The leaders of unbelief among the Jews and the hypocrites—may Allah curse them all and consign them to the lowest abyss—

After that, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prepared for war, rising to carry out what Allah had enjoined upon him: striving against His enemies and fighting the idolaters who were nearest to him.

He relates: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Madinah on a Monday, in the full glare of mid-morning when the sun was almost at its zenith, on the twelfth night of Rabīʿ al-Awwal. At that time he was fifty-three years old, thirteen years having passed since Allah had sent him. He remained there for the rest of that month, then through Rabīʿ al-Thānī, the two Jumādās, Rajab, Shaʿbān, Ramaḍān, Shawwāl, Dhū al-Qaʿdah, and Dhū al-Ḥijjah—during which the polytheists still presided over the pilgrimage—and Muḥarram.

In Ṣafar, exactly twelve months after his arrival in Madinah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out on a military expedition.

Ibn Hishām reports that he appointed Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah to oversee Madinah in his absence.

Ibn Isḥāq (1) records that he advanced as far as Waddān, the expedition better known as al-Abwāʾ.

Ibn Jarīr (2) adds that it is also called the Waddān Expedition. The Prophet’s objective was Quraysh and the Banū Ḍumrah ibn Bakr ibn ʿAbd Manāh ibn Kinānah. The Banū Ḍumrah concluded a truce with him, represented by their chief at the time, Makhshī ibn ʿAmr al-Ḍamrī. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then returned to Madinah without encountering any hostility and remained there for the rest of Ṣafar and part of Rabīʿ al-Awwal.

Ibn Hishām (3) remarks: This was the first campaign he ever undertook.

Al-Wāqidī (4) notes: His banner ﷺ was carried by his uncle Ḥamzah, and it was white.

Ibn Isḥāq (5) continues: While the Prophet ﷺ was still in Madinah he dispatched ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Quṣayy with sixty—or eighty—mounted men from among the Muhājirūn; no Anṣār were with them. They traveled until they reached a watering place in the Ḥijāz below Thaniyyat al-Murrah, where they encountered a large contingent of Quraysh. No fighting took place except that Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ shot an arrow that day—the first arrow ever loosed in the cause of Allah in Islam. The two parties then disengaged, the Muslims maintaining a rearguard. On that occasion al-Miqdād ibn ʿAmr al-Baḥrānī, an ally of Banū Zuhrah, and ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān ibn Jābir al-Māzinī, an ally of Banū Nawfal ibn ʿAbd Manāf, slipped away from the idolaters and joined the Muslims. Both men were already Muslims but had set out with the unbelievers only in order to reach the Islamic camp.

Ibn Isḥāq concludes: The idolaters that day were under the command of ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl.