurred.
Abu Sufyan was now the only leader of the Quraysh and he took an oath that he would not take a bath, put on any type of scent or meet with his wives until he took some type of revenge upon the Muslims.
Alliance Attempts with the Jews:
Three months after the Battle of Badr, Abu Sufyan and a small army of the Quraysh went to Madinah, where they tried to make an alliance with the Jews but they had a treaty with the Prophet.
Despite this, the Jews were known not to honour their commitments.
Approach to the Tribe of Banu Nadir:
Abu Sufyan approached one of the leaders of the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir, Huyayy ibn Akhtab and he wanted to get inside information from him on how to infiltrate Madinah.
Huyayy was scared as he witnessed what happened to the Jews of Banu Qaynuqa and thought that if he helped Abu Sufyan and the Muslims found out, a similar punishment would be handed to the tribe Banu Nadir, so he refused to help him.
Abu Sufyan then approached another leader from Banu Nadir, Sallam ibn Mishkam, who agreed and gave a strategy on when and where to attack Madinah from.
Sallam ibn Mishkam betrayed the treaty that the Jews had with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and helped Abu Sufyan.
The Expedition of Sawiq:
Abu Sufyan and his army entered a date farm and these dates were called Sawiq.
There were two people in the farm at the time and Abu Sufyan’s army killed them and started to gather as many dates as they could to take back with them.
Some people heard this commotion and went straight to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who went with his companions to the date farm, where they saw the two dead bodies on the farm.
The Prophet and his companions started to pursue Abu Sufyan and his army but they had already gotten away.
The Muslim army chased them for five days but they were too far ahead so they returned to Madinah.
This expedition was called Ghazwat as-Sadiq.
Death of Uthman ibn Maz’un:
One of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Uthman ibn Maz’un passed away.
The Prophet ordered his burial to be in al-Baqi and he was the first companion to be buried in this graveyard.
The graveyard of al-Baqi then became the burial place for all the companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and there are over ten thousand companions buried there.
After Uthman ibn Maz’un died, his wife had a dream where she saw Uthman and underneath him, there was a river flowing.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ interpreted her dream and said: The river that you see is all of Uthman’s good deeds.
Confrontation with Banu Sulaym:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ received intelligence that there were two powerful tribes preparing an attack on Madinah. Because of this, he launched a surprise attack on these tribes.
The Prophet ﷺ gathered his army to confront the tribe of Banu Sulaym, who were caught off guard by the Muslims’ attack and they ran away.
The tribe of Banu Sulaym left behind all of their camels and they had five hundred camels, which the Prophet and his army took back with them to Madinah.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ kept one hundred of the camels for the Muslim treasury (Bayt-al-mal) and he gave his two hundred soldiers, two camels each.