Among the lessons and rulings derived is that this truce and armistice with the pagan Meccans became the very cause of the Islam of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, Khālid ibn al-Walīd, Abū Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Umayyah—outstanding figures of Mecca and leaders of Quraysh. Once they entered Islam, great numbers from their people followed suit. In short, the armistice enabled the idolaters to observe Islam’s realities, its etiquette, and the fidelity of its adherents.

Another wisdom and benefit is that the treaty itself led to the Conquest of Mecca in less than two years. Quraysh broke the covenant by attacking the Prophet’s allies from the tribe of Khuzaʿah. The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—then advanced with ten thousand fighters, conquered Mecca, entered it by force after only minor skirmishes, and, by Allah’s grace, the city became a land of Islam. For that reason, when the Prophet had travelled only a few miles away from al-Hudaybiyyah after the treaty had been concluded, Allah revealed to him: “Indeed, We have granted you a clear conquest” (Qur’an 48:1). Al-Bukhārī relates from al-Barāʾ who said, “You people count the conquest as the day Mecca was taken—and taking Mecca was indeed a conquest—but we consider the conquest to be the pledge of allegiance given at al-Riḍwān on the day of al-Hudaybiyyah.”

Another point: the relief and deliverance to which the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—had alluded for those Muslims who were returned to the unbelievers came to pass. They fled Quraysh but did not seek refuge with the Prophet; instead they remained along Quraysh’s caravan route to Syria, harassing the caravans, killing those who accompanied them, and seizing their goods until Quraysh could bear it no longer. They appealed to the Prophet to annul that clause of the treaty and to allow the fugitives to join him and his Companions in Medina. “Whoever is mindful of Allah, He will make for him a way out, and will grant him ease in his affair.”

Proof of this divine will and heavenly planning is that when the Muslims reached the mountain pass that slopes down to the boundary of the Sacred Precinct from the side of al-Hudaybiyyah—today called al-Shumaysī—the Prophet’s she-camel sat down. The Companions exclaimed, “Al-Qaṣwāʾ has balked,” meaning: