The Expedition to Tabuk

Word came that Byzantium was massing on the northern frontier. He called the army out openly, naming the destination, which he almost never did — because the distance and the season meant nobody should come unprepared.

It was the hottest part of the year. The dates were ready to pick. The road was over seven hundred kilometres. The Qurʾan calls it the hour of hardship.

ʿUthman ﵁ equipped roughly a third of the army out of his own property. Abu Bakr ﵁ brought everything he owned. Men who had nothing to ride wept when they were turned back for want of a mount. Thirty thousand marched.

The army reached Tabuk and found nobody there. Whatever had been gathering on the frontier had not come south, and no battle was offered.

He stayed some twenty nights, and used them. Yuhannah ibn Ruʾbah of Ayla came in person and agreed terms, and so did Jarbaʾ and Adhruh — the head of the Gulf of Aqaba passed into the new order without a fight. Khalid ﵁ was sent east to Dumat al-Jandal and brought back Ukaydir its ruler.

A campaign with no battle in it, which nevertheless moved the frontier several hundred kilometres.

On the road back, the mosque built at Dhu Awan to divide the community was pulled down.

In Madinah those who had stayed behind without cause came with excuses and were left to God. Three who told the plain truth instead — Kaʿb ibn Malik ﵁ and his two companions — were cut off from the community for fifty nights: nobody spoke to them, and Kaʿb said the earth he knew became strange to him.

Then the revelation came that their repentance was accepted. It is the passage that says the earth, for all its breadth, was straitened for them. This was the last campaign the Prophet ﷺ led.