The Two Envoys and the Miracle at Jurash

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Another story, from one of the tribes of Azd, and this one is a miracle, each of these small delegations carries its own tidbit.

A tribe of Azd came and accepted Islam, and the Prophet ﷺ put one of the Companions in charge of them, Ṣurad ibn ʿAbdillāh al-Azdī, and gave him the task of subduing a neighbouring tribe that was still pagan, call it, for simplicity, the tribe of Jurash; their name is more complicated than that.

❧Two envoys arrive

It happened that Jurash had sent two envoys of their own to Madinah, to take the measure of the Prophet ﷺ and find out whether he would accept a truce. They were not Muslims. And while they were on the road, he ﷺ had already told the Azd to attack them, so nothing of what followed could possibly have reached the envoys, since all of it happened after they left. There was a siege, then the siege broke, then a clash, and Ṣurad was prevailing.

On the very day they arrived, the Prophet ﷺ asked them, as he asked everyone, with delegations coming daily, which tribe are you from? They said: from Jurash. And he said: Allah's camel is being sacrificed at Jurash at this moment. The naḥr is taking place right now.

They did not understand the reference. Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān told them: woe to you, do you not realise he is saying that your tribe is being slaughtered as we speak? Your one hope is to beg him to ask Allah to save them. So they asked, and the Prophet ﷺ made duʿāʾ for the people of Jurash to be guided.

❧The day and the hour

The two went home bewildered, and worked out that at the very hour they had been standing before him in Madinah, the Azd had overcome their tribe, and that Ṣurad, with the victory in his hand, had chosen to forgive, so that in the end no blood was shed at all. When they told their people what had happened, the whole tribe took it for a sign and embraced Islam, and sent a second delegation, this one not to negotiate, but to accept the faith.