…to make peace with them, but we have refused. Therefore, get ready and make your preparations. They had waited only three days before they swept across the outskirts of Madinah in a lightning raid, leaving half their number at Dhū Ḥusāʾ as a supporting force. The patrols sent word to Abū Bakr to inform him of the attack, so he sent back the order: “Hold your positions.” Abū Bakr then came out with the worshippers who were in the mosque, mounted on the nāwaḍiḥ (1), and headed toward the raiders. The enemy scattered, and the Muslims pursued them on their camels until they reached Dhū Ḥusāʾ (2). There the reserve force came out to aid them and the two sides engaged; Allah granted the Muslims victory. On that occasion someone recited:

We obeyed the Messenger of Allah while he lived in our midst;
O servants of Allah, what ails Abū Bakr?

Shall he leave us with nothing but a yearling camel when he is gone?
By Allah, that would break the very back!

Why did you not return our delegation while he was still alive?
Why did you not fear the grunt of the newly loosed camel?

Indeed, what they asked of you and you withheld
Is like dates—or sweeter to me than dates themselves.

In Jumādā al-Ākhirah Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq rode out with the people of Madinah and the commanders of the city approaches against the Bedouins who had raided the city. When he and his foes—Banū ʿAbs, Banū Murrah, Dhubyān, their allies from Banū Kinānah, and the reinforcements sent by Ṭulayḥah in the person of his son Ḥabāl—confronted one another, the enemy had devised a stratagem: they inflated a number of skins (3) and rolled them down from the mountain tops. When the camels of Abū Bakr’s men saw them they panicked and scattered in every direction; the Muslims could not bring them under control until nightfall, and not before the beasts had strayed back to Madinah.

Al-Khuṭayl ibn Aws versified:

My saddle and she-camel I would ransom for the men of Dhubyān,
On the evening Abū Bakr drove them on with his spears (4).

Yet men were being hurled headlong (5); they dreaded his advance—
For only as long as one may pause in camp and not yet march (6).

Allah has hosts that make a man taste their might,
So that they are numbered among the marvels of the age.

We obeyed the Messenger of Allah while he was among us;
O servants of Allah, what ails Abū Bakr?

When this incident occurred the enemy thought the Muslims had grown weak, so they summoned their kinsmen from other districts and massed together. Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—spent the entire night arranging the ranks, and just before dawn he moved out in full battle order: al-Nuʿmān ibn Muqarrin on the right wing, his brother ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muqarrin on the left, and their brother Suwayd ibn Muqarrin commanding the rear guard. Dawn had barely broken when the two forces found themselves on the same plain. The idolaters heard neither sound nor whisper from the Muslims until the swords were upon them; by sunrise they had turned and fled. The Muslims captured most of their riding-animals, Ḥabāl was killed, and Abū Bakr pursued them until he halted at Dhū al-Qaṣṣah. This was the first victory: the idolaters were humbled by it and the believers were exalted. Then the Banū…