Ibn Isḥāq said (1): ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ related to me, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:

“On the day of Ḥudaybiyyah some men shaved their heads while others merely trimmed them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared, ‘May Allah have mercy on the shavers.’

They asked, ‘And the trimmers, O Messenger of Allah?’

He replied, ‘May Allah have mercy on the shavers.’

They asked again, ‘And the trimmers, O Messenger of Allah?’

He answered, ‘May Allah have mercy on the shavers.’

They repeated, ‘And the trimmers, O Messenger of Allah?’

He then said, ‘…and on the trimmers.’

They asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, why did you keep praying for mercy upon the shavers over the trimmers?’

He said, ‘Because they entertained no doubt.’”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ also related to me, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, among the animals he offered in sacrifice during the year of Ḥudaybiyyah, sent a camel that had belonged to Abū Jahl, its nose fitted with a silver ring, in order to vex the idolaters.

This is the wording of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq—may Allah have mercy upon him—for this story. In al-Bukhārī’s rendering, as will follow, there are points that differ from this account, as you shall see, if Allah wills, and in Him we place our trust. We shall quote his version in full and, in every place, adduce corroborating reports that are rigorously or soundly authentic, each in its proper context, Allah willing; upon Him we rely, and He is the One whose help is sought.

Al-Bukhārī said (2): Khālid ibn Mukhlad related to us; Sulaymān ibn Bilāl related to us; Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān related to us, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Zayd ibn Khālid, who said:

“We set out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the year of Ḥudaybiyyah, and during the night rain fell upon us. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in the dawn prayer, then turned his face toward us and said, ‘Do you know what your Lord said?’ We replied, ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ He said, ‘Allah—exalted is He—has said: This morning some of My servants arose as believers in Me, others as disbelievers in Me. Whoever said, “We have been given rain by the mercy of Allah, by His provision and by His bounty,” is a believer in Me and a disbeliever in the stars. But whoever said, “We were given rain by such-and-such a star,” is a believer in the stars and a disbeliever in Me.’ ”

Al-Bukhārī records this ḥadīth in several passages of his Ṣaḥīḥ, and Muslim relates it through multiple chains (3); it is also transmitted from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Abū Hurayrah.

Al-Bukhārī further said (4): ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us; Isrāʾīl related to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barāʾ, who said:

“You count the Conquest to be the conquest of Mecca—and indeed, the conquest of Mecca was a conquest—whereas we count the Conquest to be the Pledge of al-Riḍwān on the day of Ḥudaybiyyah. We were with the Prophet ﷺ numbering fourteen hundred. Ḥudaybiyyah was a well; we drew it dry so that not a drop remained. This reached the Prophet ﷺ, so he came to the well, sat on its edge, asked for a small vessel of water, performed ablution, rinsed his mouth, supplicated, and then poured the water into the well. We left it for a short while, and then it yielded us all the water we desired, for ourselves and for our mounts.” Al-Bukhārī alone records this narration.

Ibn Isḥāq also said (5) concerning the words of the Exalted, “then He granted, besides that, a near victory” (Q 48:27): it refers to the treaty of Ḥudaybiyyah.