Thaqif and Hawazin Gather for Hunayn

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

As the Prophet ﷺ camped in Mecca, word came that Thaqīf, the tribe of Ṭāʾif, whose idol was al-Lāt, was raising an army. Seeing that the fall of Mecca meant the end of idolatry, and hoping to seize the Kaʿbah's custodianship from a vanquished Quraysh, Thaqīf sent emissaries to every pagan tribe. For the first time in Arabian history the Arabs united not by tribe but by religion, polytheism against monotheism, some twenty thousand under Thaqīf and their allies the Hawāzin, led by a newly chosen young chief, Mālik ibn ʿAwf an-Naṣrī.

❧The Scout and ʿUmar

The Prophet ﷺ sent ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Ḥadrad, a new convert of the region, to mingle unseen among them; he returned reporting a host of twenty thousand with all their arms and herds. The senior Companions were aghast, they had hoped the fighting was over, and ʿUmar suggested the man was simply wrong. ʿAbdullāh flared: "You have doubted one better than me before," meaning ʿUmar's own delay in believing the Prophet ﷺ. ʿUmar complained, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "You were astray, ʿUmar, and Allāh guided you to Islam", calming both without taking sides, a glimpse of the Companions' humanity and of his wisdom in settling their quarrels.

❧Borrowing the Armour

Knowing war was coming, the Prophet ﷺ borrowed arms from the wealthy Meccans, some still pagan: a hundred coats of mail from Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah as a "guaranteed loan" (ʿāriyah muʾaddāh), and armour and money from Abū Sufyān and Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām, all later repaid. He left Mecca on the 6th of Shawwāl, after nineteen days, with twelve thousand men.