The Prophet Muhammad A simple Guide to his Life
Prophetic Wisdom
~ 93 ~
military experience, reorganized the Muslim ranks
in such a way as to give the impression that massive
reinforcements from Madinah had arrived to join
the battle. Awed at this, the Romans decided to
abandon the battlefield. Finding it pointless to
continue the battle, Khalid decided to withdraw, on
the principle of tactical retreat, and left for
Madinah.
The brave Arabs, always ready to fight to the finish,
saw the retreat as a dishonour to them. They failed
to understand the wisdom of tactical retreat, and
accused the Muslims of fleeing in the face of the
enemy. They called them
O Furrar,
that is, those
who take flight. When the Prophet heard this, he
corrected this wrong impression by telling them
that those people had not fled, but had simply
withdrawn in order to advance again at some future
date, God willing.
(Seerat ibn Hisham
, 3/438)
This saying of the Prophet teaches us that the right
step is that which is result-oriented. Fighting to die
for honour and prestige is not a desirable act in
Islam. If the enemy’s numbers are so great as to
turn the tide of battle in their favour, hostilities
