In a truce, the parties agreeing to the terms are held responsible for making sure everyone on their side complies. As long as the central power is strong enough, it can keep people intimidated from disobeying. But when that power weakens, factions and even individuals will start testing how far they can break the truce conditions. That’s what happened to Mecca in the months after the Truce of Hudaybiyah. Medina’s power was rising—-seriously, they just sent some letters to Yemen and Oman, and got submission and tribute? wait, what?—-and Mecca could not see a way to get back its upper hand. Some leading citizens were leaving. Some joined the Muslims at Medina, while others were afraid that the Muslims would eventually conquer and take vengeance on them.
With its leadership afraid and shrinking, it was harder for Mecca to control its peripheral members. The day would come when someone broke the truce terms…and then that day came. Not long after the Muslims’ failed Syria mission returned to Medina, they received a message from an allied tribe. One of the tribes allied to Mecca had attacked them at night (a way of covering up who was in the attacking party). Some Quraysh had helped and even joined under cover. The fact that the attackers went at night suggests that they knew the Meccan leadership would have stopped them, had they known, and that they wanted to make it harder to hold individuals accountable. In other words, they knew it was breaking the truce.
Abu Sufyan, the elder statesman of Mecca (and husband of the liver-eater Hind), rushed to Medina to try to smooth things over. Muhammad could have chosen to accept some kind of recompense, but the treaty hadn’t stipulated to anything like that. He had the right to refuse, to just enforce the treaty as it stood: the truce is over. Everyone in Medina knew that his mind was made up: it was time to challenge Mecca. Abu Sufyan went to his daughter Umm Habiba, a recent addition to Muhammad’s wives (she had been living in Abyssinia). She gave him a cold reception. He tried Abu Bakr, then he tried Ali and Fatimah, asking if their little boy Hassan would grant him protection. “Children can’t do that,” they replied, and told him to go home and make the best of it. But nobody told him directly “it’s over, we’re attacking,” and Muhammad kept his thoughts to himself.
Muhammad gathered a large army from around Medina, but he would not tell anyone where they were going. They were all marching during Ramadan when they were to fast, but Muhammad commanded them to eat sometimes. Halfway to Mecca, they began meeting small parties of relatives going to Medina. Uncle Abbas had finally decided it was time to go Muslim, and then they met some of the Prophet’s cousins. All these men made a profession of faith and turned around, joining the Muslims.
They got all the way to Mecca without him telling anyone the target: after all, maybe they would pass Mecca and go toward Yemen? But around Mecca, the Prophet ordered them to light more campfires than needed, and the night was lit up by the appearance of an enormous army (even larger than the 10,000 they really were).
The leaders of Mecca sent an embassy by night: Abu Sufyan, and Khadijah’s nephew Hakim, and a leader of the Khuza’ah tribe that had been attacked. Uncle Abbas met them as he walked toward Mecca, and he took them to Muhammad’s tent. The Prophet made it clear to them that he was intent on victory over the city, and he advised them to enter Islam immediately. The younger two did, but Abu Sufyan hesitated over the part that said “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” They stayed overnight, but at dawn, they woke up to the call to the prayer. Abu Sufyan was dumbfounded when he saw the entire camp praying in unison. He observed the complete obedience the Muslims had toward Muhammad, and then he was convinced. He went to give his profession of faith.
There was one obvious course of action for Mecca: surrender. Muhammad told Abu Sufyan to go back to the city with a message. His army was going to invade the city, but surrender would be indicated by where each person was. There were three safe zones: the mosque area around the Ka’abah, Abu Sufyan’s house, and each person’s own house with his door locked. Abu Sufyan was given the message and the honor of being a sort of super-safe zone because already, the major task had begun. They needed to conquer Mecca, but they needed it to keep functioning cheerfully under its new ownership. They needed to win, as Americans often say, “hearts and minds.” And in this case, egos.
There was one more step to win Abu Sufyan’s ego. If he had been the sort of man who would back losing causes out of conviction, he might have converted before. But now that he had chosen Islam, he wanted to see that he had joined the winning side. Was that respectable to the pious? Not really. But the strategy right now was to accept everyone where he was and use it for the pacification project.
The entrance into Mecca was staged carefully. Muhammad had brought along a number of flags and pennants that were now unveiled. When the camp was packed and ready to move, the men were organized into companies. They marched past Abu Sufyan, saluting him with a cry of “Allahu Akbar!” In many cases, the flags were carried by men he knew had been enemies of Islam until recently. There was only one leader who worried Abu Sufyan, a man he knew to have a very hot temper. What if that standard-bearer led a charge toward innocent people and caused a slaughter? Abu Sufyan begged the Prophet to choose another, so Muhammad sent for the flag to be given to the hot-tempered man’s son, who was much more patient.
Abu Sufyan then raced back to Mecca and poured out his message. “Muhammad is here with a large army! Save yourselves!” His ferocious wife Hind tried to drag him into the house, ashamed of his message, but he fought back and kept shouting, “You are safe in my house! You will also be safe in your own houses with the doors locked, or at the Ka’abah!”
The Muslim army was divided into four parts, and each was directed to enter the city at one of its four gates. One part of the army was ambushed by a small but determined troop of Quraysh, but the smaller troop was quickly decimated. Two leaders rode away from Mecca, but one just ran home and locked his door. The Muslim army continued to pour into the city, moving toward where an advance guard had pitched Muhammad’s red leather tent in the Ka’abah’s courtyard. From this time, the Ka’abah is just referred to as the Mosque. Its courtyard, the masjid, became the pattern for all houses of worship in Islam. “Mosque” is a Western form of Arabic masjid.
There was no fighting. Doors remained locked, the city streets deserted. Muslim stories of this stage emphasize people who were given mercy against their own expectations, including Abu Sufyan’s ferocious wife Hind. Anyone who spoke the Shahada to enter Islam was pardoned.
The Prophet’s main concern was to formally take over the Ka’abah. After doing his ritual washing, he rode into the masjid and touched the Black Stone with his staff. His camel was led to circle the building seven times, as the Muslims cried “Allahu Akbar!” This cry was significant at that moment, since the building and the courtyard were both filled with idols. They were literally shouting that Allah, the invisible Creator God, was the greatest over all of these visible things.
- Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, by Martin Lings.