Answering Objections to Islam · Prophetic Biography
The Conquest of Mecca
In short
- 1.Ten thousand men entered the city; the fighting was minimal.
- 2.General amnesty was declared: 'Go, for you are free.'
- 3.Hind bint Utba, who mutilated Hamza's body, was among those pardoned.
The claim being examined
If the Prophet was a military-political leader like any other, his behaviour at the moment of total victory is the test case.
The Islamic position
Mecca was taken with almost no bloodshed, and the men who had tortured and expelled the Muslim community for twenty years were pardoned en masse.
Analysis
This episode is the strongest single answer to the warlord thesis, because it is the one moment when a warlord's incentives and a prophet's would diverge completely. Every material and tribal logic of 7th-century Arabia pointed to reprisal; the Qur'anic word given was pardon. Q 12:92, Yusuf's words to his brothers, is the line the sources report him using.
From the Qur'an
Qur'an 12:92
لَا تَثْرِيبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْيَوْمَ
No blame upon you today; may Allah forgive you.
Qur'an 110:1-2
إِذَا جَآءَ نَصْرُ ٱللَّهِ وَٱلْفَتْحُ
When the victory of Allah has come, and you see people entering the religion of Allah in multitudes.
Sources
Martin Lings · Ibn Hisham
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