and as for anyone who comes over to us from their side and whom we then return to them, Allah will soon grant him relief and a way out.”
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This stipulation concerned men only; women were exempted from it by the divine words: “O you who believe, when believing women come to you as emigrants, examine them. Allah knows best about their faith. If you ascertain that they are truly believers, do not send them back to the unbelievers; they are no longer lawful for one another” (Qur’an 60:10).
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After relating the account of al-Hudaybiyyah in his work Zad al-Maʿad, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—highlighted many of its lessons and legal rulings. We shall quote here some of those rulings and benefits that pertain to this portion of the story, adding what further insight Allah enables us to draw. Some have already been mentioned, and the remainder include:
Allah’s statement: “He is the One who held back their hands from you and your hands from them in the valley of Mecca after He had granted you victory over them” (Qur’an 48:24). Had Allah not decreed this mutual restraint, a fierce massacre would have erupted between the Muslims and the idolaters, with heavy losses on both sides. The Muslims were eager for combat, having pledged to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—not to turn back even unto death; they were the elite of the Companions and the carriers of the Shariʿah, among them the four Rightly Guided Caliphs through whom Allah strengthened Islam.
The idolaters, for their part, were burning with rancour and possessed too much pride to allow an enemy to enter their homeland by force; they would therefore have fought to the last breath in defence of what they saw as an intolerable humiliation. Among them at that time were men who shortly thereafter embraced Islam and became leading commanders of the Muslims—such as Khalid ibn al-Walid, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, ʿIkrimah ibn Abi Jahl, Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, Abu Sufyan ibn al-Ḥārith, and Abu Sufyan ibn Ḥarb—figures who soon became an ornament of Islam and a source of honour for the faithful.