On the Day of the Conquest a man approached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and began to tremble. The Prophet said,

“Easy now; I am only the son of a woman of Quraysh who used to eat dried meat.”

He (al-Bayhaqī) added: the same report was transmitted with a continuous chain by Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn Fāris and Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Zuhayr from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī al-Ḥārith.

He then related it (1) through Abū Zakariyyā al-Muzzakkī, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, from Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn, from Ismāʿīl, from Qays, as a mursal report, and said, “This is the version that has been preserved.”

Such humility, shown by him ﷺ when entering Mecca at the head of that dense and formidable army, contrasts sharply with what the fools among the Children of Israel did when they were commanded to enter the gate of Jerusalem in prostration—i.e., bowing—while saying, “Ḥiṭṭah” (“Remove from us our burden”). Instead they crawled in on their backsides, saying, “ḥinṭah fī shaʿrah” (“a grain of wheat in a hair”).

Al-Bukhārī (2) said: al-Haytham ibn Khārijah narrated to us; Ḥafṣ ibn Maysarah narrated to us; from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, that ʿĀʾishah informed him that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered, in the Year of the Conquest, through Kadāʾ, which is in the upper part of Mecca. Abū Usāmah and Wahīb corroborated this: “through Kadāʾ.”

He also said (3): ʿUbayd ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Abū Usāmah narrated to us; from Hishām, from his father: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered, in the Year of the Conquest, from the upper part of Mecca through Kadāʾ,” and this is the sounder wording.

If his intention was that the mursal version is stronger than the preceding musnad, the wording is consistent; otherwise, Kadāʾ—with a long vowel—is the place named in both reports and lies in the upper part of Mecca, while Kudā—with a short vowel—is in the lower part of Mecca, which is the more famous and appropriate identification.

We have already mentioned that he ﷺ sent Khālid ibn al-Walīd through the upper side of Mecca, whereas he ﷺ himself entered from its lower side through Kudā, as recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Allah knows best.

Al-Bayhaqī (4) said: Abū al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdān informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn [al-Ṣaqr] (5) Ibrāhīm ibn al-Munḏir al-Ḥizāmī narrated to us; Maʿn narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ narrated to us; from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar who said:

“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered in the Year of the Conquest, he saw women patting the faces of the horses. He smiled at Abū Bakr and said, ‘O Abū Bakr, how did Ḥassān put it?’ So Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—recited:”} }