Episode 72: The Battle of Mu’tah
The Dawah Mission and the Ghassanid Aggression:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ sent fourteen of his companions on a dawah mission but when the Ghassanid heard about this, they killed all of the members except one.
The one remaining companion came back to Madinah and informed the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ of what had happened.
The Prophet then made the intention to fight the Ghassanid and this is known as the Battle of Mu’tah.
Al-Harith ibn Abi Shamir Al-Gassani, the ruler of As-Sham, had an army of one hundred thousand men and they had the support of Heraclius and the Roman Empire.
This was in the month of Jumada al-Ula, in the eighth year of Hijrah.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ sent an army of three thousand men to fight the Ghassanid, who had one hundred thousand men in their army, which did not even include the soldiers from the Roman Empire.
Appointment of Commanders:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ appointed Zayd ibn Al-Haritha to be the commander of this army, and instructed that if Zayd was killed, Ja’far ibn Abi Talib would be the commander of the army, and if Ja’far would be killed, the commander would be Abdullah ibn Ruwaha, and if Abdullah would be killed, then the Muslims would have to decide upon who would be the next commander.
Warning from a Jewish Man:
A Jewish man then came to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and said: we read in the Tawrah that whenever a Prophet says names in this type of way (in regards to naming the commanders), all of the people that he names, will be killed.
The Jewish man turned to Zayd ibn Al-Haritha and said: if Muhammad is really a Prophet, you are not coming home, you are going to die.
Zayd replied: I bear witness that he is a Prophet and he is truthful and righteous.
Preparation and Departure:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ sent the Muslim army off in the morning on a Friday.
Abdullah ibn Ruwaha wanted to stay back in Madinah for a few more hours so he could pray Jummah with the Prophet ﷺ.
The Prophet, when giving the Jummah Khutbah, noticed that Abdullah ibn Ruwaha was present.
He was very surprised and asked Abdullah: what kept you here? Abdullah ibn Ruwaha replied: I wanted to pray Jummah with you and then after Jummah, I will go fast and catch up with the rest of the army.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ replied: even if you were to spend everything on this earth in charity, you will not be able to get the reward that they got in these few hours of travelling.
First Battle for Khalid ibn Al-Walid as a Muslim:
This was the first battle where Khalid ibn Walid participated in a battle as a Muslim.
Enemy Reinforcements:
When the ruler of the Ghassanid received the news that the Muslim army was coming to fight, he sent a message to Heraclius to send help from the Roman soldiers.
Heraclius sent one hundred thousand more soldiers from the Roman Empire and the Ghassanid now had one hundred thousand of their own soldiers and a further one hundred thousand from the Roman Empire.
The Strategy of the Muslims:
The Muslims only had three thousand members and they were up against two hundred thousand soldiers from the enemy army.
The Muslims decided to hold a meeting in regards to how they would deal with the large army they were fighting against.
They come up with two options: the first option was to attack them directly and the second option was to send a message back to the Prophet, and wait for further instructions from him.
none of the Muslims even mentioned the idea of retreating and turning back, which shows how courageous and brave they were.
Abdullah ibn Ruwaha suggested: Let’s do both. Let’s attack them and also send a message back to the Prophet.
The Muslim army then decided to set up their camp in a small village called Mu’tah.
The Muslims Greatly Outnumbered:
When the Muslims saw the enemy army, they had never seen such a huge army in their life.
One of the companions, Thabit ibn Aqram said: we were greatly outnumbered at Badr as well but Allah gave us victory. It is not about numbers, it is about Iman, Taqwa and Tawakkul. Let us go. Bismillah!
This speech re-energised the Muslims and they were ready to fight and the commander of the army, Zayd ibn Al-Haritha organised the army into five sections.
Initial Battles:
In the morning after the Fajr prayer, the Muslims attacked the disbelievers and they were caught off-guard.
They managed to kill many of the disbelievers with the fighting lasting from Fajr to Maghrib and when it became dark, both sides retreated back to their camps.
The disbelievers were amazed at the fighting of the Muslims and the next day, they attacked the disbelievers again after the Fajr prayer.
The Muslims were able to inflict more casualties and their success lasted for five days.
Even though they killed a great amount of them, there were still so many soldiers of the army remaining.
Martyrdom of Commanders:
On the sixth day, the disbelievers prepared themselves early and attacked the Muslim army.
The Muslims suffered a lot of casualties, including Zayd ibn Al-Haritha, who fought bravely and inflicted a number of casualties on the disbelievers, but eventually he was martyred.
Ja’far ibn Abi Talib then took the flag and fought valiantly until one of the disbelievers cut off his right hand.
Ja’far transferred the flag to his left hand and the disbeliever also cut this off, leaving him with no hands.
Ja’far ibn Abi Talib was martyred in the Battle of Mu’tah.
The Prophet on Ja’far ibn Abi Talib:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said about Ja’far ibn Abi Talib: Allah replaced his hands with two wings that are made of rubies, and he can fly with Jannah with those wings whenever he wants.
This is why Ja’far is known as ‘Ja’far, the one who flies’.
Abdullah ibn Ruwaha’s Death:
After Ja’far ibn Abi Talib was killed, Abdullah ibn Ruwaha held the flag of the Muslim army.
When he took the flag, he hesitated for a minute. However, he went on and fought bravely and was able to inflict heavy casualties on the disbelievers but eventually, Abdullah ibn Ruwaha was also martyred.
All three of the men that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ named as commanders were all killed on the sixth day of fighting.
The Prophet Receiving Revelations of the Battle Whilst in Madinah:
That day, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ prayed Fajr in Madinah and after the prayer, he gathered the people and started informing them about what was happening at Mu’tah.
The Prophet ﷺ was getting live revelations as it was happening, and he said he could see all three of their beds in Jannah.
Here, the Prophet was referring to Zayd ibn Al-Haritha, Ja’far ibn Abi Talib and Abdullah ibn Ruwafah.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that Abdullah ibn Ruwafah’s bed was a little further away from the other two beds, because of that slight hesitation that he had when picking up the flag.
Khalid ibn Al-Walid Assumes Command:
It was now up to the Muslims to decide who would be their new commander.
Thabit ibn Aqram took the flag and went to Khalid ibn al-Walid, informing him to take the flag.
Khalid replied: you are better than me, you have been a Muslim for longer than me, you participated in Badr, you are older than me and more honourable, you should take it.
Thabit said: No, you are the most qualified person, you are a person who knows the strategies of war. There is no one better amongst us other than you.
Khalid ibn al-Walid then took the flag and was the commander of the Muslim army. He quickly re-organised his soldiers and they continued to fight.
The Prophet on Khalid Leading the Muslim Army:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ received a revelation that Khalid ibn Walid had become the commander of the army.
The Prophet informed his companions in Madinah, saying: Now, one of the swords from the swords of Allah has taken the flag and taken command.
Strategic Retreat and Tactics:
Khalid ibn al-Walid decided to retreat and go back to Madinah as he knew that the Muslims were vastly outnumbered, so he felt the best and safest thing for the Muslims was to strategically retreat.
Khalid also knew that retreating would be very dangerous because the disbelievers would attack them.
Because of this, he decided to do retreat in such a way where the disbelievers would not even realise that it was a real retreat.
After the sixth day of fighting, Khalid spent the whole night planning and strategising what to do on the following day.
Khalid ibn al-Walid decided to change the positions of the Muslim army for the seventh day. For example, the people on the right flank would move to the left, and the people at the front would switch with the people at the back.
Khalid did this so the disbelievers would not recognise the Muslims and they would think that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had sent reinforcements.
Khalid ibn al-Walid changed the flag of the Muslims, so it would look like new people had come in with different flags.
He ordered some of the horsemen to go a far distance back, and when the fighting started, to come forward at a high speed to produce a lot of dust from the dirt.
This was because, it would look like a huge cavalry was coming from behind and Khalid instructed the horsemen to loudly proclaim ‘Takbir’.
This was the strategy of Khalid ibn al-Walid to make the disbelievers think that the Muslim army had received reinforcements.
On the seventh day, the disbelievers came out and when they saw the Muslim army, they did not recognise any of the faces and thought that reinforcements had arrived, which scared them.
Then, the horsemen started to come from behind, loudly proclaiming: Allahu Akbar!
The disbelievers thought that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had sent a huge amount of horsemen as reinforcements.
They were scared and Khalid ibn al-Walid took advantage of this fear and started attacking them.
Khalid ibn al-Walid would carry two swords, one in each hand and he would fight with both swords at the same time, without carrying any shield.
There were only two companions who fought with this style of two swords, and they were Khalid ibn al-Walid and Az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam.
Khalid narrated that on the day of Mu’tah, he broke nine swords, fighting the disbelievers. Only one sword of his did not break, and this was a Yemeni wide sword.
The disbelievers were very scared and started retreating. When they would see the face of Khalid, it was as if they saw death staring at them.
The Muslims were able to go forward to such an extent that they reached the personal security of the king of the Ghassanid.
Khalid Carries out his Plan to Retreat:
Suddenly, Khalid ibn al-Walid started to retreat and the Muslims went back.
The disbelievers were confused by the Muslim army retreating and Khalid ibn al-Walid and the Muslims went back to Madinah.
Khalid was able to successfully retreat with his army, and the disbelievers thought that he was setting some sort of a trap as they did not think that the Muslims would actually retreat.
Aftermath in Madinah:
When the Muslims returned back to Madinah, the children and the women were very upset with the army.
The children would throw stones at the Muslims and say: you are people who abandoned the battlefield, and one woman among the companions did not even allow her husband to enter their home.
They started calling this army: the people who abandoned the battlefield.
The Prophet on the Strategic Retreat:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ addressed this and said: they are not people who abandoned the battlefield, rather they are the people who attacked the disbelievers.