well-versed in genealogy and in the virtues and blemishes of the Arab clans.
• Marwan: the son of al-Hakam al-Umawi, a cousin of ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan (may Allah be pleased with him). He was among the younger Companions, and both he and his father enjoyed the Prophet’s companionship. He later governed Syria, and the universal caliphate passed to his son ʿAbd al-Malik and then to his grandsons, until the Abbasid dynasty arose in 132 AH.
• al-Hudaybiyah: the word is pronounced with ḍammah on the ḥāʾ, fatḥah on the dāl, sukūn on the yāʾ, kasrah on the bāʾ, and fatḥah on the final yāʾ; it is the diminutive of ḥadbāʾ. Some philologists pronounce it with a heavy consonant and others with a light one, the correct form being the latter. The place took its name from a well found there, and it contained the tree beneath which the Companions pledged allegiance to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—in year six after the Hijrah. Al-Hudaybiyah is an open plain on the Mecca–Jeddah road, part of it inside the sanctuary (ḥaram) and part outside; it marks the farthest boundary of the ḥaram, where its boundary stones stand. Today it is called al-Shumaysī. It was here, in year six after the Hijrah, that the famous treaty between the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and the idolaters of Quraysh was concluded. The boundary of the ḥaram at al-Hudaybiyah lies roughly twenty-three kilometres from the Sacred Mosque.
• al-faraj in language means “a gap” or “an opening”; here it denotes relief, the lifting of anxiety and grief.
• al-makhraj literally means “the place of exit”; in this context it signifies the means that delivers a person from every hardship in this world and the Hereafter.
Lessons drawn from the hadith
- A summary of the ʿUmrah of al-Hudaybiyah and the treaty concluded there: The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—set out from Medina for Mecca in a state of iḥrām intending to perform ʿumrah, accompanied by about one thousand four hundred of his Companions. When he approached Mecca, the idolaters of Quraysh came out to block him from entering by force. Thus the two parties camped opposite one another for several days at al-Hudaybiyah while messengers shuttled between them, until a peace agreement was reached on certain terms—among them that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—would return that year and come back the following year to perform ʿumrah, stay there three days, and then depart; and that warfare between the two sides would be laid aside for ten years.