and that it was further stipulated: “If anyone from our side should come to you—even though he follows your religion—you must return him to us.”
Thereupon the Almighty revealed:
“O you who believe, when believing women come to you as emigrants, test them; Allah knows best their faith. If you ascertain that they are believers, then do not send them back to the disbelievers: they are not lawful for the disbelievers, nor are the disbelievers lawful for them …” (al-Mumtahanah 60:10).
• In this same year took place the expedition of al-Muraysīʿ, during which occurred the incident of the Slander and the subsequent vindication of the Mother of the Believers ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—as has already been explained.
• The ʿUmrah of al-Hudaybiyah also fell in this year, with the idolaters barring the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the subsequent truce that suspended warfare for ten years, granting security to all. The parties further agreed that there would be no betrayal (ighlāl) or covert attack (islāl). All of this has been set out in detail in its proper place; praise and thanks belong to Allah. During that year the idolaters were still the custodians of the Hajj.
• Al-Wāqidī relates that in Dhul-Hijjah of this same year the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent out six envoys together: Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah to al-Muqawqis, ruler of Alexandria; Shujāʿ ibn Wahb of the Banū Asad ibn Khuzaymah, a veteran of Badr, to al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Shamir al-Ghassānī, the king of the Christian Arabs in Syria; Dihyah ibn Khalīfah al-Kalbī to Caesar—Heraclius, emperor of Byzantium; ʿAbd Allah ibn Ḥudhāfah al-Sahmī to Kisrā, the king of Persia; Salīṭ ibn ʿAmr al-ʿĀmirī to Hawdhah ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥanafī; and ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Ḍamrī to the Negus, the Christian king of Abyssinia, namely Aṣḥamah ibn Abjar.