Muhammad ibn Isḥāq relates: Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar told me—on the authority of ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah—that Abū Bakr once entered upon ʿĀʾishah while she was sifting wheat.

He asked, “What is this? Has the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered you to prepare provisions?”

She answered, “Yes—so prepare yourself.”

He said, “For where?”

She replied, “He has not named anything to us, except that he has ordered us to make ready.”

Ibn Isḥāq continues: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then informed the people that he was setting out for Mecca and commanded them to exert themselves and be fully prepared. He prayed,

“O Allah, withhold the scouts and the news from Quraysh, so that we may fall upon them unawares in their own land.”

The people made their preparations, and Ḥassān (ibn Thābit) recited verses urging them on and recalling the massacre of Khuzāʿah:

(from the Ṭawīl metre)

It weighs upon me—though I was not in Mecca’s valley—
that the men of Banū Kaʿb had their throats cut there,

by hands that never even drew their swords;
so many slain whose garments drank no blood.

Oh, would that I knew—will my aid reach Suhayl ibn ʿAmr,
with all its burning heat and its reprisals?

And Safwān—a hardened trunk split by the blade’s edge—
now is the hour of war; tighten its head-bands!

So trust us not, O son of Umm Mujālid,
when the milk turns bitter and the fang grows sharp.

Do not fear it, for our swords will strike a blow
whose very gateway death itself will open.

The Story of Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah

Muhammad ibn Isḥāq further narrates: Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar told me—on the authority of ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr and others among our scholars—that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had firmly resolved to march upon Mecca, Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah wrote a letter to Quraysh informing them of what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ intended. He entrusted it to a woman—Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar said she was from Muzaynah, while another informant told me she was Sārah, the freedwoman of one of Banū ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib—and promised her a reward if she would deliver it to Quraysh. She hid the letter in her hair, plaited her braids over it, and set off.

News of Ḥāṭib’s deed reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ by revelation, so he dispatched ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, saying,

“Catch up with a woman whom Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah has sent with a letter to Quraysh, warning them of what we have resolved concerning them.”

They set out and overtook her at al-Khalīqah, the watering place of Banū Abī Aḥmad. They made her dismount and searched her baggage but found nothing. ʿAlī then said, “By Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has not spoken falsely, nor have we. Produce the letter, or we shall strip you bare.”