The Morning of the Conquest
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:
On the morning of the 20th of Ramaḍān, 8 AH, the people of Mecca still did not know an army of ten thousand was an hour away, the Prophet's ﷺ duʿāʾ that his plan be hidden held, miraculously, until the very minute the columns arrived. He divided the army into three: the Anṣār under Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, the Muhājirūn under Khālid ibn al-Walīd, and a mixed centre under Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ.
❧"Saʿd Has Erred"
As Saʿd advanced he chanted, اليَوْمَ يَوْمُ المَلْحَمَة، اليَوْمَ تُسْتَحَلُّ الكَعْبَة, "Today is the day of slaughter; today the Kaʿbah is made lawful." Abū Sufyān complained, and the Prophet ﷺ said, كَذَبَ سَعْد, in classical Arabic "Saʿd has erred," not lied. Fearing the cry would rouse old tribal passions, he took the banner from Saʿd, a non-Qurayshī, and gave it to his cousin al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, so that only Quraysh would lead the entry into the Ḥaram: a stroke of ijtihād and of the Prophet's ﷺ psychological insight. Saʿd meant no evil, but zeal had carried him into words he should not have said.
❧Abū Sufyān's Warning, and Hind
Al-ʿAbbās sent Abū Sufyān galloping back to spare his people bloodshed. He cried through the streets, يَا مَعْشَرَ قُرَيْش, "O Quraysh, Muḥammad has come with an army you cannot fight; come to my house and be safe!", turning the honour the Prophet ﷺ had granted him into a public refuge. His own wife Hind could not bear it: she seized his beard before the crowd, cursed him as a fat coward, and screamed for him to be killed. He kept his dignity, "Woe to you, do not let her make you rash", and delivered the full terms: whoever enters the Ḥaram is safe, whoever shuts his own door is safe, whoever enters the house of Abū Sufyān (or of al-ʿAbbās) is safe. The people scattered to their houses and to the Ḥaram.
❧The Entry
The contingents entered from two sides under strict orders: draw no sword, kill no one unless attacked, save a few named men. In the chaos ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl, with Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah and Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, threw together a hopeless skirmish against Khālid's flank; a dozen or so of Quraysh fell and two or three Muslims, and it was over. So Mecca was taken on 20 Ramaḍān 8 AH with almost no blood, after twenty-one years, the Prophet ﷺ returned the undisputed conqueror of the city of his birth. He entered from Kudā on his camel, in armour and a red turban, his head bowed so low it nearly touched the camel's back in humility and gratitude, reciting Sūrat al-Fatḥ: إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا, "Indeed We have given you a clear victory" (48:1). Never in history has an army conquered a city under orders not to fight, nor a conqueror entered with his head bowed to his mount.