In Shawwāl, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entrusted ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith with a white banner and ordered him to march to the valley of Rābigh. The banner was carried by Miṣṭaḥ ibn Uthātha. He set out with sixty Emigrants—there was not a single Anṣārī among them—until he reached Thaniyyat al-Murrah in the vicinity of al-Juhfah. There they and the polytheists met at a watering-place called Aḥyāʾ, where arrows were exchanged but no hand-to-hand fighting took place.

Al-Wāqidī states: The polytheists numbered two hundred men under the command of Abū Sufyān Ṣakhr ibn Ḥarb, and this is the version we consider sound; it is also said that their leader was Mikraz ibn Ḥafṣ.

Section: The Expedition of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ to al-Kharrār

Al-Wāqidī further says: In that same year—the first year after the Hijrah—during Dhū al-Qaʿdah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ a white banner, borne by al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad, and dispatched him to al-Kharrār. Abū Bakr ibn Ismāʿīl related to me from his father, from ʿĀmir ibn Saʿd [from his father]:

“He said, ‘I left on foot with twenty men—or, he said, twenty-one. We would lie low by day and travel by night until we reached al-Kharrār at dawn on the fifth day. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had instructed me not to go beyond al-Kharrār, and the caravan had already passed a day earlier.’”

Al-Wāqidī adds: The caravan comprised sixty loads, and all those who accompanied Saʿd were Emigrants.

Abū Jaʿfar Ibn Jarīr remarks: According to Ibn Isḥāq, all three expeditions mentioned by al-Wāqidī took place in the second year after the Hijrah according to the chronological reckoning.

I say: Anyone who examines Ibn Isḥāq’s words will see that they are not as explicit as Abū Jaʿfar has understood, as we shall cite at the beginning of the Book of the Campaigns under the events of the second year after the Hijrah—immediately following the section we are now in, Allah willing. It is also possible that his intention was that these expeditions occurred in the first year. We shall elaborate and clarify this point when we reach it, God willing. Al-Wāqidī offers valuable additions and generally precise dating; he is one of the leading authorities in this field, trustworthy in himself though prolific, as we have already discussed in detail regarding his reliability and the critiques leveled against him in our book entitled “Completion on the Knowledge of the Trustworthy, the Weak, and the Unknown.” Praise and bounty belong to Allah.

Section

Among those born in this blessed year—the first year after the Hijrah—was ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, making him the first child to be born