The justice of the Prophet ﷺ

وَلَقَدْ نَصَرَكُمُ اللَّهُ بِبَدْرٍ وَأَنْتُمْ أَذِلَّةٌ ۖ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُون

And Allah has already made you victorious at Badr, when you were a weak little force. So fear Allah much [abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds which He has forbidden and love Allah much, perform all kinds of good deeds which He has ordained] that you may be grateful. [3:123]

Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه grew up in a Muslim household and was taught by both his mother and father who were among the first persons from Yathrib to enter the religion of Allah. He therefore became a Muslim before meeting the Prophet ﷺ, peace be upon him.

Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه longed to meet the Prophet ﷺ. From an early age, he was keen on following whatever news there was about him. The more he heard, the more his affection for the Prophet ﷺ grew and the more he longed to meet him.

He eventually journeyed to Makkah, met the Prophet ﷺ and put the question to him, “Am I a muhajir or am I an Ansari, O Rasulullah?”

“If you wish you may consider yourself among the muhajirin, or if you wish you may consider yourself one of the Ansar. Choose whichever is dearer to you,” replied the Prophet. “Well, I am an Ansari. O Rasulullah,” decided Hudhayfah.

At Madinah, after the Hijrah, Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه became closely attached to the Prophet ﷺ. He participated in all the military engagements except Badr.

Muslim narrates a disconnected incident that is a per cursor to the battle of the Badr and we have a lot of benefit from this, very deep benefit especially for the time and place and political climate we live in and that is the lack of participation of two people in the battle of Badr and that is Hudhayfah Ibn Al Yamaan رضي الله عنه and his father, Al Yaman ibn Al Hakam رضي الله عنه. Both could have participated in Badr and they wanted to participate but they were held back because of a promise they made to the Quraysh.

Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه and his father were once captured by the Quraysh and the Quraysh were almost going to kill them. Finally one of them decided, “let’s just make them promise that they’re not going to fight along with Muhammad. As long as they’re not going to fight alongside him”.

Hudhayfah was not a muhaajir. His father is not from Makkah. He came to Madinah in the days of Jahilliyyah because of a crime he had committed. So he abandoned his tribe, and  he basically came to Madinah, adopted by the people of Madinah and then became a sahabi, he accepted Islam and then his son Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه accepted Islam. So they’re neither Makki nor Madani in this sense. They’re neither Qurayshi, neither Aws nor Khazraj. So when the Quraysh captured them they didn’t have any direct animosity. These are the people who are caught up. So they had sympathy. “We;’e not going to kill you even if you’re Muslim, but there is one condition; you’re not going to join Muhammad fighting us.”

Explaining why he missed the Battle of Badr, Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه said: “I would not have missed Badr if my father and I had not been outside Madinah (i.e. enroute to it from Makkah). The disbelieving Quraysh met us and asked where we were going. We told them we were going to Madinah and they asked whether we intended to meet Muhammad. We insisted that we only wanted to go to Madinah. They allowed us to go only after they extracted from us an undertaking not to help Muhammad against them and not to fight along with them.

“When we came to the Prophet we told him about our undertaking to the Quraysh and asked him what should we do. He said that we should ignore the undertaking and seek Allah’s help against them.”

So when the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he didn’t allow them to participate in any of these ghazawaat. This shows us just one of the examples of the justice of the Prophet ﷺ. So a Muslim is upon his word and promise. A Muslim is never a traitor. They have their word and once they gave their word even in times of great trial and difficulty, they didn’t take up arms and fight against the Quraysh and or did the Prophet allow them to!

For at Badr the muslims were greatly outnumbered (just over three hundred as appose to over a thousand in the Quraishi army headed by Aboo Sufyaan), so every man counted. The Prophet ﷺ spent the whole night preceding the day of the battle in prayer and supplication. The Muslim army, wearied with their long march, enjoyed sound and refreshing sleep, a mark of the Divine favour and of the state of their undisturbed minds.

إِذْ يُغَشِّيكُمُ النُّعَاسَ أَمَنَةً مِنْهُ وَيُنَزِّلُ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً لِيُطَهِّرَكُمْ بِهِ وَيُذْهِبَ عَنْكُمْ رِجْزَ الشَّيْطَانِ وَلِيَرْبِطَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِكُمْ وَيُثَبِّتَ بِهِ الْأَقْدَامَ

(Remember) when He covered you with a slumber as a security from Him, and He caused water (rain) to descend on you from the sky, to clean you thereby and to remove from you the Rijz (whispering, evil-suggestions, etc.) of Shaitan (Satan), and to strengthen your hearts, and make your feet firm thereby. [8:11]

Muslim (1763) also narrated that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab رضي الله عنه said:

On the day of Badr, the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) looked at the mushrikeen, who were one thousand strong, and his companions numbered three hundred and nineteen.

Then the Prophet of Allaah ﷺ (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) turned to face the qiblah, then he stretched forth his hands and started to cry out to his Lord:

“O Allaah, grant me what You have promised me, O Allaah, give me what You have promised me. O Allaah, if this small band of Muslims perishes, You will not be worshipped on earth.”

The the very site itself is today donated today by a masjid (masjid al Areesh) at the site of Badr ).

إِذْ تَسْتَغِيثُونَ رَبَّكُمْ فَاسْتَجَابَ لَكُمْ أَنِّي مُمِدُّكُمْ بِأَلْفٍ مِنَ الْمَلَائِكَةِ مُرْدِفِينَ

(Remember) when you sought help of your Lord and He answered you (saying): “I will help you with a thousand of the angels each behind the other (following one another) in succession.” [8:9]

This shows us in our times especially, that treaties have to be respected and honored, obligations and duties including duties that are understood like the duties of citizenship. These are obligations, these are legally binding contracts. If one is a visa carrier, or citizen, certain obligations are applicable regardless of what is happening in the world. If one doesn’t like it, then they can give up their citizenship or visa status, but one cannot be a visa or citizen holder and goes against what that entails i.e. not obiding by the laws , rules and regulations of the country. It’s not allowed from the shariah perspective to go against ones word. It’s not allowed to be a traitor. One cannot be two-faced or use deception. That’s what we learn from Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه and his father. Even if someone says, hold on, they’re going to be killed! But they  gave their word in solemn promise.

This shows us that a Muslims is upon his condition and promise.

As per the hadith:

المسلمون على شروطهم

Muslims stand firm with their words

[Al Tirmidhi]

And the ayah in the Quran:

…وَأَوْفُوا بِالْعَهْدِ ۖ إِنَّ الْعَهْدَ كَانَ مَسْئُولًا

…..Verily! the covenant, will be questioned about. [17:34]So this is a beatiful example in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ honouring an agreement and the sahabah upholding the honour even though on the outwards appearance it was to their determent.