Reports on the letters of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his expeditions

It is narrated from Abdullah bin Shaddad that Kisra wrote to Badham: I have been informed that a man is saying something that I do not know. So send someone to him, so that he may sit quietly in his house and not spread anything among the people; otherwise, let him fix a time and place with me and I will meet him there. The narrator said: Badham sent to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) two men with shaved beards and long moustaches. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: What has driven you to this? The narrator said: The two of them said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): We have been ordered to do this by the one who, as people claim, is their Lord. The narrator said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: But we go against your way. We clip this (the moustache) and we let this (the beard) grow. The narrator said: A man of Quraysh with long moustaches passed by him (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered him to clip them. The narrator said: He (peace and blessings be upon him) left those envoys for twenty-odd days. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Go to the one whom you claim to be your Lord, and tell him that my Lord has killed the one who claimed to be a lord. The men asked: When did this happen? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Today. The narrator said: The two went to Badham and gave him this news. The narrator said: He wrote to Kisra, and they found that the killing of Kisra had taken place on that very day.

Sa'id bin al-Musayyib said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote to Kisra, Caesar and the Negus: To proceed: "Come to a word common between us and you (which is) that we worship none but Allah, associate nothing with Him, and do not take one another as lords besides Allah." Then if they turn away, say: "Bear witness that we are Muslims." Sa'id bin al-Musayyib said: Kisra tore up the letter and did not even look at it. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He himself has been torn apart, and his nation has been torn apart too. The Negus believed, and those who were with him believed as well, and he sent a pair of garments as a gift to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: As long as he leaves you alone, leave them alone too. Caesar read the letter of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: I have not heard of a letter with "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" since the letter of the Prophet Sulayman. Then he sent a messenger to Sayyiduna Abu Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna al-Mughirah bin Shu'bah (may Allah be pleased with him), who were present as traders in Caesar's land. Caesar asked them about some of the circumstances of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he asked them: Who are the people who follow him? They replied: His followers are weak people and women. Then he asked: Tell me, have those who went to him turned back? They replied: No. Caesar said: This man is a prophet. He will surely gain mastery over the land beneath my feet. If I were with him, I would kiss his feet.

Ja'far bin Amr said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent four men as envoys to four persons: one man to Kisra, one man to Caesar, one man to al-Muqawqis, and Sayyiduna Amr bin Umayyah (may Allah be pleased with him) to the Negus. Each of these men came to speak the language of the people to whom he had been sent. When Sayyiduna Amr bin Umayyah came to the Negus, he found among them a small door through which people would pass bowing. When Sayyiduna Amr saw this, he went back walking backwards. The narrator said: This was hard on the Abyssinians sitting in the Negus's assembly, until they made a move against him, and until they said to King Negus: This man did not enter as we enter. The Negus asked: What prevented you from entering as the people do? Sayyiduna Amr said: We do not do this for our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and if we were to do this for anyone, we would do it for our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The Negus said: He has spoken the truth. And the Negus said: Leave him. The people said to the Negus: This man claims that Isa (peace be upon him) is a slave. The Negus asked: What do you say about Isa? Sayyiduna Amr said: He is the word of Allah and the spirit of Allah. The Negus said: Isa could not go beyond this. (That is, it is really so.)

Mujalid said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote a letter to my grandfather, and this blessed letter of his (peace and blessings be upon him) is with us: "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This letter is from Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, to Umayr Dhu Murran and to the Muslims of Hamdan. Peace be upon you. I praise before you Allah, besides whom there is no god. To proceed: News of your Islam reached us on our return from the land of Rome. So rejoice, for Allah Almighty has guided you with His guidance. When you have borne witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), established the prayer and paid the zakah, then for you there is the protection of Allah Almighty and of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) over your wealth and blood, and the land of al-Bawn on which you accepted Islam, its level ground, its mountains, its springs and its pastures, are yours. You will not be wronged and you will not be put under hardship. Indeed, charity is not lawful for Muhammad and the family of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). It is only zakah by which you purify your wealth, by giving it to the poor Muslims. Malik bin Mirarah al-Rahawi has guarded (your interests) in your absence and passed on the news. O Dhu Murran, I command you to treat him well, for he is held in high regard. And this letter was written by Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) bin Abi Talib. Peace be upon you, and may your Lord send peace upon you."

It is narrated from Qays bin Abi Hazim that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent (a force) to the tribe of Khath'am on account of some people who were among them. When the Muslims closed in on them, those people sought protection through prostration (that is, they showed their Islam through prostrations). The narrator said: So those people prostrated. The narrator said: Even so, the Muslims killed some of those who prostrated. This reached the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Pay half of their blood money because of their prayers. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Behold! Whichever Muslim lives with a polytheist, I, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), am free of him.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Usamah (may Allah be pleased with him): The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent us out on a military expedition, and we attacked al-Huraqat of the tribe of Juhaynah in the morning. I overtook a man, and he said: La ilaha illa Allah (There is no god but Allah). I stabbed him with a spear. Then this settled heavily in my heart, so I mentioned it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He said La ilaha illa Allah and you still killed him? The narrator said: I said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he only said this word out of fear of weapons. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Why did you not split open his heart, so that you would have known whether he said this word out of fear of weapons or not? He (peace and blessings be upon him) repeated this so many times that the wish arose in my heart that (if only) I had accepted Islam that very day.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Sayyiduna Alqamah bin Mujazziz (may Allah be pleased with him) as commander of an expedition, and I was in that expedition. When he reached the head of his campaign, or, as he said, had covered part of the way, a group of the army asked him for permission, and he gave them permission. He appointed Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Hudhafah bin Qays al-Sahmi (may Allah be pleased with him) as their commander. I was among those who took part in the campaign with him. When we had covered part of the way, the people lit a fire to warm their hands and feet, or to prepare some food on it. Abdullah (the commander of the party) spoke, and he was a man given to joking and laughter: "Is it not obligatory upon you to hear and obey me?" The people said: "Of course!" Abdullah said: "Then will you carry out whatever I order you?" The people said: "Yes!" Abdullah said: "I strictly command you to jump into this fire." The narrator said: Some people stood up and prepared themselves for it. When Abdullah became certain that they were going to jump, he said: "Stop! I was only joking with you." When we returned, we mentioned this incident to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever among them (the commanders) orders you to commit a sin, do not obey him."

Abdullah bin Abi al-Hudhayl said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Sayyiduna Khalid bin al-Walid (may Allah be pleased with him) to al-Uzza. Sayyiduna Khalid was striking al-Uzza with his sword and saying: "O Uzza! You are to be denied, not glorified. I have seen that Allah has disgraced you."

Abu Burdah said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote a letter to a man from the People of the Book: "Accept Islam." The narrator said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had not yet finished (dictating) his letter when a letter from that same man came to him, in which the man was invoking peace upon him (peace and blessings be upon him). So he (peace and blessings be upon him) returned his greeting of peace at the end of his letter.

It is narrated from Yazid bin Abdullah bin al-Shikhkhir: We were sitting in this enclosure in Basrah when a Bedouin came, carrying a piece of leather or hide. The man said: "This is a letter which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote for me." The narrator said: I took the letter and read it out to the people. Written in it was: "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. From Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), to Banu Zuhayr bin Uqaysh. If you establish the prayer, pay the zakah, and give from the spoils of war the one-fifth, the share of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the portion selected by the ruler, then you will have the protection of Allah and of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)." The narrator asked: "Have you heard anything from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?" The Bedouin said: "I heard him say: 'Fasting the month of patience and three days of every month removes the whisperings of the chest.'"

It is narrated from Muhammad bin Ja'far bin al-Zubayr that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Unays (may Allah be pleased with him) to Khalid bin Sufyan. The narrator said: When I came near him, and that was at the time of Asr, I feared that some engagement or undertaking would occur before I reached him, so I prayed while walking.

It is narrated from Qays that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) dispatched the army of Dhat al-Salasil to Lakhm, Judham and Masanif al-Sham under the command of Sayyiduna Amr (may Allah be pleased with him). The narrator said: His companions were few in number. The narrator said: Sayyiduna Amr said to the people: "None of you is to light a fire." This was very hard on the people, so they spoke to Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), asking him to speak to Sayyiduna Amr. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr spoke to Sayyiduna Amr about it, and he said: "Whoever lights a fire, I will push him into that very fire." Then Sayyiduna Amr fought the enemy, overcame them and uprooted their army. The people asked: "Shall we not pursue the enemy?" Sayyiduna Amr said: "No! I fear that there may be reinforcements for them behind this mountain, by which they would cut the Muslims to pieces." When the people returned to the presence of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), they complained to him about Sayyiduna Amr. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "O Amr! Are they telling the truth?" Sayyiduna Amr said: "My companions were few. I feared that the enemy would be drawn to them because of their small number (so I forbade lighting fires). When Allah Almighty gave me victory over them, these people said: 'Pursue them.' I said: 'I fear that behind this mountain there are reinforcements for the enemy that will cut the Muslims to pieces.'" The narrator said: It was as if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) praised what Sayyiduna Amr had said.

It is narrated from Qays that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked Sayyiduna Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him): "Have you given travel provisions to the Bajali riders, or party?" He replied: "No!" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then give them provisions, and begin with the Ahmasis before the Qasris."

It is narrated from al-Sha'bi that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote a letter to Ri'yah al-Suhaymi. He took the letter of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and patched his bucket with it. He (peace and blessings be upon him) dispatched a detachment, and they (went and) seized his family and his property. Ri'yah escaped naked on a horse of his, with nothing on him. He came to his daughter, and this daughter of his was married among Banu Hilal. The narrator said: They had accepted Islam, and she had accepted Islam along with them, and they had invited him to Islam. The narrator said: He came to his daughter, and people used to gather in the courtyard of his daughter's house. So he came to the house from the back. When his daughter saw him naked, she threw a garment over him and asked: "What has happened to you?" Ri'yah replied: "Every evil has befallen me. Neither my family nor my property has been left to me." Then Ri'yah asked: "Where is your husband?" His daughter replied: "With the camels." The narrator said: Then he went to her husband and told him the whole matter. He said: "Take my mount with its saddle, and I will give you milk as provision." Ri'yah said: "I have no need of that. But give me the shepherd's young camel and a water vessel, so that I may hurry to Muhammad, lest he divide my family and my property." So he set off from there in such a state that he had one garment on him: when he covered his head with that garment his buttocks were exposed, and when he covered his buttocks his head was exposed. He kept going until he entered Madinah at night. Then he reached a place opposite him (peace and blessings be upon him). When he (peace and blessings be upon him) had finished the Fajr prayer, the man said to him: "O Messenger of Allah! Stretch out your hand so that I may pledge allegiance to you." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stretched out his blessed hand. When Ri'yah was about to place his hand upon his blessed hand, he (peace and blessings be upon him) drew his hand back. Ri'yah again said to him: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Stretch out your hand so that I may pledge allegiance to you." The narrator said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stretched out his blessed hand. When Ri'yah was about to place his hand upon his blessed hand, he (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "Who are you?" He replied: "I am Ri'yah al-Suhaymi." The narrator said: He (peace and blessings be upon him) took hold of his upper arm and raised it, then said: "O people! This is Ri'yah al-Suhaymi, to whom I wrote a letter, and he took my letter and patched his bucket with it. Now he has accepted Islam." Then Ri'yah said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! My family and my property?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "As for your property, it has been divided among the Muslims. As for your family, see whichever of them you are able to reach (they will be found)." Ri'yah said: I went out, and there was my son, who had recognised the saddle, standing beside it. So I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "This is my son." Then Sayyiduna Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him) was sent with me, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Go with him and ask this boy: 'Is this your father?' If he says yes, then hand the boy over to him." The narrator said: Sayyiduna Bilal came to that young man and asked him: "Is this your father?" The young man replied: "Yes!" Sayyiduna Bilal handed the young man over to Ri'yah. The narrator said: Sayyiduna Bilal came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "By Allah! I did not see either of the two weeping at the sight of the other." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "That is the coarseness of the Bedouins."