The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

Part oneA pilgrimage, not a march

It was the sacred month of Dhul-Qa'dah in the sixth year after the hijrah, the spring of 628 CE. For six years the Muslims who had left Makkah had not seen the Kaaba. Now the Prophet ﷺ told his Companions that he had seen himself, in a dream, entering the Sacred Mosque in safety. He decided to go to Makkah for umrah, the lesser pilgrimage.

About fourteen hundred Companions travelled with him, and Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her), one of his wives, went along. They wore the plain white garments of ihram, the state of a pilgrim, and carried only the swords that every traveller carried, still in their sheaths. They drove animals to be sacrificed at the end of the rites. Everything about the caravan said one thing: we are coming to worship, not to fight.

The Quraysh did not see it that way. Only a year after the siege of the Trench, they feared that Muhammad ﷺ was marching on Makkah with an army, and they sent horsemen to block the road. Their commander was Khalid ibn al-Walid, who would later become a Muslim (may Allah be pleased with him). The Prophet ﷺ was told that the cavalry was ahead and chose a harder track through the hills, which brought the pilgrims down to Hudaybiyyah on the very edge of the sacred territory. Its well had almost run dry, and the pilgrims were thirsty. Jabir ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) later described how the Prophet ﷺ placed his hand in a small vessel of water and water flowed from between his fingers, until all of them, about fifteen hundred, had drunk and made their ablutions.

There his camel knelt and would not rise. The Companions said she was being stubborn. The Prophet ﷺ answered that she was not, and that the One who had held back the elephant from Makkah had held her back. He added that he would accept any terms the Quraysh asked for, so long as they honoured the sanctity of Makkah.

The first to come was Budayl ibn Warqa of Khuza'ah. The Prophet ﷺ gave him a message for the Quraysh: the Muslims had come for umrah, not war; war had already worn the Quraysh down; if they wished, he would make a truce with them, so long as they left him free to reach the rest of the people. If they refused, he would hold to his cause whatever it cost him, and Allah would make His religion prevail.

The Quraysh sent a series of envoys. One was Urwa ibn Mas'ud of Ta'if, who later became a Muslim (may Allah be pleased with him). He watched the Companions closely. He saw how they rushed to catch the water that fell from the Prophet's ﷺ ablution, and how they lowered their voices when he spoke. He went back and told the Quraysh that he had visited great kings and had never seen a man honoured by his people as Muhammad ﷺ was honoured by his. Another envoy came from the tribe of Kinanah, a people who held sacrificial animals in honour. The Prophet ﷺ had the garlanded animals driven out in front of him, and the pilgrims met him calling out the talbiyah. He went back and told the Quraysh that it was not right to bar such people from the Kaaba.

The Prophet ﷺ first thought of sending Umar into Makkah. Umar pointed out that he had no family left in Makkah strong enough to protect him, and suggested Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him), whose relatives were among its leading men. So the Prophet ﷺ sent Uthman to explain the purpose of the visit. The Quraysh told Uthman he could circle the Kaaba himself, and he refused to do so before the Prophet ﷺ had done it. Uthman was gone a long time, and a rumour reached the camp that he had been killed. The Prophet ﷺ called the Companions together under a tree and took a pledge from each of them that they would not flee. This is known as the Pledge of Ridwan, the pledge of good pleasure. Uthman soon returned unharmed.

From the Quran

۞ لَّقَدْ رَضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ فَعَلِمَ مَا فِى قُلُوبِهِمْ فَأَنزَلَ ٱلسَّكِينَةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَثَـٰبَهُمْ فَتْحًا قَرِيبًا ۝١٨

Indeed, Allah was pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you ˹O Prophet˺ under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down serenity upon them and rewarded them with a victory at hand,

Part twoThe terms, and the doubts

The Quraysh now sent Suhayl ibn Amr, who would later become a Muslim (may Allah be pleased with him), to make a treaty. He was a skilled negotiator, and the terms he brought looked heavily in his favour. They were these.

• A truce of ten years between the two sides.
• The Muslims would go home this year and come back the next, for three days only.
• A man of the Quraysh who came to the Muslims without his guardian's permission would be sent back. A Muslim who went over to the Quraysh would not be sent back.
• Any tribe could join either side.

Even the wording caused a quarrel. When Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote the opening words in the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, Suhayl objected and asked for the usual formula of the Quraysh. When Ali wrote that this was what Muhammad ﷺ, the Messenger of Allah, had agreed, Suhayl objected again. Ali could not bring himself to erase the title, so the Prophet ﷺ asked where it was written and rubbed it out with his own hand.

As the ink dried, Suhayl's own son Abu Jandal (may Allah be pleased with him), a Muslim, stumbled into the camp in chains, having escaped from his family in Makkah. Suhayl said that this was the first case under the treaty. The Prophet ﷺ kept the agreement, and Abu Jandal was handed back. The Companions watched in pain.

They were deeply troubled. They had come for the Kaaba and were being sent away. Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) went to the Prophet ﷺ and asked why they should accept this, and the Prophet ﷺ replied that he was the servant and messenger of Allah and would not disobey Him. Umar asked whether he had not told them they would go to the Kaaba. The Prophet ﷺ answered that he had, but he had not said it would be this year. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) gave Umar the same answer, almost word for word. Umar later said that he did many good deeds to make up for the way he had spoken that day. Then he told the Companions to sacrifice their animals and shave their heads. No one moved. He went to Umm Salamah, who advised him to say nothing and simply do it himself. He did, and the Companions rose and followed him.

On the road home, Surah al-Fath was revealed. It called what had happened a clear victory. Many Companions found it hard to see at first.

From the Quran

إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا ۝١ لِّيَغْفِرَ لَكَ ٱللَّهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِن ذَنۢبِكَ وَمَا تَأَخَّرَ وَيُتِمَّ نِعْمَتَهُۥ عَلَيْكَ وَيَهْدِيَكَ صِرَٰطًا مُّسْتَقِيمًا ۝٢ وَيَنصُرَكَ ٱللَّهُ نَصْرًا عَزِيزًا ۝٣

¹Indeed, We have granted you a clear triumph ˹O Prophet˺ ²so that Allah may forgive you for your past and future shortcomings, perfect His favour upon you, guide you along the Straight Path, ³and so that Allah will help you tremendously.

The treaty was soon tested. Some Muslim women escaped from Makkah to Madinah, among them Umm Kulthum bint Uqbah (may Allah be pleased with her). The treaty spoke of men being returned, and the Quran instructed the Muslims to test the faith of women who came as emigrants and, if they were believers, not to send them back. The Prophet ﷺ kept them in Madinah.

A young Muslim named Abu Basir (may Allah be pleased with him) also escaped from Makkah, and the Prophet ﷺ handed him back to the two men sent to fetch him, as the treaty required. On the way, Abu Basir killed one of his guards and fled. He settled on the coast on the trade route to Syria, and other escaped Muslims, Abu Jandal among them, joined him there. They harried the Quraysh caravans until the Quraysh themselves begged the Prophet ﷺ to take these men into Madinah. The clause that had hurt the Muslims most was dropped at the request of the people who had demanded it.

Time answered them. With the roads safe and the fighting paused, people from all over Arabia could come and meet the Muslims, hear the Quran and see how they lived. In the two years that followed, more people accepted Islam than in all the years before. Among them were Khalid ibn al-Walid and Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with them), two of the finest soldiers in Arabia.

With the roads safe and the fighting paused, people from all over Arabia could come and meet the Muslims, hear the Quran and see how they lived.

More on How to Muslim

• guide.howtomuslim.orgHow to perform UmrahThe Umrah they set out for, step by step.

WatchThe lecture for this chapter

Lecture Towards EternityO Messenger, Ep. 9: Letters, Hudaybiyyah and Khaybar (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• Madinah
• Dhul Hulayfah
• Hudaybiyyah
• Makkah

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter