[The Ninth Year]

Then came the ninth year. During it, people hastened to embrace Islam.

In this year, after the conquest of Mecca, came the expedition to Tabūk—the expedition of the Army of Hardship. After returning from his ʿumrah following the conquest of Mecca, the Battle of Hunayn, and the siege of al-Tāʾif, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, remained in Medina throughout Dhū al-Hijjah, Muharram, Safar, Rabīʿ al-Awwal, Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, Jumādā al-Ūlā, and Jumādā al-Ākhirah. In Rajab of the ninth year, he set out with the Muslims to fight the Byzantines. This was the last expedition he personally led. He departed in intense heat, when the first dates had ripened, during a year of drought. Whenever the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, set out on a military expedition, he would almost always conceal his destination by suggesting another. Tabūk was the exception: he made its destination clear to the people because of the great distance, the expense, the hardship, and the strength of the enemy they were going to confront. A full account of this expedition and its events would be lengthy; we have mentioned its principal episodes in the fourth volume of the commentary on the Jāmiʿ of al-ʿUtbiyyah.

In this year, Thaqīf embraced Islam. We have also related this account in the aforementioned volume of the commentary on the Jāmiʿ.

In this year, Abū Bakr al-Siddīq led the Hajj. After returning from Tabūk, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, intended to perform Hajj, but then said: “Polytheists will soon be coming to the House and circumambulating it naked. I do not wish to perform Hajj until that no longer happens.” He therefore sent Abū Bakr. Then, when Surah Barāʾah was revealed, he sent ʿAlī after him to recite it to the people during the pilgrimage, to renounce the treaty of every treaty-holder, and to notify them that after that year no polytheist was to perform Hajj and no one was to circumambulate the House naked, along with the other matters he instructed him to proclaim at every pilgrimage station. Thus Abū Bakr led the Hajj that year, the ninth year. The following year, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, performed the Farewell Hajj. He performed no other Hajj after coming to Medina. Thus took place the Hajj of the Messenger