Boreal
Remembering Uzza
If Islam Was Explained to Me in a Pub
Hunayn, the Ultimate Victory for God and Booty
Bob:
Are you saying that if the Meccans had held out for any length of time, the
cavalry was waiting to rush in and save their butts?
Uzza: I would not have put it quite that way, but yes. One reason Muhammad wanted a quick surrender was because he could not waste time or believers in battle when he knew that Mecca's friends would be riding to its rescue if it was attacked.
Archie: And who would those be?
Uzza: Warriors from four tribes allied with the Meccans. They had a brave but unfortunately inexperienced commander who made the mistake of placing the women, children and property, mostly livestock, at the rear of the advancing troop thinking this would make them fight harder, knowing what they would lose if the believers prevailed.
Bob: Why was it a mistake?
Uzza: It interfered with military maneuvers which might have saved the day when the believers were again distracted by the booty and fled under a shower of arrows from Mecca’s would-be saviors[306], only to return to fight after Allah assisted Muhammad, who stood his ground, by sending down His serenity and invisible fighting angels, as He did at Badr, to turn the tide[307]. Mecca’s allies were defeated, leaving no effective opposition to Muhammad's plan to Islamisize (sic) the Arabian Peninsula then take the fight to the Byzantines.
Gerry: And the Meccans joined in, doing to the rest of the Arabs what the Prophet had done to them?
Uzza: He did provide a tried-and-true incentive. The booty from what is known as the battle of Hunayn was immense, a reported six thousand captives, mostly women and children, forty thousand sheep and goats, four thousand ounces of silver and twenty-four thousand camels, of which he gave the lion's share to the Meccans.
Gerry: That must not have gone over too well with those who spilled blood and guts in Allah's Cause.
Uzza: It almost caused the believers to revolt. Islamic scriptures are clear on the concept: if you kill the enemies of Allah, you are entitled to their property. Muhammad explained to his upset warriors what is known in Islam as Mu'allafatul Qulub, using the booty, and the Zakat if necessary, to foster an appreciation of all that Islam has to offer to former enemies and would-be enemies.
Bob: And they bought it?
Uzza: Why not? After all, there was more where that came from.
Gerry: Some people fight for king and country, others for a sometimes obscure notion of liberty, freedom and human rights with no guarantee of an interesting sexual afterlife, or any afterlife at all. For believers, it's all for God and booty, or so it would seem.
Uzza: It makes me sick to my stomach when I am reminded how so many people, tens of millions of men, women and children over the centuries, were killed in cold-blood by merciless young men on the promise of sex and wealth in this world and an eternal life of debauchery in the next.
Archie: With no weapons of mass destruction, most died at the hands of a holy warrior brandishing a sword or a dagger. It's hard to imagine so many millions killed, one by one, that way.
Uzza: And it is not over. It will never be over! The killing will go on even after the last unbeliever has been robbed of his life and his wife and daughters have been taken into slavery. Another glass of wine, Archie. Please.
Footnotes
[306] Narrated Abu Ishaq:
Somebody asked Al-Bar-a bin 'Azib, "Did you flee deserting Allah's Apostle during the battle of Hunain?"
Al-Bara replied, "But Allah's Apostle did not flee. The people of the Tribe of Hawazin were good archers. When we met them, we attacked them, and they fled. When the Muslims started collecting the war booty, the pagans faced us with arrows, but Allah's Apostle did not flee. No doubt, I saw him on his white mule and Abu Sufyan was holding its reins and the Prophet was saying, 'I am the Prophet in truth: I am the son of 'Abdul Muttalib.' "
Bukhari 52.116
9:25 Allah gave you victory in numerous places and on the day of Hunayn (a valley between Mecca and Ta'if) when you were pleased with your large number; but it availed you nothing and the land became too straight for you, despite its breath, whereupon you turned back and fled.
9:26 Then Allah sent down His Tranquility upon His Messenger and upon the believers, and He sent down soldiers you did not see, and punished the unbelievers. That is the reward of the unbelievers.