The life of the Prophet Muhammad (9/11): the jihad of the Prophet

By Michel Abdallah Grimbert · June 10, 2023 · 7 min read

Part 9 of 11 · La vie du Prophète

By Michel Abdallah Grimbert, disciple of the tariqa Qadiriya Boutchichiya.

We shall now give an account of the specific modalities of what, in the end, after the example of the Prophet of God’s expeditions, would come to pass as the Muslim conquest, often judged miraculous both for the immediate depth of its impact and for the swiftness of its expansion; and which left the conquered peoples who pledged allegiance to Islam free in their rights and customs. It must be specified in this regard that the Muslims, in their very great open-mindedness (it is, of course, a matter of divine guidance), already saw in the figure of Dhu al-Qarnayn, identified with Alexander the Great and described in the Qur’an, a prophetic prefiguration who, by his conquests, just as Caesar did for Christianity, prepared the peoples concerned for the coming of Islam, from Transoxiana to the Iberian peninsula: (surah al-Kahf, XVIII, 83-98) ‘As for Dhu al-Qarnayn, We had established his power on earth and We had endowed him with all manner of good things. He followed a way (“another hold”, Jacques Berque translates very pertinently, relative to the idea of conquest) and when he had reached the setting of the sun… Then he followed another way (“another hold”) and when he had reached the rising of the sun… Thus it was. We embrace in Our Knowledge all that he held. Finally he followed another way (“another hold”) and when he had reached a land between two ramparts (marking the meeting of the setting and the rising), he built a barrier made of blocks of iron against the scandalous doings of the Ya’juj and Ma’juj, who could not surmount it’.

Thus, after his settling at Medina, thanks to the welcome of the ‘ansar’: (LIX, 9) ‘Those who love him who emigrates (hajara) to them. They find in their hearts no envy for what has been given to these emigrants. They prefer them to themselves, despite their poverty’, the Prophet of God founded the community of believers, called for by his prayers and established by God: (III, 110) ‘You form the best community raised up for men: you enjoin what is right, you forbid what is blameworthy, you believe in God’; and for whose sake the Prophet worked tirelessly to restore to Mecca its quality as a sacred sanctuary, and so to enable them freely to exercise their right of visit to the ancient House, according to Abraham’s call: (XXII, 26-29) ’We established for Abraham the site of the House… Call men to the pilgrimage: they will come to thee, on foot or on every swift mount. They will come by ways deep in the ravines (in the sense also of mysterious, and referring to the believer’s inner wayfaring)… Let them accomplish the circuits around the ancient House (bi-l-bayt al-‘atiq)’. This ancestral right, which the Qurayshites, guardians of the ancient House and hosts of the pilgrims, could not contest, was to be put in place by successive stages from the events of Hudaybiyya onwards, and that without blood being shed.

The spirit of defensive combat

And in order to accomplish this task of reconquest, he had to fight, besides the few Jewish tribes around Medina, notably at Khaybar (obtaining at last for the Muslims a pact handing back half of the harvests), the Meccan coalition and its allies, who opposed the propagation and spread of the new religion. What were, in this respect, the main battles or warlike expeditions (maghazi) undertaken by the Prophet Muhammad from the year 623 to the year 631? And what are their main teachings? For each of the principal battles (maghazi), those of Badr in 623, Uhud in 625, the ‘Ditch’ (khandaq) in 627, Hunayn in 630 and Tabuk in 631, does indeed furnish a set of teachings which we shall specify and which allow a just appreciation of what would later be called the Muslim conquest; and which then had every reason to triumph.

But before recalling the divine stakes, both strategic and tactical, of these bitterly fought combats (that is, which engaged the combatants in their very flesh), one must clearly understand the boundless commitment, sacrificial unto martyrdom, of the companions gathered around the Prophet and his standard, the axial and living centre throughout these relentlessly violent combats, which demanded a determination beyond oneself, the kind that faith alone gives. And one realises here that in every combat the stakes are the Truth, that is, the values that make us live and accept that our passage on this earth has a meaning, well beyond the mere preservation of contingent goods we do not carry with us into the grave. Thus the imperative principles proper to Islamic combat (of a purely defensive character) reflect the notions of mercy and compassion towards enemies. Notions of peace¹ expressed thus in the verses of the sacred Text:

(Qur’an II, 190-194): ‘Fight in the way of God those who fight against you… If they desist, then know that God is the One who forgives, He is merciful… Be hostile towards whoever is hostile to you, to the extent that he is hostile to you.’

(Qur’an V, 32): ‘He who has killed a man who himself has not killed, or who has not committed violence on earth, is reckoned as if he had killed all men; and he who saves a single man is reckoned as if he had saved all men.’

The martyrdom of Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr at Uhud

Thus, and this will serve us as an example, it is reported with realism but sobriety, concerning the companion Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr², who was Islam’s first ambassador to the new converts of Medina, and who died a martyr at the battle of Uhud in the year 625:

‘Mus’ab collapsed; the flag fell to the ground… After the battle, his lifeless body was found, face in the blood and face to the ground. One would have thought that his body refused to let any ill whatsoever reach the Messenger of God. It was as if he felt sorrow or shame at having fallen a martyr before he could make sure that the Messenger of God was indeed safe and sound, and that he had therefore truly fulfilled his mission of defending him… He had died at Uhud, and there was nothing but a striped garment (namira) to cover his body before burial. When his face was covered, his feet were left bare, and vice versa. Faced with this situation, the Messenger of God ordered us to cover his face with the garment and to put fragrant rush (idhkhir) over his feet… Then the Messenger of God came to pay his respects before the remains of his first ambassador (to the first converted Medinans), to bid him farewell. While the Prophet’s eyes shone with a great compassion, he recited this verse (XXXIII, 23): “There are, among the believers, men who have been true to the pact they concluded with God”³. Then he addressed all the martyrs lying on the battlefield, saying: “The Messenger of God will attest that you are among God’s martyrs on the day of resurrection.” And he addressed his companions gathered around him, saying: “O people, visit them, come to them and greet them. I swear by Him who holds my soul that they will return your greeting whenever you greet them”’.

That is what it is indispensable to bear in mind when speaking of the very harsh battles waged by the Prophet of God; battles which yet constitute but an approach to the jihad al-akbar against our nafs or ego. As a prophetic hadith puts it on returning from a trying battle: ‘We are leaving the lesser combat by arms for the greater inner combat’⁴.

Further reading

• The life of the Prophet Muhammad (8/11): the Prophet’s House
• The life of the Prophet Muhammad (10/11): the expeditions (maghazi)

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