We discussed the famous constitution of Madinah, and the people of the Suffah.

T
oday we'll talk about a number of important changes/policies that were new and i
mpossible to implement in Mecca. Today we'll discuss three of them:
1. Economic policy
2. Spiritual development
3. Political and military development
1. Economic Policies
In Mecca the prophet PBUH and the muslims were a minority. They could not have a
seperate policy. However in Madinah they are now independant. And the prophet P
BUH now has his own independance in terms of there is no more dictatorship. Ther
efore one of the first things the prophet PBUH did were to the businessmen/marke
t people of Madinah (the sooks). The jews were known for their businesses while
the Arabs were more known for cultivation. Further, the Arabs of Madinah did not
have a major sook in the city. Most of their sooks were outside the city. So th
e prophet PBUH visited those sooks and disapproved of the practices, cheating, d
eception etc. He said to the muslim "this is not a sook for you" i.e. do not do
business there its not a market place. He went back to the masjid and with his o
wn feet he made lines in the sand and said "this shall be your sook so let it no
t be diminished and let no one tax the people in it". So the prophet PBUH is say
ing two things:
a. All business must be done in this sook
b. No taxes
It is not true by the way Islam promotes a capatilist system. If you are forced
to compare, the Islamic system is closest to capatilism. But there are many diff
erences. The prophet PBUH instituted a whole new policy of economics. Many books
have been written on this. Notably, he banned interest completely. Also, he joi
ned trading to religiousity. He praised honesty, he criticised dishonesty and sa
id "the righteous businessman will be blessed by Allah". And anyone who understa
nds the modern economics system known if you don't have ethics and morals you ca
n do whatever you want. The prophet PBUH however linked commerce with Islam and
encouraged practices that were in accordance to Islam. He forbade cheating, lyin
g, hiding defects. He once found a date seller with good quality dates at the to
p of the bag but inside the bag there were rotting dates. And the prophet PBUH s
aid to him "whoever cheats us is not of us". Also the prophet PBUH forbade anyon
e living in Madinah to act as an agent for a beduoin who comes. There is clear w
isdom here too. The biggest tricks/tactics of people is most of the profit goes
to people who don't do much i.e. the middle men - but the prophet PBUH removed t
his middle man. Of course this sook flourished, therefore when the jewish tribes
were expelled one by one, their sooks collapsed too but it had no effect on the
muslims since they were wholly independant. Similarly when the Roman empire col
lapsed the muslims had total financial independance.
2. Spiritual Practices
As soon as the prophet PBUH immigrated, within a year, pretty much the entire sh
ariah of worship had been revealed (except for Hajj - it was revealed 9th year o
f Hijrah). The Ramadan of the year of immigration nothing happened; next Muharra
m on the 10th, the prophet PBUH made the first of the 10th Muharram waajib as th
e stepping stone. And the prophet PBUH made a decree "whoever ate breakfast in t
he morning let him not eat anything for the rest of the day". That Ramadan Allah
revealed in the Quran verse 185 of Baqarah. By unanimous consensus Ramadan beca
me waajib in the 2nd year. In Ramadan zakaat-ul-fitr became waajib too. Again to
make them used to the concept of zakat. Within the same month the full zakat ca
me down i.e. 2.5% of your wealth. At this point of time the basic rulings of sal
ah had been perfected, the prophet PBUH said "pray as you see me pray". Also whe

n the prophet PBUH came to Madinah Zuhr to Isha increased in length (prior this
they were only just 2 raka'at). The point is alot was happening in Madinah. By t
he time the second Ramadan finishes all the rulings of worship have come down.
3. Political and military developments
This is a whole new ballpark. In Mecca there were no military developments. The
prophet PBUH never ONCE did anything military in Mecca. In Mecca the muslims are
told "turn away from them"; "whatever they do to you, trust in Allah". Despite
the fact the sahabah are literally being torn to shreds like Yasir, Sumaya, Bila
l etc. Think about it - technically the prophet PBUH could have fought back. But
he understands this isn't the right way. One needs to think 10 steps ahead. Eve
n if Bilal is suffering to kill X would bring much more persecution. One must lo
ok at the overall picture and weights the benefits/negatives. In the early stage
some people wanted to fight. Especially the youngest; but Allah criticises them
"don't you see those people who were told 'lower your hands', (right now) estab
lish salah and give charity". Not every reference of 'zakat' is optional charity
not compulsary. In Mecca general rules of ethics came but no real laws or oblig
atory commandments came down, other than praying 2 raka'at of salah five times a
day. Thus in Mecca the prophet PBUH is forced to tell the people to just concen
trate of spirituality. But then Allah says "the same people bursting to fight, w
hen Allah gave them permission, they got scared". This shows us those who talk t
he loudest act the least. So Allah criticised them for their hesitance and lack
of enthusiasm now. Of course the main thing is Allah revealed verses that allowe
d jihad.
The first verse that was revealed about jihad really underscores the philosophy
of jihad. It explains why Allah allows military fighting. Verse 39 to 41 Surah H
ajj is the first concession for jihad. Allah says
"Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because the
y were wronged. And indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory."
"[They are] those who have been evicted from their homes without right - only be
cause they say, "Our Lord is Allah ." And were it not that Allah checks the peop
le, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churc
hes, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned. And A
llah will surely support those who support Him. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Ex
alted in Might."
Breaking it down: Allah says "Permission is given". Notice permission is given;
before it was wrong, now its right. This means jihad is not the most important t
hing in Islam - before Allah has withheld them. Next "Because they have been wro
nged". Notice here fighting is done for those or on behalf of those who have bee
n wronged against the oppresers. No law would not recognize this. Oppresed peopl
e whose rights have been taken away are allowed to fight. "Those who were kicked
out of their houses because they said 'Our Lord is Allah'". Notice the reasonin
g is very clear: they wanted to kill you, they kicked them out of your houses, N
OW I'm giving you permission to fight back. Because they have persecuted you etc
permission is given. Any society on Earth would justify this. This country went
to war because taxes on tea went up. "Were it not for the fact Allah allows war
s, the world would go for chaos". You need to have wars to oppose Hitler, Stalin
etc. You have to stand up. This is what Allah is saying. Allah is of great bles
sing that he allows war to fight against dholm and fasaad. This is exactly what
is called a just war theory. Yes - Islam allows jihad but it's a noble cause for
people who have been denied their rights and freedoms. Abu Bukr RA said when Al
lah revealed Surah Hajj, I knew there would be war. Note Surah Hajj was revealed
right at the very end of Mecca period/beginning of Madinah.
To summarise the stages of jihad were four phases:

1. Military jihad was forbidden; the jihad is the jihad of the nufs and soul. Be
patient and Allah will take care of those who mock you. "You do your job We'll
do ours". It lasted all 13 years of Mecca.
2. Permission is given but its not compulsary. So jihad was on a volunteer basis
- this was immediately after the Hijrah.
3. Jihad became waajib against the Quraysh only. This was the bulk of the Madani
phase.
4. The prophet PBUH fought all polythiests. Jihad was against the entire Peninsu
la.
Note overall the geography of Islam is the geography of the first 150 years. Wha
t muslims conquered in the first 150 years is what Islam had overall. This shows
us people did not see Jihad as an all out war against everyone. There is a time
and place - when there is no need there is no reason to engage in Jihad.
This therefore began many expiditions that the prophet PBUH and the sahabah enga
ged in. They had some specific goals:
1. Show the Quraysh the muslims had not fled weakly, but rather they had fled an
d now will fight back and regain what was taken to establish the muslims are an
independant political, economical and strong force. Note for the first years the
muslims only targeted the Quraysh up until Khandak.
2. To cut off the oxygen supply i.e. money from the Quraysh. The quraysh got the
ir economic stability from zam zam - this made Mecca the centre of the Arabian P
enesillia. So the prophet PBUH wanted to attack both north to Yemen and south to
Syria.
To go to Syria they had to pass right pass Madinah - to get to Rome, or rather a
city called Bosra, which is right at the tip of the Byzantine empire. To this d
ay there are still the ruins of the trading places that made Bosra famous. The s
ame trading places the Quraysh went to. So the muslims wanted to cut off this li
ne to Syria and Yemen. This shows the strategy of the prophet PBUH.
3. Increase the size of the Islamic state. To make treaties with tribes and make
Islamic state larger. Clearly this happened as Madinah expanded in size after B
adr, Uhud etc.
The scholars mention two types of military expiditons:
1. Gazwa - any expiditon the prophet PBUH himself accompinied. Of course when he
went he was the commander.
2. Sareeah - he commanded the sahabah to go on, but he didn't go himself.
The ones he accompanied of course are the most important; Badr, Uhud, Khandak et
c but there were many sareeah. Zaid says "the prophet PBUH partipated in 19 gazw
as and 1 hajj". Another sahabi says "the prophet PBUH participated in 19 gazwas;
he fought in only 8 of them (so no battle)". This shows there are 8 that are of
paticular importance. There's a little bit of ikhtilaaf.
One list is:
Badr
Uhud
Ahzaab

Al Muraysee
Al Kadeed
Kabar
Mecca
Hunayn
Another sahabi says:
Badr
Uhud
Ahzaab
Mustalak
Kabar
Mecca
Hunayn
Taif
The point is every military expidition the prophet PBUH engaged in we have alot
of detail about. Others we don't have so much; just a reference. As for the sare
eah, they were many. Ibn Ishaaq list 30, Al Waaqida lists 48, another scholar li
sts 56 etc. It appears the first military expidition was that off Al-Abwaa. This
took place on the 12th Safar i.e. 9/10 months after the immigration of the prop
het PBUH. In this expidition, the prophet PBUH heard of a caravan of the Quraysh
. So they went out but couldn't get to it on time. However the prophet PBUH form
ed many alliances; paticularly with the Banu Dhamra, a tribe in Madinah, and so
for the first time the Islamic State expanded. The military state went 100 miles
out of Madinah and formed this alliance.
The first expidition where some fighting occured on the sareeah of Ubaydah ibn a
l-Harith witihn the first year of the Hijrah. And Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas was the f
irst person to throw an arrow in the way of Allah swt. Thus he was very proud of
this and kept on saying it. Some arrows were thrown between the muslims and the
Quraysh until a neutral tribe settled the matter and made a truce/ceasefire. Af
ter this the neutral tribe joined in alliance with the muslims. So more tribes a
re embracing the political state of Islam i.e. they write a contract they won't
support the Quraysh and if the Quraysh comes they will inform the prophet PBUH.
The first significant expidition even though no blood was shed was the Gazwa tul
Ushayra. The prophet PBUH took around 150/200 sahabah to attack the mother of a
ll caravans. This is the annual caravan that went up to Syria. It's not small it has on it at least 70/80 camels. Also it has on it around 70/80% of wealth in
Mecca. Anyone who has any money would invest in this caravan. Even if you're a
women, you would invest in this Caravan. It's the main source of money. Send goo
d to syria, send goods to yemen, sell them and make profit etc. Who was the lead
er of the caravan for Mecca? Abu Suffyan. So Gazwa tul Usharya was stage one of
Badr. Because the prophet PBUH wanted to catch the caravan as it went up. Howeve
r they weren't able to cross paths with the caravan. Some say it was a stroke of
luck that one of the people of the Caravan accidently strayed and saw the musli
ms from the distance coming. So Abu Suffyan went back around the other way. But
of course its kudr of Allah - so Allah made it so that Abu Suffyan found out abo
ut the muslims. Note highways were present at that time too. There was a main ro
ad and so Allah willed that Abu Suffyan found out about the muslims so he escape
d. So the prophet PBUH came back and did not know Abu Suffyan knew. The assumpti
on was "maybe we're a day earlier etc". So when Abu Suffyan heard, and after all
he was very clever and had leadership, he sends an envoy back to Mecca making s
ure they are prepared for him on the return journey. This was the set up for the
battle of Badr. The muslims were not expecting an army. How did an army get the
re? Abu Suffyan was thinking 10 steps ahead and sent an envoy making up exaggera
tions, stories; he bloodied up the envoy, tore his clothes etc and basically was
causing chaos in Mecca to get an army together and prepare for war. And so they

went beserk and gathered the largest army the Quraysh had ever seen. We will di
scuss this is detail.
So Gazwa tul Usharya was stage one of Gazwa tul Badr - this was on the way up to
Syria. On the way down Gazwa tul Badra in'n Sugra/Oola is called Badr as it was
on the planes of Badr. It wasn't with the Quraysh but was with allies of the Qu
raysh. They snuck into Madinah and stole a bunch of camels from inside Madinah;
along with this, they killed 1/2 herders along the way. As soon as the prophet P
BUH found out he gathered 70 of the muhajir and went out to look for these peopl
e who stole the camels. Because the people that ambushed were 4/5 in number, the
y were much faster. And so the prophet PBUH did not catch them at this point in
time. And note this shows us Allah didn't give victory to the prophet PBUH at al
l time. One of the consequences of this mini battle the prophet PBUH decided to
have spies for reconicance. So the prophet PBUH sent out groups of sahabah to fi
nd out whats happening with the trip to Yemen. Even though its on the oppisite s
ide the prophet PBUH still wants to know all the options - of course they would
never expect the muslims to double back all the way around Mecca and meet Qurays
h at Yemen. His mentality was "if we missed the Syria caravan, let's think of th
e Yemeni caravan".
The main incident we will discuss is the sareeah tul nakhla. The prophet PBUH ha
ndpicked 8 of the muhajiroon, no ansar. Note every expidition thus far has been
muhajir only. The prophet PBUH put Abdullah ibn Ja'sh in charge and told this gr
oup to go north east, travel for 2 days and then on the morning of the 2nd day t
o open a letter the prophet PBUH had gave them. After two days Abdullah obeyed t
he prophet PBUH and opened up the letter. He said "when this letter is read to y
ou, proceed to Nakhla". So they will have to double back and go down to Nakhla and the prophet PBUH said "watch the movement of Quraysh and inform us of their
movements. Do not force any of your companions to go, whoever wants to come bac
k can come back".
Why did he write a letter? Firstly for upmost secrecy. Second, to hide the true
intention of the mission. Also, the prophet PBUH is giving them permission to co
me back because they are literally walking straight back into Mecca. So they wil
l have to live there for a few days while being defenceless. When Abdullah bin J
ash read the letter he said "whoever wants shahada and is eager to meet Allah le
t him come with me". Literally he is thinking "there's no way this will work but
if the prophet PBUH wants it let it be". But of course Allah allowed it so they
all came back. Obviously all 8 of them followed the prophet PBUH. They had 4 ca
mels so two people to a camel. Note there was never one person per camel for ANY
expidition in Madinah. The Quraysh tried to do it but the muslims could not.
On the way there; one morning they wake up and a camel was missing. And it was t
he camel of Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas. So Sa'ad and Utbah insisted "you guys go ahead
" so thats what they did to follow the prophet PBUHs order. So Sa'ad and Utbah a
re left to find a camel/go back to Madinah. So six people are left that reach Na
khla. And when they got there, they arrived on the 30th Rajab. And before even t
hey set up camp, they saw in the distance a caravan coming. And they hid themsel
ves waiting to see what it was. It turned out to be a Qurayshi caravan loaded wi
th goods complete to the top. And it dosen't have any military protection since
the Quraysh were so sure nothing would happen at this time. So the six began dis
cussing amongst themselves what should be done. There were around 8/9 camels and
just 3 men guarding them so it was like a fortune and it would have been easy t
o retreive. So what's the issue? Two things: the prophet PBUH told them to get i
nformation, he didn't say 'don't fight' but the purpose was information. And if
they get this, they have to back immediately. But this is alot of money; it's a
fortune. There is no personal motivation of greed here its purely for the ummah.
So they are wondering "the prophet PBUH didn't tell us to attack". A bigger pro
blem is that it's the 30th Rajab i.e. the sacred month. And of course in this mo
nth you are not supposed to fight. However this issue was there was literally ju

st 1/2 hours left until Magrib and after Maghrib its Sha'ban! So it was very dif
ficult and began discussing what is to be done. They said "if we wait until the
sun sets they will be long gone - bit if we fight them now, we will be guilty of
fighting in the sacred month". And by the way up until this point the muslims h
ad not been successful with any capture missions. But this was an opportunity to
get 8/9 camels loaded with spices/goods etc. So this was alot of benefit and bl
essings for the prophet PBUH and the muslims. So they went and attacked; one of
the herdsmen was killed and two of them they captured and took them as prisoners
of war. As they came, they went back the same way to Madinah. Allah had willed
this.
When the prophet PBUH saw them come back with all of this, and heard they had ki
lled somone, he realised this would be a negative PR disaster. And he told them
"I didn't command you to fight" and refused to accept any of the booty. And the
Quraysh had a field trip with this "look at these muslims, they contradicted the
shariah of Ibrahim!" And they made a very big thing out of it spreading it all
over Arabia. And the prophet PBUH felt great stress because the criticism was va
lid in its place: that the muslims shed blood in the sacred month. Even the jews
became happy at this. From the beginning its clear the jews won't be on the sid
e of the muslims. As the fitnah gains momentum Allah reveals in the Quran
They ask you about the sacred month - about fighting therein. Say, "Fighting ther
ein is great [sin], but averting [people] from the way of Allah and disbelief in
Him and [preventing access to] al-Masjid al-Haram and the expulsion of its peop
le therefrom are greater [evil] in the sight of Allah . And fitnah is greater th
an killing."
SubhanAllah its a beautiful verse. Allah criticised the shedding of the blood the muslims should not have shed this blood and He affirms this. But then Allah
criticises the Quraysh by saying "who do you think you are? You are preventing p
eople from coming to Haram! And you have rejected Allah and expelled people from
Mecca. All of this is worse in the eyes of Allah". Ibn Al Qayyim comments that
the matter you have criticised the muslims for is indeed a big sin, but rejectin
g Allah and expelling the muslims is yet a greater crime. And note the verse is
extremely eloquent here - many scholars have had long discussions about the eloq
uence of the Arabic. There's even an academic paper about the grammatical analys
is of this verse. In any case once this verse was revealed the prophet PBUH acce
pted the booty and set randsom on the two prisoners. The prophet PBUH said we wi
ll release them only until Sa'ad and Utbah come back. And eventually they did an
d the prophet PBUH released the two prisoners. Note one of them actually accepte
d Islam and only did so after the randsom was in the hands of the prophet PBUH this is the first of many times to come. Many pisoners did this - only after th
e money came they accept Islam.
To conclude look at the justice of Allah and who is better at judging than Allah
. Indeed what a difficult judgement! Allah did not exonerate the muslims or the
Quraysh. We also looked at the different expiditions and they show us no victory
comes with ease. The prophets all went out and struggled and then Allah gives t
he muslims victory. Note also the prophet PBUH chose his immediate family to lea
d the expiditions - the point being no one can accuse the prophet PBUH of puttin
g his family out of harms way. Rather he put them right in front and he put hims
elf in charge for the gazwas. Another point is that up until now only the muhaji
r are going on expiditons - why? Firstly so they don't forget about their homes
in Mecca. But moreover the second oath in Akabah was an oath of protection - not
fighting/offensive. Thus the prophet PBUH never pushed the Ansar. In the battle
of Badr they however volunteered and Sa'ad ibn Mua'd, the great sahabi of the A
nsar, stood up and said "we will go whereever you go". Its said when Sa'ad died
the throne of Allah shook. But this was when they put the condition on themselve
s. Also one of the benefits we can derive: jihad was not compulsary - every expi
diton was voluntarily done.

Non muslims criticise and accuse the prophet PBUH of basically being highway rob
bers. They say the prophet PBUH financed himself of highway robbery. This is the
case with what the enemies of Islam do. They take something and distort the tru
th in it - there is an element of truth that is distorted in a sinister manner.
They say the prophet PBUH were robbing the caravans of the Quraysh. This is what
Allah says. The prophet PBUH is not attacking any tribe other than the Quraysh.
This is a very important point. It's only them. And what is wrong with attackin
g people when they killed you, tortured you for 13 years, expelled you from your
homes etc - after all they have done, now the prophet PBUH is getting back a fr
action and people want to read into this?! Malcom X said "if you listen to the m
edia you will beleive the oppressors are the terrorists, the terrorists are the
oppressors". We also see the hypcrisy of the Quraysh - they accuse the muslims o
f a sin but who are they to accuse anyone of a sin? The same thing Allah teaches
us - yes we criticise, but Allah tells us are you going to ignore the context?!
The hypocrisy of the powers. So all of these expiditions lead up to the battle
of Badr - one of the biggest miracles in Islam. Allah called it the 'day of Furq
aan'. A victory that was unprecented.