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in flight. Then Allâh did send down His
Sakinah
(calmness, tranquillity, and reassurance,
etc.) on the Messenger [Muhammad (peace be upon him) ] and on the believers, and sent
down forces (angels) which you saw not, and punished the disbelievers. Such is the
recompense of disbelievers.” [9:25,26]
HOT PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY:
After their defeat, some enemy troops headed for Ta’if, others to Nakhlah and Awtas. A group of
Muslims headed by Abu ‘Amir Al-Ash‘ ari, were despatched to chase the enemy, some skirmishes
took place during which Abu ‘Amir was killed.
A similar battalion of horsemen pursued the idolaters who threaded the track to Nakhlah and caught
up with Duraid bin As-Simmah, who was killed by Rabi‘a bin Rafi‘. After collecting the booty, the
Messenger of Allâh (peace be upon him) left for Ta’if to face the greatest number of the defeated
idolaters. The booty was six thousand captives, twenty four thousand camels; over forty thousand
sheep and four thousand silver ounces. The Messenger of Allâh (peace be upon him) gave orders
that booty should be confined at Al-J‘iranah and ordained Mas‘ud bin ‘Amr Al-Ghifari to be in charge
of it. It was only when he was entirely free from Ta’if Campaign, that one of the captives As-
Shaimâ’, the daughter of Al-Harith As-Sa‘diya, the Messenger’s foster sister was brought to the
Messenger of Allâh (peace be upon him) , she introduced herself to him. Upon recognizing her by a
certain mark, he honoured her, spread for her his garment and seated her on it. He was graceful
and released her and made her turn back to her people.
TA'IF CAMPAIGN:
Ta’if Campaign is in fact an extension of Hunain
Ghazwah;
that is because the majority of the
defeated troops of Hawazin and Thaqif went into Ta’if with the general commander — Malik bin ‘Awf
An-Nasri — and fortified themselves within it. So upon finishing with Hunain Invasion, he gathered
the booty at Al-Ji‘ranah in the very month (i.e. Shawwal) and in the eighth year A.H.
A vanguard battalion of a thousand men led by Khalid bin Al-Waleed marched towards At-Ta’if.
Whereas the Messenger of Allâh (peace be upon him) proceeded passing through Nakhlah Al-
Yamaniyah, Qarn Al-Manazil and through Laiyah. At Laiyah there was a castle that belonged to Malik
bin ‘Awf, so the Messenger of Allâh (peace be upon him) gave orders to have it destroyed. He
resumed his march till h e got to Ta’if. There he dismounted, camped near its castle and laid siege to
the castle inhabitants; but not for long.
How long the siege continued, is still a matter of disagreement. It however stands between 10-20
days.
A lot of arrow-shooting and rock-hurling occurred during the siege. For as soon as the Muslims laid
siege round the castle, its people started shooting arrows against them. The arrows were so intense
and fierce that they looked as if they had been locusts on the move. A number of Muslims were
wounded and twelve were killed.
To be far from the arrow-range, the Muslims had to ascend to a higher location and camped on—
i.e. to what is now called At-Ta’if Mosque. The Prophet (peace be upon him) set up a mangonel and
shelled the castle. Eventually a gap was made in the castle wall, through which a number of Muslims
managed to pass into the castle, sheltered by a wooden tank, with the purpose of setting fire into it.
Anyway, the enemy poured down molten hot iron on them. Affected by this theMuslims stepped out
of the tank and were again exposed to arrow shooting and consequently some of them were killed.
To force the enemy to surrender, the Prophet (peace be upon him) tended to a war policy of burning
and cutting the enemy’s crops. His order was to cut their vineyards and burn them. Seeing that the
Muslims started rapidly cutting and burning their vines, they implored the Prophet (peace be upon
him) to stop and have mercy on them for the sake of Allâh and out of kinship motives. So the
Prophet agreed. When the caller of the Messenger of Allâh (peace be upon him) called out unto
people saying “He whosoever descends and steps out of the castle is free.” Twenty-threemen came
out. One of them was Abu Bakrah who tied himself to a wall and let himself down by means of a
small wheel, that would normally be used for drawing up water from a well. The way he let himself
down made the Prophet nickname him “Abu Bakrah”, i.e. the man with the wheel. The Messenger of
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