we have never laid our swords upon our shoulders for some alarming matter without soon being led to something we already recognized before it; whenever we tried to block one breach, another burst open against us and we had no idea how to deal with it.
Al-Bukhārī relates:
‘Abd Allāh ibn Yūsuf narrated to us, Mālik informed us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from his father, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was travelling on one of his journeys while ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb rode beside him at night. ʿUmar asked him about something, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not answer. He asked again, and again no reply came; he asked a third time, and still the Prophet ﷺ remained silent. ʿUmar then said to himself, “May your mother lose you, O ʿUmar! You have importuned the Messenger of Allah ﷺ three times and he has not answered you.”
ʿUmar continued, “So I prodded my camel forward, overtook the Muslims, and feared that some Qur’ān might be revealed concerning me. I had not gone far when I heard someone calling me. I thought, ‘It is just as I feared—revelation has come down about me.’ I returned, greeted the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he said:
‘Tonight a sūrah has been sent down to me that is dearer to me than everything upon which the sun rises.’
Then he recited, ‘Indeed, We have opened for you a clear opening’ (al-Fath 1).
The author says: I have discussed Sūrat al-Fath in full in my book of Tafsīr, which is sufficient by Allah’s grace and favor; whoever wishes to copy that material here may do so.
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Section: Expeditions and detachments that took place in the sixth year after the Hijrah
Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī summarizes, citing al-Wāqidī:
In Rabīʿ al-Awwal—or perhaps in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir—of that year, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched ʿUkkāshah ibn Miḥṣan with forty men to al-Ghamr. The enemy fled, so he encamped at their watering places, pursued them, captured two hundred camels, and drove them back to Madinah.
That same year Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ was sent to Dhī al-Qaṣṣah with forty men as well. They marched the whole night on foot and reached the settlement in the early dawn darkness; the inhabitants scattered to the mountain tops. They seized one man, brought him to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he embraced Islam.
Muhammad ibn Maslamah was dispatched with ten men. The enemy lay in ambush for them until they fell asleep, then killed all of Muhammad ibn Maslamah’s companions; he escaped, wounded.