Ibn Majah

Benefits and Issues:

➊
The fundamental objective of war is to gain dominance over the enemy; therefore, it is necessary to thwart the enemy’s military strategies.

➋
Deception in war means to undertake such maneuvers and movements that mislead the enemy, so that they do not understand the real objective of the Muslim army and, as a result, are unable to counter the Muslims’ strategy in time.

➌
It was the noble habit of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) that when he intended to dispatch a military expedition in a certain direction, he would seek information about a different area. (Sahih al-Bukhari, al-Maghazi, Chapter: The Hadith of Ka‘b ibn Malik, Hadith: 4418)
The purpose of this was that if the information reached any spy of the enemy, he would not be able to draw the correct conclusion from it, and thus the enemy would remain in the dark.

➍
This word (khud‘ah) has also been recited, meaning that war is a deceptive affair.
Each side fights with the hope of victory, but not everyone’s hope is fulfilled.