Khalid's Blockade and the Shura With Abu Bakr

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

At ʿUsfān, roughly midway to Makkah, Busr ibn Sufyān returned with his report: Quraysh had learned of the Prophet's ﷺ departure, armed themselves, put on leopard-skin battle dress as a declaration of war, and brought their own women and children along as a show of resolve, a tactic also seen before Badr and Uḥud. They had additionally dispatched Khālid ibn al-Walīd, still a polytheist roughly a year before his own conversion, to camp at Ghumaym and block the main road into Makkah.

Hearing this, the Prophet ﷺ lamented, "Woe to Quraysh, war has consumed them," asking rhetorically what harm it would do them to simply let him and the rest of the Arabs settle their own affairs without interference. He reasoned that if a hostile Arab tribe were to defeat him, Quraysh would get the outcome they wanted regardless of who fought; and if he defeated any such tribe, the honor would still reflect on Quraysh through their own lineage, a win either way for them, so their choice to fight him directly, kinsman against kinsman, amounted to a lose-lose outcome for everyone. Dr. Qadhi highlights this as clear evidence, against critics who portray the Prophet ﷺ as eager for conquest, that he took no pleasure in war and fought only when forced to.

The Prophet ﷺ halted the caravan in a shaded area and addressed the whole assembly, opening with the customary khuṭbat al-ḥājah before explaining the situation and Khālid's position. He offered his own initial idea, striking the allied tribes that had joined Quraysh's mobilization before they could fully converge, forcing Quraysh itself into the conflict, before opening the floor for counsel (shūrā). Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq spoke up, reminding the Prophet ﷺ that his original intention in leaving Madinah had been the House of Allah alone, not war, and urging him to continue toward Makkah as planned, fighting only if directly attacked. The Prophet ﷺ accepted this counsel over his own initial suggestion, saying, "Let us proceed, in the name of Allah."

Dr. Qadhi draws two lessons from this exchange: first, it exemplifies the Prophet's ﷺ consistent practice of consulting the Companions rather than imposing decisions by authority alone, generating genuine buy-in rather than reluctant obedience; second, it is cited as clear evidence that the Prophet ﷺ engaged in independent legal reasoning (ijtihād) in matters not governed by direct revelation, since he visibly changed his own initial plan upon hearing a more sound alternative. It was also at ʿUsfān, according to the majority scholarly opinion, though Dr. Qadhi notes at least two competing traditions place it elsewhere, at the Battle of Banū Liḥyān roughly seven or eight months earlier, that the Prophet ﷺ prayed Ṣalāt al-Khawf for what is most commonly regarded as the first time, out of concern that Quraysh might attack during prayer.