Seerah Lesson 50: The Massacres of Raji' and Ma'un Today we will move on from the battle of Uhud

to the next two major incidents, both of which were very sad and caused the Prophet (s) much grief and personal loss as they both involved massacres of a large number of sahaba. These are called the incidents of Bi'r Mau'na and Al-Raji' (these are both names of wells where the massacres took place) It appears that the loss of Uhud made bedouin tribes around Madinah greedy and they thought that they could now attack Madinah. Remember that the primary source of income for Bedouins was raiding and stealing. There also appeared the beginnings of religious animosity where it was now becoming a war of Islam versus Paganism from just the Muslims versus Quraysh which it had been for a number of years. A number of small skirmishes took place as a result. Of them was a small skirmish with not much significance at the time but it is the cause of something later on. The Muslims attacked a small tribe named Banu Asad and their leader was Talayha al-Asadi. Talayha al-Asadi was one of those people who declared himself to be a false prophet after the Prophet (s) passed away, being amongst those 30 dajjals as mentioned by the Prophet (s). The Prophet (s) sent 150 people who conquered over Banu Asad and it caused Talayha to get angry and his animosity remained until he announced his prophethood after the death of the Prophet (s). The story of Al-Raji' or Al-Raji'a is called such because this is the name of the well where the massacre took place. The beginnings of the incident of Raji' actually go back to the tribe of Hudhayl, a large bedouin tribe in the North, They had started planning an attack on Madinah and their chief tain Khalid ibn Sufyaan al Hudali the chief of Hudayl began gathering a small army to surprise attack Madinah. But the Prophet (s) decided to pre-emptively attack him and execute him to dismiss the entire plan. So he chose Abdullah ibn Unays al Juhani to hunt down Khalid and get rid of him to stop him from gathering an army. This was a one man expedition to kill Khalid ibn Sufyaan. The Prophet (s) told Abdullah that he would find Khalid in the valley of Ar-rana with few guards and this would be a good time to execute him (as Allah told him). And Abdullah asked the Prophet (s) what Khalid looked like as he had never seen him. But the Prophet (s) had also not seen him, but he answered, "when you see him, you shall feel more terrified that you have ever been at anyone else's appearence." We can imagine a typical bedouin chief tain without hygiene sense and living a rough and crude life. The Prophet (s) had also not seen him but obviously Jibreel had told him. So Abdullah narrates that he only took his sword and headed towards the valley of Ar-rana, and narrates that when he saw him in a distance he had never been terrified of anyone's face like this man's. He looks like a devil and evil and he said, "indeed Allah and His Messenger have spoken the truth." And than an interesting thing happened. Abdullah narrates that it was time for salah - we do not know which salah it was but Ibn Ishaac narrates that it was Dhuhr time - and he saw Khalid in the distance. And because he was worried that the time would for Salah would be finished Abdullah prayed as he was walking to the chief tain Khalid, making gestures with his head only. He therefore prayed for the first time in Islamic history a type of salah that was later called a version of Salat-ul-Khouf. This is a version where if you can not and stop and face the Qiblah and say Allahu Akbar you pray as you are, and he walked and prayed at the same time. He made an ijtihaad thus. He got close to Khalid bin Sufyaan and asked if he was gathering an army, and if so Abdullah falsely told him that he was also willing to join the army. And when Khalid was comfortable and the time was right Abdullah got rid of him. Abdullah ibn Onays returned immediately and as soon as the Prophet (s) said him he said, "may your face be successful" i.e. that the Prophet (s) recognized from the face of Abdullah that he was successful. And the Prophet (s) made du'a for Abdullah and gifted him a staff. And he said, "this shall be the sign between me and you on the day of Judgement" and so Abdullah ibn Onays always had this staff with him - in peace, war, battle and at home - and when he died the staff was buried with him in his grave. From this incident we learn the miracle of the Prophet (s) in describing Khalid and learning of the right place and right time for Abdullah to execute Khalid. This also shows us that the Prophet (s) chose the right person for the job. Another interesting thing that we learn from this incident is that the sahaba made ijtihaad about fiqh even during the life time of the Prophet (s). And this is a well known fact of other sahaba doing this while the Prophet (s) was alive. This shows us the legal permissibility of making ijtihaad. And when the Prophet (s) would hear of the ijtihaad sometime he would affirm it and sometimes he would change it. As an example, Ammar

bin Yasir fell Junub in the dessert and he made ijtihaad and qiyas and thought that if they do tayyamum for wudhu they would have to do tayyamum for ghusl as well. So he took off all his clothes (he was alone in the desert) and he rolled around in the sand. Than he returned and told this to the Prophet (s) and the Prophet (s) laughed and told him that all he needed to do was this and the Prophet (s) showed him how tayyamum was done by hitting the hands on sand and so on. This shows us the legal permissibility of extrapolating what we know of the Qur'an and sunnah to cater to a situation which the Qur'an and sunnah do not tell us about (this is the definition of Ijtihaad) and this shows us the basis of our religion being applicable in all times and places through the medium of Ijtihaad. This event occured in Muharram of 4. A.H. or a few months after Uhud. So the tribe of Hudayl (of which Khalid bin Sufyaan was the cheif tain) to seek revenge resorted to a very evil and dirty tactic. They contacted two other tribes. Ud-dal and Qaar'ra, and paid them some money to set up a trap. This was a blatant trap to kill Muslims and involved a simple plot; to pretend to accept Islam and go to Madinah and pretend to be Muslims. Than beg the Prophet (s) to send the most qualified teachers to teach the religion. They knew that the sahaba loved to go teach and the Prophet (s) would send Qur'an, salah and Islam teachers to the people. So Ud-dal and Qaar'ra both sent their delegations as Muslims and insisted to send as many teachers as the Prophet (s) could afford to send, and 7-10 (likely 10) volunteered for this task under the leadership of 'Asim bin Thabit. And when they got to the well of Ar-Raji' 100 warriors ambushed them and they realized this was a trap. And when they saw these 100 people coming in the distance they sought shelter in a small hill, pulling out their bows and arrows as they could use these at distance. But in the end there were still 100 people surrounding which is an enormous disadvantage. Their leader 'Asim had killed in the battle of Uhud the husband of a certain lady Sulafa bint Sa'ad. Sulafa had promised Halaf that she would drink wine from the skull of 'Asim before she died. And in her vengeance she had said that anyone who brings me the skull of 'Asim will get 100 camels. And 'Asim knew this. And so he cried and made a du'a to Allah that he would not surrended to them, fighting to the death, and 'Asim asked Allah to inform the Prophet (s) about them that they were sincere and did not die as cowards. And he said, "oh Allah as I protected your religion in the day, protect my body at night" and not let his skull be used as a wine casket to be used for this lady Sulafa. And he fought with his bows and arrows til he ran out and than he fought with his spear until it broke and than with his sword until it became dull but as expected he was outnumbered and he died. But when he died after the battle was over everybody rushed to get his body as they all wanted it. But all of a sudden out of nowhere a swarm of wasps came and attack the face of whoever came close. So they decided to wait for the night as wasps do not remain at night. So they waited until sunset and than out of nowhere a river came (without it raining and there were was no river known to be there and his body was atop of a hill) gushing out and it went straight to his body, picked his body and carried if off to a distance and to this day no one knows where he is buried. Allah took care of his burial. This is the story of 'Asim who died a Shaheed. As for the rest of the battle, everyone was killed except for the last three. The last three were surrounded by this 100 and they asked the three to surrender. Why were they interested in this surrender? Because there would be no ransom paid for a dead body but there would be for a living body. They promised that if the three would surrender they would be protected and they blatantly lied to the three. The three that surrendered were Abdullah ibn Tariq, Zaid and Khubaib. As soon as the three surrendered they were immediately jumped on and tied up like animals on a stick. Abdullah at this said that this was the first sign of treachery and indeed they did not mean to give them any security. And so Abdullah refused to become a prisoner of war and refused every commandment and so they killed him on the side of the road. As for the other two, Khubaib was purchased by the tribe of Banu Hareth as he had killed one of them at the battle of Badr and Zaid had been one of those who had attacked Ummayah ibn Khalaf, the master of Bilal (after Badr when Ummayah was a prisoner of war and Bilal promised not to live if Ummayah lived and Ummayah was than surrounded by a group of Muslims, and Zaid was one of those who surrounded Ummayah and killed him), so Sufwaan ibn Ummayah in Makkah purchased him from this tribe for a large sum of money to kill him as revenge. So the both became prisoners simply to be executed in a short period of time. Both have many stories mentioned about them. Khubaib remained a prisoner with Banu Hareth until they announced that they would kill him so

he asked for a ghusl, a razor to remove his hair to meet Allah clean. And as he was sitting with the razor in his hand one of the babies crawled up to him and the mother when she saw from a distance that her baby was with him she cried out as Khubaib could easily kill the baby. And so Khubaib said, "are you scared that I will kill this child, by Allah I would never do something like this" and the same mother later said that she never saw anyone more noble than him in his manners and character, and further, "I saw him tied up in his chains eating from a bunch of grapes and by Allah there were no grapes in Makkah at the time" and they were obviously starving him as well. And this was sustenance that Allah had given him. And when they brought him to be killed he was asked to pray 2 raka'at which he was allowed to. And when he finished he said, "were it not for the fact that you would think I was being cowardly and was scared of death I would have prayed a longer 2 raka'at" and Khubaib was the first to start the sunnah of the one executed of praying 2 raka'at before being executed. This was also an ijtihaad that was accepted. As for Zaid, he was with Abu Sufyaan and Sufwaan bin Ummayah. They made a big festival out of killing him. The entire Makkah took a day off to torture and kill him. And Abu Sufyaan asked when he was tied up and about to lanced to death, "I ask you by Allah (tell me the honest truth) don't you wish that Mohammed was in your place and you are with your family and children" and at this moment when he had nothing to lose by telling the truth (or lying), he would die regardless, he said with the emaan that only a Muslim can have, "By Allah, I would rather die like this than that the Prophet (s) get even a thorn prick" and Abu Sufyaan said, "I have never seen any leader more beloved to his people than Mohammed (s) is with his companions." And he was not the only one to say this, every single non-Muslim who witnessed the respect the sahaba gave to the Muslims said the same thing. We learn many things from this incident. In such an incident as was in Al-Raji', we see that permissibility has been given for both surrendering or fighting on. And whichever one a person choses there is in sha Allah precedent in that and it depends on each circumstance which one is chosen. But both are rewarded for what the individual does. From Abdullah bin Tariq we learn that it is not considered suicide to do something that you know will cause your death as long as it is in the hands of somebody else. He knew that when he refused to march they wouldn't just let him go or they wouldn't just give him a camel to ride on. He knew that they would kill him at this moment. And there are many similar incidents where the sahaba acted in such a brave manner where they knew they were doing something that would cause their death in the hands of the enemy. Another evidence that we see in this incident and that we firmly believe in is the concept of minimiracles or Karamaat which are given to Non-Prophets. These are what Allah blesses the believers of the Prophets with and there are many examples of this in the Seerah and here are two. Firstly the way the body of 'Asim was protected, that literally wasps protect the body and than a river comes to the top of the hill and takes away his body to a place that no one knows to this day. And the second mini-miracle is how Khubaib was eating the grapes before he was executed when there were none available in the area whatsoever. We also see the love that the sahaba had for not just the Prophet (s) but even for following the Sunnah up until the time of their death. Khubaib is about to die yet he wants to perform Ghusl and have a clean body, look at where his mind is! He is not worried about his will, his wife and kids and so on. He knows he will meet Allah and he wants to be prepared for this meeting over anything else. And as for the love of the Prophet (s) we see that he has nothing to gain and at this moment he says he would rather die than a thorn pricking the Prophet (s). We also learn that treachery and the killing of innocent women and kids is never allowed. Khubaib is about to die, and he had a razor with a baby in his vicinity. Yet he never thought that he was already dying and that he may as well take as many enemies as he could with him, be it a baby. He was shocked when the mother screamed and asked her a rhetorical question if she actually thought he was going to harm the baby, as if he is insulted that she would think he would harm the innocent child. He is the one about to be killed yet he is consoling the mother to calm down, this is something and only something that emaan can bring about. And this shows us that the killing of innocents, especially women and children, is absolutely prohibited and our shari'ah is clear on this. What made this extremely traumatic that the two incidents occured at the same time, so much so that one narration mentions that the Prophet (s) got the news of both incidents on the same night.

And this is why this was doubly traumatic for him. And the tragedy in terms of quantity which is much worse than Raji' is the massacre of the well of Ma'una. This is the worst massacre to occur in the Seerah of the Prophet (s). The story goes as follows. Around this time one of the famous chief tains of Najd returned to Madinah. An-Najd is a province in Northern Arabia (like Hejaz is a province) and they had different customs and cultures. What they were known for was that they were not as civilized usually, being of the bedouin and not cities. One of the Najd chiefs, Abul Bar-ra 'Amar ibn Malik came to Madinah at this time and stayed for a while. He was very impressed with Islam and the Prophet (s) tried his best to convert but he was hesitant and still undecided. So he suggested to the Prophet (s) to send a group of his companions to Najd and call them to Islam and likely many in Najd would accept the religion. Abul thus Bar-ra guaranteed protection for Du'aat or Muslims giving Dawah in the Najd region. He personally did not accept but gave his word, and his word was honest and his intentions sincere, that he would provide protection. The way the tribal system worked at the time is that if one of the tribe at the time was allied with others, if one tribe gave protection all the allied tribes would automatically have to give protection. And Abul Bar-ra thought that he was a senior chief tain and that his protection would be enough, without realizing that another senior chief tain hated Islam so much that he would risk a civil war even to kill the Muslims. And Abul Bar-ra asked for the best preachers. This was big news because the province of Najd is larger than Hejaz and the potential of converts from this area would change the dynamics of Islam in the world. And so the Prophet (s) chose 70 of the best of the Qur'ra and preachers from the Muslims. The goal was that the 70 would disperse and give Da'wah in Najd. The majority of these 70 were the elite i.e. from AhlusSuffah. Anas ibn Malik's uncle went and became a shaheed and Anas narrates that these people were known for their Qur'an, Tahajjud and filling the buckets of the Ansar at night before returning to Suffa and returning, and no doubt Allah chose them for Shahadah as they were the best. Thus these people were the best worshippers and the best charity givers of the Muslims. Imagine that 70 men were sent, that if Uhud had 700 men than 10% of Madinah was being sent for Da'wah to the province of Najd. This was a golden opportunity and the Prophet (s) sensed truth from Abul Bar-ra and indeed he was not lying. When the 70 got to the well of Ma'una they sent a leader through Haraam ibn Milhaan to 'Aamir ibn Tufayl. 'Aamir ibn Tufayl was the chief tain of a local tribe of the region and he was one of those arrogant Bedouin chiefs who only wanted to accept Islam if he were to gain from it politically. It was said that he offered to the Prophet (s) that he would accept Islam only if the Prophet (s) would take charge of the cities and leave the Bedouin cities to him, or if unwilling to do this 'Aamir wanted to be made the leader after the death of the Prophet (s). And obviously the Prophet (s) refused to accept his conditions and this only made him more arrogant. So when Haraam came with 'Aamir he brought him a general letter of hospitality, inviting to Islam generically and that the 70 were basically just passing through the area. Everyone knew that the Muslims had been given protection. But when 'Aamir heard that these sahaba had come from Madinah he made an eye motion to his hench man to kill Haraam. This is a major criminal and sinful act in many ways. Firstly that envoys and ambassadors are never harmed and this rule exists today as well. Secondly that Haraam has protection from a more senior Chief tain and it is not 'Aamir's duty to interfere with this treaty. In one book it actually mentions that 'Aamir was a distant uncle of Abul Bar-ra. 'Aamir thus knew he was breaking an agreement that he did not have a right to break. Thirdly he did this secretly in that he made a motion to his hench man. So 'Aamir did a major crime that was completely uncalled for. Thus as Haraam was standing waiting for an audience to be granted to him a hench man comes from behind and spears him, such that the spear comes out from the front. And what is the first thing that Haraam says?, " I won! By the Lord of the Ka'bah I am a Shaheed!" and we see that this was in his mind and he was constantly making du'a for this to Allah. And these were his last words. And it is said that one person who was there heard this phrase and he asked other people and Muslims about this and because of this one phrase - where one is happy at death - he converted to Islam. 'Aamir than knew that he was in trouble, he had killed a messenger with 70 Muslims still there. So he than sends a message to all tribes in the area if they are willing to collaborate in killing all 70, they had killed one messenger so may as well kill them all. Most sub-tribes refused as they knew of the protection granted by Abul Bar-ra, but 3 sub-tribes agreed and these were 'Asiyah, R'al and Dhakwaan and attach the 70 at the well of Ma'un. So the army marched here and they were

atleast 400-500. They surrounded the 70 Muslims and the Muslims tried to defend themselves but they had not come for war (dressed with full armor or with their weapons) but rather as preachers. Eventually all of the 70 were killed except for three Muslims. Ka'ab ibn Zaid was wounded and he fell and as the bodies continued to collapse on him he remained wounded, semi-unconscious and the bodies piled on him. They overlooked him thus over all the rest of the bodies. Ka'ab returned to Madinah and died 2 years later at the Battle of Khandaq. As for the other two, they were Al-Amr ibn Ummayah (a muhajir) and Mundhir ibn Mohammed (an ansari). The two had gone for an errand for a few hours for something the camp had sent them. As they returned they saw the vultures in air, circling where the sahaba had camped. They immediately realized that something was wrong and pondered what to do - to join in and be killed or return to the Prophet (s). Amr thought to return to the Prophet (s) to convey the news of the disaster and get re-inforcements. Al-Mundhir replied though, "as for me I will not give up being in the place where my companions have been killed - they were lucky enough to get shahadah and I will not get up and walk away from this position - and neither do I want other men talking about my story (meaning I will not be a messenger to live to tell their story while they died as martyrs)" so he in fact encouraged Amr to join him and the both of them walked back into the battle. The massacre was done at this time and the both were caught. They were both about to be called and Mundhir was in fact killed but for some reason Amr was allowed to return - it is said that 'Amir ibn Tufayl either wanted a messenger to return or that he had a need to free a slave anyway and so he did. Allah thus willed that the intentions of both were fulfilled and Allah gave both their wishes. On the way back to Madinah Amr met two people from the tribe of 'Amir bin Tufayl walking from Madinah to 'Amir. The two had no idea what was going on as they had just come from the Prophet (s) and they were returning and apparently the both of them had sought protection from the both and they had received this. From Amr's perspective he thought that these were two men from the same tribe that had killed 70 of his companions, so he tricked them for a while and killed both of them as they slept. After this he discovered in their posessions a letter from the Prophet (s). He felt guilty about this and he was the one who brought the terrible news to the Prophet (s). And as Al-Waqidi narrates that Raji' and Ma'un both were received on the same night. Imagine that 80 sahaba had been massacred and these were all Muslims living in Suffa and amongst the Muslims. And the Prophet (s) had chosen them himself. And he was greatly grieved, so much so that he prayed in every single salah a special Qunoot for these shuhadah for an entire month. And he asked Allah to punish the Banu Lihyaan ('Amir ibn Tufayl's tribe), 'Asiyah, R'al and Dhakwaan and take care of them. This was one of those incidents that Allah revealed many verses in the Qur'an but in His wisdom these verses were abrogated. There are still remnants of these verses that exist and the narrations are in Sahih Bokhari and Sahih Muslim of this. Lessons to derive from the incidents of the well of Mau'na and Raji' together: - The religion of Islam will not be spread without sacrifice and loss. This loss will be bitter and difficult to bear. If this was the case for the Prophet (s) and sahaba than what about our times. - Comparing Amir ibn Tufayl (the evil chief tain) versus Khubaib. Khubaib had in his hands the baby and he could seek vengence but he chose not to. Tufayl had a messenger who already had protection yet he was assasinated in the cruelest of manners. This shows that the heart of Emaan has morality and the heart of Kufr has no morality. - Of the fiqh points that we derive, the concept of Qunoot is something that the scholars greatly differed over. Each madhab has it's position (Shafi's say this is at Fajr, Hanafis say this is at Witr and so on) but Allah knows best the strongest position is that Qunoot is not linked to any prayer, rather it is only done at times of general calamity. When something afflicts the Ummah and everyone needs to make du'a for those afflictions. Sadly this is a du'a that has been neglected by many people today. Anas ibn Malik narrated that the Prophet (s) would stand up in the last raka'ah after ruku' and he would make du'a Qunoot for the shuhadah and against the enemy tribes. Thus Qunoot is done in the last raka'h after standing from Ruku'. And Qunoot should be done for any distress or calamity that the Ummah is suffering from and this is something that our congregations should be taught. Qunoot can not be done on an individual basis, rather for the Ummah when the situation arises. - The Prophet (s) did not have knowledge of the unseen clearly. Even though the Prophet (s) described the chief tain and many other things, he only knew what Allah told him and nothing else. Without a doubt, the Prophet (s) knew things of this world that we did not and Allah taught

him this. Imagine the Prophet (s) seeing Jibreel, the heavens, the Jinn and other aspects of this world as well that Allah wants to teach him. As Allah says in the Qur'an in Ayat-ul-Qursi that whatever Allah wants to teach He will teach to whomever He pleases but unconditional unseen is not known by anyone other than Allah. And Allah says in the Qur'an that no one knows the unseen other than Allah. And the clear evidences are these incidences where the Prophet (s) sent these sahaba out and he did not know the massacre that awaited them. - As for the two people that had been wrongfully killed of Amr ibn Tufayl's tribe of Banu Lihyaan that the Prophet (s) had given them protection to, blood money was given for their lives and the Prophet (s) took responsibility for their deaths. This shows us an extremely profound lesson: do not blame a person for the crimes or sins of his tribes or people. The issue of collective guilt is very relevant to our political situation today. These people were from the tribe of Amr bin Tufayl but they were completely innocent of their crimes and a mistake was made, thus the Prophet (s) took responsibility and paid the blood money to the relatives of these two people. This clearly shows us that you are not going to be held accountable for what your tribe or nation has done. - As for Amir ibn Tufayl, he died an expectedly pathetic and miserable death. He was inflicted with a type of Leprosy that spread across his skin. It caused him to become delusional and he was isolated by his people as they did not want to contract this disease. He thus died an extremely miserable, painful and lonely death in the desert as a crazy lunatic and Allah punished him in this world before the next. And this is expected for him, someone who even the Prophet (s) made du'a against.