Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 121THE PROPHET sa LEAVES FOR MECCA WITHONE THOUSANDFIVE HUNDRED COMPANIONSDuring this time the Prophet sa saw a vision which ismentioned thus in the Qur’an:You will certainly enter the Sacred Mosque, if God will, insecurity, some having their heads shaven, and othershaving their hair cut short; and you will not fear. But Heknew what you knew not. He has in fact ordained for you,besides that, a victory near at hand (48: z8).That is to say, God had decided to let Muslims enterthe precincts of the Ka‘ba in peace, with heads shavenand hair cut (these being the external signs of pilgrimsto the Ka‘ba), and without fear. But Muslims did notknow exactly how God was to let this happen. Moreover,before Muslims performed their pilgrimage in peace,they were to have another victory, a precursor of thevictory promised in the vision.In this vision God foretold the ultimate victory ofMuslims, their peaceful march into Mecca and theconquest of Mecca without the use of arms. But theProphet sa understood it to mean that Muslims had beencommanded by God immediately to attempt a circuit ofthe Ka‘ba. The Prophet sa 's error in interpreting the visionwas to become the occasion of the victory 'near at hand'promised in the vision. In error, therefore, the Prophet saplanned a march towards the Ka‘ba. He announced hisvision and his interpretation of it to Muslims and askedthem to prepare. "You will go," he said, "only to performa circuit of the Ka‘ba. There were, therefore, to be nodemonstrations against the enemy." Late in February628, fifteen hundred 1 pilgrims, headed by the Prophet sa ,1 In this pilgrimage planned a year after the Battle of the Ditch, only onethousand five hundred men accompanied the Prophet sa . The number ofMuslim combatants in the Battle of the Ditch could have been less but notmore than this number. Historians who put the number of the Muslimcombatants in the Battle of the Ditch at three thousand, therefore, are