around it had shown greater fighting strength and fought more fiercely against the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his Companions at Badr, Uhud, and the Trench than those others had, as they also did in other military expeditions.

Thus, the people whom they would be called to fight must possess a fighting strength surpassing that of those whom they had been called to fight in the year of al-Hudaybiyyah, as Allah Most High said:

“Of great fighting strength” [Surah al-Fath: 16].

There are two groups to consider here. The first is Banū al-Asfar, the Byzantines, whom they were called to fight in the year of Tabūk, the ninth year. They possessed great fighting strength and deserved this description more than others. The first fighting against them took place at Mu’tah in the eighth year, before Tabūk. The Muslim commanders—Zayd, Ja‘far, and ‘Abd Allāh ibn Rawāhah—were killed there, and the Muslims returned as though defeated.

For this reason, when they returned, they said to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“We are those who fled.”

He replied:

“Rather, you are those who withdraw to fight again. I am your rallying point and that of every Muslim.” (1)

Some, however, objected to this interpretation on the basis of His words:

“You will fight them, or they will submit.” [Surah al-Fath: 16]

The People of the Book are fought until they pay the jizyah. Another group therefore interpreted the verse as referring to the apostates whom al-Siddīq fought: the followers of Musaylimah the Liar. They possessed great fighting strength, and the Muslims encountered hardship in fighting them