Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
5. Lessons of the Prophet’s Life
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first sight this truce amounted to an outright victory
for the Quraysh and defeat for the Muslims. The
Prophet’s followers could not understand how,
when God had given them tidings of a visit to the
House of God, the Prophet could have agreed to
return to Madinah without performing the visit.
They would be allowed to come the following year,
but would have to leave the city after a stay of only
three days. Humiliating clauses such as this,
exacerbating as they were for the Muslims, were all
accepted unquestioningly by the Prophet. It seemed
to be an acceptance of defeat.
The Quraysh deliberately acted in an aggressive
manner in order to offend the Prophet. They
wanted to provoke him into initiating hostilities, so
that they could find an excuse for fighting him. To
prevent a visit to the Ka’bah was in itself quite
contrary to Arab tradition. Moreover, it was the
month of Dhu’l-Qa’dah, which was one of four
months, considered sacred in Arab lore, in which
fighting was prohibited. The Quraysh wanted to
fight the Muslims, but they did not want to be
accused of having desecrated the holy month; they
wanted to be able to lay the blame at the door of the
