The Joy of Umra a Year Later

It was the seventh year after the Emigration. The time had come for the believers to perform the umra, which they had not been able to the previous year. Our beloved Prophet instructed his Companions to start preparing for the umra. Very soon, the dream that the Messenger of Allah had seen a year ago and the glad tidings spoken of in Surah al-Fath would come true. Our Prophet dressed in the special dress of consecration in front of the Masjid an-Nabawi and started chanting the recitations of talbiya. All who heard him started reciting along with him. Medina was echoing throughout with the same call: “Labbayk, Allahumma Labbayk; Labbayka la sharika laka labbayk. (Here we are O Allah; here we are at your service! There is no partner with You; here we are!) Inna’l hamda wa’n ni’mata laka wa’l mulka la shariyka lak. (Truly the praise and the provisions are Yours, and so is the

dominion and sovereignty. There is no partner with You).”
Two thousand believers headed out of Medina, towards the Ka’ba. Finally they arrived at the Ka’ba. The Messenger of Allah and the Ka’ba were now standing next to each other. The believers and our Prophet performed their duty of umra altogether.
The days went by very quickly and the believers, having made the most of the three days they had spent at the Ka’ba in worship, started again back to Medina on their fourth day. During the three days they spent there, the Muslims had said a lot about Islam to the people in Mecca through their disposition and manners. Some liveliness had come to the Ka’ba with the arrival of the believers. People found the opportunity to see the way the Muslims carried out their worship, and small seeds were planted into their hearts in the name of Islam. Immediately following this umra, prominent leaders of Mecca such as Khalid ibn Walid, Amr ibn al-As, and Uthman ibn Talha accepted our Prophet and chose the way of Islam. Crushed under the shame of their previous lives, these new believers were full of embarrassment and as they apologized to the Messenger of Allah, his response was crystal clear, “Islam cleanses all previous mistakes before becoming Muslim!”
After such great developments, everyone now saw that the Peace Treaty of Hudaybiya had truly been a conquest. A year ago, they had returned from Hudaybiya without being able to even enter Mecca, and now, just one year later, through Allah’s blessing they had been able to enter the people’s hearts. From that point on, more and more people started turning to the Messenger of Allah and Islam.
As they went on with their duties of inviting people to Islam and guiding the way of the believers in this environment of peace, something happened to sadden the Messenger of Allah and the believers. Our Prophet had sent Harith to deliver the invitation letter he had written to the governor of Busra. As Harith was passing a place called Balka, the governor of that land, Shurahbil, martyred our Prophet’s Companion. This was an inexcusable action because messengers were deemed absolutely untouchable, even under the harshest circumstances. After this incident, it was decided that they do something about this in order to wipe out banditry for good. Because the land they would travel to was under Byzantine rule, the preparations were extensive. As the Islam army of three thousand soldiers headed out, our Prophet asked that they travel to the exact location where his messenger had been martyred and invite the people living there to Islam. As they advanced to their destination, news that the Byzantine had prepared an army of two hundred thousand soldiers reached them. The Muslims were going to face an army which outnumbered them greatly. This battle was named the Battle of Muta. Though the Islam army was very little in number, they showed extraordinary heroism. Khalid had been appointed the commander of the army, and thanks to his very successful battling strategy, the Byzantine army was left with no other choice than to retreat. After hearing the victory of the believers in a battle where there was such a great imbalance of power, every tribe knew for sure that Allah’s help and assistance was behind the army of Islam. This was the first blow that hit the Byzantine.