The Council of War at Ma'an

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

❧AN ALARMING COALITION

As the Muslims reached the province of Maʿān, word reached the Ghassānids of the size of the approaching force, larger than any that had ever left Medina, and they panicked, calling in allies from across the region: fellow Christian Arab tribes such as Lakhm, Judhām, and al-Qayn, and an appeal to Rome itself. Later sources inflated the resulting coalition to wildly implausible figures, 100,000, even 200,000, numbers the shaykh dismisses as a well-documented human tendency to overestimate crowds; more careful modern estimates, including a detailed study by a Pakistani general who studied the battle sites directly, put the true figure at perhaps 8,000–10,000, still two or three times the Muslim force, with only a modest Roman contingent among mostly Arab Christian tribesmen. (One or two early sources claim Heraclius personally led the opposing force, a clear error, since Heraclius never once personally faced the Muslims in battle throughout his life.)

❧TWO DAYS OF DEBATE

Caught off guard by the scale of what awaited them, the Muslims camped for two days debating their options: send word back to Medina and await the Prophet's ﷺ instructions, retreat having already made their point, or press on regardless. Zayd turned to ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah for counsel, not because the outcome was in doubt, since Ibn Rawāḥah's longing for martyrdom was well known by then, but because his eloquence could carry the rest of the army. Ibn Rawāḥah stood and reframed their fear directly: what they dreaded, death, was precisely what they had set out seeking; Allah promises one of the two best outcomes, victory or martyrdom, and Allah's help depends not on numbers or equipment but on the strength of their faith. The speech settled the matter, and the army moved on.

❧A SKIRMISH DECLINED

Passing a hostile village along the way, the Muslim rearguard was showered with arrows, killing one companion outright. Some pressed Zayd to turn back and deal with the village, well within their power to do, but he refused, unwilling to let a smaller, achievable fight distract and exhaust them before the larger confrontation ahead. The army pressed on to the plain that would become known as Mu'tah, chosen, it seems, for its access to water and, as later events would prove useful, a line of retreat through the surrounding terrain.