and before long the branches of that crop began to quiver, scented with the lavender of the verse, “All violations demand equivalent retaliation” (Q 2:194). He entered Mecca in a way no one had ever entered it before him, nor will anyone after him: the Emigrants and the Helpers encircled him, only the whites of their eyes visible beneath their helmets; the Companions stood according to their ranks; the angels hovered above their heads; and Gabriel moved back and forth between him and his Lord. Allah had made His Sacred Precinct lawful for him—a concession granted to no one but him. (1)

When he compared that victorious day with the day when “those who disbelieved plotted against you to imprison you, kill you, or expel you” (Q 8:30) and they forced him out as one of two, he entered Mecca with his chin touching the pommel of his saddle, in deepest humility toward the One who had clothed him in this robe of honor, an honor at which all creation now lifted its heads and toward which the necks of kings were outstretched.

He entered Mecca as a sovereign, divinely aided and triumphant. Bilal’s heel rose above the Kaʿbah—he who had once been dragged across the scorching stones of persecution—and he unfurled a banner that had been rolled up since the day he cried, “He is One, He is One!” Raising his voice with the call to prayer, the tribes answered him from every direction, converging on the sound until they entered Allah’s religion in multitudes, whereas before they had come one by one.

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sat upon the pulpit of glory—and he has never stepped down from it—the kings stretched their necks toward him in submission: some handed over the keys to their realms, some asked for an armistice and a treaty, some accepted the jizya along with the humbled status it entails, and others busied themselves gathering forces and preparing for war, not realizing that all they were really doing was collecting spoils and driving captives to him.