Ibn Isḥāq (1) said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained in Madinah through Ramaḍān and Shawwāl, and in Dhū al-Qaʿdah he set out to perform ʿUmrah, with no intention of war.

Ibn Hishām adds: He appointed Numaylah ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Laythī as governor over Madinah.

Ibn Isḥāq continues: He summoned the surrounding Arab tribes—the desert-dwelling Bedouins—to accompany him, fearing that Quraysh might confront him in battle or bar him from the Sacred House. Many of the Bedouins held back, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ departed with the Muhājirūn and the Anṣār who were with him, together with any of the Arabs who joined along the way. He drove the sacrificial animals (hady) before him and entered into iḥrām for ʿUmrah, so that people would feel secure that he sought no fight and would know that he had come only as a pilgrim, honoring the House.

Ibn Isḥāq (2) said: Muḥammad ibn Muslim ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī related to me from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, from al-Miswar ibn Makhramah and Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam, both of whom told him: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out in the year of al-Ḥudaybiyah intending to visit the House, not to fight. He drove with him seventy sacrificial camels, and the people numbered seven hundred men, one camel for every ten persons.

Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, so I have been informed, used to say: “We who took part in al-Ḥudaybiyah were one thousand four hundred.”

Al-Zuhrī (3) said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went on until, when he reached ʿUsfān, he was met by Bishr (4) ibn Sufyān al-Kaʿbī, who said, “O Messenger of Allah, Quraysh have heard of your march. They have come out against you with their women and suckling children, clad in leopard skins, and they are encamped at Dhī Tuwa, swearing by Allah that you will never enter it. Khalid ibn al-Walīd is with their cavalry, which they have advanced to Kurāʿ al-Ghamīm.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Alas for Quraysh! War has consumed them. What harm would it do them to leave me to deal with the rest of the Arabs? If they kill me, that is what they seek; but if Allah grants me victory over them, they will enter Islam in multitudes. Should they still refuse, they can fight while they have the strength. What, then, do Quraysh imagine? By Allah, I shall continue striving for the mission with which Allah has sent me until He makes it prevail or this neck is severed.”

He then asked, “Who will lead us by a route other than the one they are using?”

Ibn Isḥāq said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr told me that a man of the Aslam tribe replied, “I will, O Messenger of Allah.” So he led them along a rugged, stony path that wound through narrow passes. When they had come through it—its hardship having weighed heavily on the Muslims—they emerged onto open ground.