7. The return to Makkah

In 629 the peace of Hudaybiyyah breaks. A tribe allied with Quraysh attacks a tribe allied with the Muslims, and some Makkans help them. That breaks the treaty.

So Abu Sufyan, Makkah's leading man, rides to Madinah to renew it. He comes back with nothing.

The Prophet ﷺ gathers an army of about 10,000, the largest Arabia had seen. He marches south without announcing where he is going.

The truce of Hudaybiyyah ended because one side broke its word.

Picture the army of about 10,000 camped outside Makkah. What will the Prophet do to the city?

He guarantees safety. Anyone who stays in their home is safe. So is anyone who enters the sacred precinct, or takes shelter in the house of Abu Sufyan, who has by then accepted Islam.

The army enters from four sides. Apart from one brief clash, the city is taken without battle.

And the Prophet himself? He enters with his head bowed low on his camel, in humility.

He took Makkah almost without battle, and entered it with his head bowed.

With the city taken, the Prophet goes to the Ka'bah. He circles it. Then he has the idols around it and inside it pulled down, reciting the ayah: "Truth has come and falsehood has vanished."

Then Bilal, the former slave once tortured in Makkah for saying "One, One", climbs onto the roof of the Ka'bah.

From there he calls the adhan, the call to prayer.

The man tortured for saying "One" called the prayer from the Ka'bah.

Then the people of Makkah gather. Many of them are men who mocked, tortured, boycotted and fought the Prophet for twenty years. What will he do to them?

Sirah reports record that he asked what they expected. Then he forgave them. He used the words of the prophet Joseph to the brothers who had wronged him: "No blame will there be upon you today."

Even Hind, who had mutilated the body of his uncle Hamzah at Uhud, was forgiven. Most of Makkah accepted Islam.

Facing the men who had fought him, he used Joseph's words: no blame on you today.