The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

In the sixth year after the Hijra, the Prophet ﷺ set out from Medina toward Mecca with a large group of his companions. They had not come to fight. They wore the simple garments of pilgrims and brought sacrificial animals with them, so that everyone could see their only aim was to visit the Sacred House and perform the lesser pilgrimage. Yet the leaders of Quraysh, who still controlled Mecca, decided to bar them from entering the city that year.

The Muslims halted at a place called Hudaybiyyah, on the edge of the sacred area outside Mecca. Messengers passed back and forth between the two sides as they tried to find a way through. During this tense wait, word spread that one of the Prophet's envoys to Quraysh had been harmed. The companions gathered around the Prophet ﷺ and pledged their loyalty to him under a tree, promising to stand firm with him. The Qur'an later praised this pledge and the people who gave it.

In the end the two sides agreed to a truce that was meant to last ten years. The terms felt hard to many of the Muslims. They would have to turn back this year without entering Mecca and come for the pilgrimage only the following year. Some of the conditions seemed to favour Quraysh. A number of the companions were deeply distressed, because they had set out full of hope and were now asked to return home with their goal unmet.

Yet the Qur'an called this moment a clear victory, and so it proved to be. The fighting stopped, the roads opened, and people could meet, talk, and ask questions in peace. In the years of calm that followed, Islam spread more widely than it had during the years of conflict. What had looked at first like a setback turned out to be a turning point, and it paved the way for the peaceful return to Mecca the very next year.