What Abu Bakr (Ibn Abi Shaybah) preserved about the Battle of Tabuk

Abd al-Rahman bin Ka'b bin Malik narrates from his father that whenever the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intended a campaign (it was his habit) to conceal it by alluding to another, until the Battle of Tabuk came. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) made the journey to Tabuk in intense heat, and on this journey he (peace and blessings be upon him) had to go to a distant place. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) made their matter (the campaign) clear to the Muslims and informed them of it, so that the people could make preparations worthy of the enemy. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) also told the Companions the direction in which he (peace and blessings be upon him) intended to go.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Humayd al-Sa'idi (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: We set out with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in the year of Tabuk (for the campaign) until, when we reached Wadi al-Qura, (we saw) a woman standing in her garden. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered: "Estimate (the dates)." The narrator said: The people estimated (the dates), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) also estimated the dates, and the estimate was ten wasq. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the woman: "Keep count of how much fruit comes out of these dates. I will come back to you, if Allah wills." The narrator said: Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) set out (from there) until he (peace and blessings be upon him) arrived at Tabuk. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A violent wind will blow upon you tonight. So let no man stand in this wind, and whoever has a camel, let him tie its rope." The narrator said: Sayyiduna Abu Humayd narrates: We tied up the camels. When night came, a very strong wind blew. A man stood in that wind and the wind threw him onto the two mountains of Tayy. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to the king of Aylah, and he gave him (peace and blessings be upon him) a white mule as a gift. He (peace and blessings be upon him) gave him a cloak and wrote him a document concerning their sea. The narrator said: Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) went on and we went on with him (peace and blessings be upon him) until we reached Wadi al-Qura. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked that woman: "How much (did your garden yield)?" The woman replied: "Ten wasq, according to your estimate." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I will travel quickly. Whoever of you wishes to travel quickly, let him also come (with me)." The narrator said: Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) set out and we set out with him (peace and blessings be upon him) until, when we came in sight of Madinah, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "This is Tabah (a pure place)." Then when he (peace and blessings be upon him) saw Mount Uhud, he said: "This is a mountain that loves us and we love it."

Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah bin Ka'b bin Malik narrates from his father, from Sayyiduna Ka'b bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intended to fight Banu al-Asfar, he (peace and blessings be upon him) made their matter plain before the people. It was his (peace and blessings be upon him) habit that whenever he (peace and blessings be upon him) intended a campaign, he would conceal it by alluding to some other journey, until this campaign came. In it he (peace and blessings be upon him) faced intense heat, a distant journey and a fierce enemy, so he (peace and blessings be upon him) plainly told the people the objective toward which he (peace and blessings be upon him) was taking them, so that the Muslims could make preparations worthy of the enemy. 2. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) made his preparations and the people made their preparations with him (peace and blessings be upon him). I wished to make my preparations in the morning, but I could not prepare, until the people had finished (getting ready) and it began to be said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would set out on his journey at daybreak. I said (to myself): "I will make my preparations in a day or two after him (peace and blessings be upon him) and then catch up with him (peace and blessings be upon him)." I had two mounts, and I had never had two mounts together before that. So I was capable in myself and strong in my provisions. Day after day passed after his (peace and blessings be upon him) departure and I could do nothing, until the people of the army, travelling fast, had gone far ahead. Then I began to go out in the morning to talk, and people kept me occupied, so I resolved to stay behind until the army had gone ahead of me. Then when I went out in the morning, I saw (among those left behind) only a man whom Allah Almighty had excused, or a man with a reputation for hypocrisy. This made me very sad. 3. Now I began to prepare an excuse for the time of the return of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and tried to compose words. It was decreed for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he (peace and blessings be upon him) did not recall me until he (peace and blessings be upon him) reached Tabuk. He (peace and blessings be upon him), sitting among the people at Tabuk, asked: "What has Ka'b bin Malik done?" A man of my people stood up and said: "His two cloaks and his looking at his own sides (that is, his vanity) have held him back." The narrator said: Another man spoke and said: "By Allah, O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), we know only good of him." At this the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) fell silent. 4. Then when it was said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was about to arrive back, all falsehood and all the lies and excuses I had made up left me. I knew that in this state only the truth could save me, so I firmly resolved to speak the truth. In the morning the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) arrived (in Madinah). I came to him (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) was seated among the people in the mosque. It was his (peace and blessings be upon him) habit that when he (peace and blessings be upon him) returned from a journey he would come to the mosque and offer two rak'ahs there, and then go to his family. So I found him (peace and blessings be upon him) sitting in the mosque. When he (peace and blessings be upon him) looked at me he called me and said: "O Ka'b, come here. What kept you back from accompanying me?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) smiled the smile of an angry man. Ka'b said: I said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I have no excuse. I have never been as well off and as capable as I was when I stayed behind from you." (At that time) those who had stayed behind were coming to him (peace and blessings be upon him) and swearing oaths, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) was accepting their oaths and seeking forgiveness for them, and entrusting their hidden intentions to Allah. When I spoke the truth to him (peace and blessings be upon him), he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "As for this man, he has spoken the truth. So stand up, until Allah Almighty decides what He is to decide about you." So I stood up (from there). 5. Men from Banu Salimah got up and came to me and said: "By Allah, you have done nothing. By Allah, the seeking of forgiveness of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for you would have sufficed for the sin you committed, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) did for others; he (peace and blessings be upon him) accepted their excuses and sought forgiveness for them." They kept blaming me until I almost went back and declared myself a liar. Then I said to them: "Has anyone else said these words or excused himself as I have excused myself?" They said: "Yes." I said: "Who?" They said: "Hilal bin Umayyah al-Waqifi and Rabi'ah bin Mararah al-Amri." They mentioned to me two righteous men who had attended Badr, who had excused themselves in the same way as I had, and to whom the same had been said as was said to me. 6. He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade speaking to us, so we went about among the people, with no one speaking to us, no one greeting us and no one returning our greeting. When forty nights were completed, the messenger of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to us with the order to keep away from our wives. As for Hilal bin Umayyah, his wife came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "He is an old man whose eyesight has weakened. Do you dislike my preparing his food for him?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No, but he must not come near you." She said: "By Allah, he has no inclination toward anything. By Allah, he has not stopped weeping from the time his matter happened until this day of his." He said: Some of my family said to me: "Why do you not ask permission of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) concerning your wife, as the wife of Hilal bin Umayyah asked? He has permitted her to serve him." I said: "By Allah, I will not ask him about her. I do not know what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would say if I asked him, for he is an aged man and I am a young man." So I said to my wife: "Go to your family until Allah decides what He is to decide." 7. We went on walking among the people, with no one speaking to us or returning our greeting. He said: I went until I climbed over the wall of a cousin of mine, into his garden, and greeted him, but he did not move his lips to return my greeting. I said: "I adjure you by Allah, do you know that I love Allah and His Messenger?" He did not say a word to me. I repeated it, and he did not speak to me, until at the third or fourth time he said: "Allah and His Messenger know best." So I left. While I was walking in the market, the people were pointing at me with their hands, and there was a Nabataean from the Nabataeans of Syria asking about me. They kept pointing me out to him until he came to me and handed me a letter from some of my people in Syria: "We have learned what your companion has done to you and his harshness toward you. So join us, for Allah has not placed you in an abode of disgrace or ruin. We will share our wealth with you." I said: "We belong to Allah. The people of disbelief have come to covet me." So I took it to an oven and burned it. 8. By Allah, I was in that state which Allah has mentioned, the earth, vast as it was, having closed in on us and our own selves having closed in on us, on the morning after fifty nights since speaking to us was forbidden, when the repentance was sent down to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) announced Allah's acceptance of our repentance when he (peace and blessings be upon him) had prayed Fajr. The people went to give us the glad tidings. A man galloped a horse toward me, and a runner from Aslam ran and climbed up the mountain, and the voice was quicker than the horse. He called out: "O Ka'b bin Malik, rejoice!" I fell down in prostration and knew that relief had come. When the man whose voice I had heard came to me, I gave him two garments for his good news. By Allah, I owned no two garments but those that day, and I borrowed two garments. 9. Then I set out toward the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and the people met me group after group, congratulating me on Allah's acceptance of my repentance, until I entered the mosque. Sayyiduna Talhah bin Ubaydullah (may Allah be pleased with him) got up and came hurrying to me until he shook my hand and congratulated me. No one of the Muhajirun got up for me besides him, and Ka'b never forgot this of Talhah. Then I came and stood before the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and his (peace and blessings be upon him) face was like a piece of the moon; when he (peace and blessings be upon him) was pleased his face would shine like that. He (peace and blessings be upon him) called out to me: "Come, O Ka'b, rejoice at the best day that has passed over you since your mother gave birth to you." I said: "Is it from Allah or from you?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No, rather from Allah. You were truthful with Allah, so He has been true to you." I said: "Part of my repentance today is that I give my wealth as charity to Allah and to His Messenger." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Keep some of your wealth for yourself." I said: "I shall keep my share at Khaybar." Ka'b said: By Allah, Allah has not tested any man in truthful speech as He has tested me.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) set out for the Battle of Tabuk, he (peace and blessings be upon him) left Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) among the women and children. Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) asked: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), are you leaving me among the women and children?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: "Are you not pleased that you should be to me as Harun was to Musa, except that there will be no prophet after me?"

It is narrated from al-Hasan that Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) during the Battle of Tabuk with dinars. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) put those dinars in his lap, began turning them over and said: "After this (good deed), whatever Uthman bin Affan does will not harm him."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) returned from the Battle of Tabuk and came near Madinah, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed there were some people in Madinah who, on every journey you made and every valley you crossed, were your partners (in reward)." The Companions asked: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), they were in Madinah?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yes, they were in Madinah, and an excuse held them back (there)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Awf bin Malik al-Ashja'i (may Allah be pleased with him) that during the Battle of Tabuk the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered wiping over the leather socks for three days and nights for the traveller and one day and night for the resident.

Muhammad bin Abi Kabshah al-Anmari narrates from his father that when (we) were at the Battle of Tabuk, some people hurriedly began to enter (the ruins of) the people of al-Hijr. This reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) gave an order and the call was made: "Inna al-salata jami'ah (the prayer is gathering)." The narrator said: I came to him (peace and blessings be upon him) while he (peace and blessings be upon him) was holding his camel, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) was saying: "Why do you enter upon a people with whom Allah is angry?" The narrator said: A man, amazed at them, said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)!" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Shall I not tell you of something more amazing than this? A man from among yourselves tells you of those who came before and also tells you of what is to come. Be steadfast and keep upright, for Allah Almighty cares nothing about punishing you. And soon Allah Almighty will bring a people who will not ward anything off from themselves."