The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah: a truce that history called a victory

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah: a truce that history called a victory

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Quick answer: In Dhu al-Qi’dah of the sixth year after the Hijrah, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ led over a thousand Muslims toward Mecca to perform Umrah and was stopped short of the city by the Quraysh. The negotiations that followed produced the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, a ten-year truce that felt like a setback to many companions but that the Quran later described as a clear victory. Historians agree on the year and the main terms of the treaty; they differ on smaller details such as the exact day and the precise numbers involved.

Why the Muslims set out for Mecca

In the month of Dhu al-Qi’dah in the sixth year of the Hijra, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ left Medina with about 1,400 Muslims, intending to perform Umrah in Mecca. They carried no weapons of war, only the sheathed swords travellers normally wore, and they brought sacrificial animals with them, a clear sign that they had come for pilgrimage and not for a fight.

Upon reaching Hudaybiyyah, on the edge of the sacred territory, the Prophet learned that the Quraysh intended to prevent him from entering Mecca. The two sides were now camped close to one another, and messengers began moving between them.

The Prophet ﷺ sent Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) to Mecca to inform the Quraysh that he had not come for battle. Uthman was held back longer than expected, and a rumour spread through the Muslim camp that he had been killed.

The pledge under the tree

Taking the rumour seriously, the Prophet ﷺ called the Muslims present to renew their pledge of loyalty to him there and then, beneath a tree at Hudaybiyyah. This event is remembered in the sources as the Bay’at al-Ridwan, also known as Bay’at ash-Shajara, the Pledge of the Tree.

يَا ابْنَ الأَكْوَعِ، أَلاَ تُبَايِعُ ". قَالَ قُلْتُ قَدْ بَايَعْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ. قَالَ " وَأَيْضًا ". فَبَايَعْتُهُ الثَّانِيَةَ،. فَقُلْتُ لَهُ يَا أَبَا مُسْلِمٍ، عَلَى أَىِّ شَىْءٍ كُنْتُمْ تُبَايِعُونَ يَوْمَئِذٍ قَالَ عَلَى الْمَوْتِ.

Narrated Yazid bin Ubaid:Salama said, "I gave the Pledge of allegiance (Al-Ridwan) to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and then I moved to the shade of a tree. When the number of people around the Prophet (ﷺ) diminished, he said, 'O Ibn Al-Akwa` ! Will you not give to me the pledge of Allegiance?' I replied, 'O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! I have already given to you the pledge of Allegiance.' He said, 'Do it again.' So I gave the pledge of allegiance for the second time." I asked 'O Abu Muslim! For what did you give he pledge of Allegiance on that day?" He replied, "We gave the pledge of Allegiance for death

One of those present, Salama ibn al-Akwa (may Allah be pleased with him), later recalled giving that pledge and then stepping aside to rest in the shade of the same tree. His short account, preserved in Sahih al-Bukhari, is one of the few first-hand descriptions of that afternoon that has reached us through the two most carefully checked hadith collections.

Uthman turned out to be alive. In response to his mission, the Quraysh sent Suhayl ibn Amr to negotiate with the Prophet ﷺ, and those talks led to the agreement known as the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.

Suhayl ibn Amr and the wording of the treaty

Suhayl was known as the orator of his tribe, a clever and articulate speaker whose opinion carried great weight among the Quraysh. He had been sent specifically to settle terms, and he proved to be a careful negotiator over every word of the document.

The Prophet ﷺ asked Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) to write the treaty. When Ali began with the word “Bismillah,” Suhayl objected and asked for the shorter phrase the Quraysh were used to instead. When Ali then wrote that the agreement was with Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, Suhayl objected again, saying the Quraysh did not recognise that title, and asked for the Prophet’s name to be written simply as Muhammad, son of Abdullah.

The Prophet ﷺ agreed to both changes himself. Several companions found this painful to watch, since it looked as though the Prophet’s own mission was being set aside in his presence, even though nothing about his prophethood had actually changed.

What the treaty actually said

Early biographers record broadly the same core terms, even where their wording of individual clauses varies slightly. The table below sets out the points on which the sources agree.

Clause What it meant
Ten-year truce A truce would remain in effect between the two sides for ten years.
Return of defectors A person from the Quraysh who went to Muhammad without the permission of their guardian would be returned to the Quraysh, while a person who went from the Muslims to the Quraysh would not be returned.
Free alliance Whoever wished to enter into a covenant with Muhammad could do so, and whoever wished to enter into a covenant with the Quraysh could do so.
Umrah postponed The Muslims would postpone their Umrah to the following year, entering Mecca unarmed except for sheathed swords.
Three-day limit They would enter only after the Quraysh had vacated the city, and would not stay in Mecca for more than three days.

Umar’s question, and Abu Jandal

Not every companion found the terms easy to accept at first. Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was so unsettled that he questioned the Prophet ﷺ directly about the decision. Umar later said he regretted the strength of his words that day, once the wisdom behind the treaty became clear.

While the document was still being written, a young man named Abu Jandal, Suhayl’s own son, arrived at the camp in chains, having escaped Mecca as a new Muslim seeking refuge with the believers. Suhayl saw him, struck him, and reminded the Prophet that they had just agreed no Meccan would be allowed to leave for Medina under these terms. The Prophet ﷺ upheld the agreement, and Abu Jandal had to return with his father. Umar walked beside him on the way out, offering him a sword, hoping he might use it against his father, but Abu Jandal did not take it.

It is a hard scene, and the sources do not soften it. The Prophet ﷺ kept his word to Quraysh even when it cost one of his own followers his immediate freedom, a point historians return to when they discuss the character of the agreement.

A victory the companions did not expect

The Muslims turned back toward Medina without having entered Mecca that year. It was on this return journey that a new surah was revealed, opening with words that reframed the whole episode.

إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًۭا مُّبِينًۭا

Indeed, We have given you, [O Muhammad], a clear conquest

This surah was revealed after the Messenger of Allah returned from the area of Hudaybiyyah, in the month of Dhu al-Qi’dah, in the sixth year of the Hijra, after the idolaters had prevented him from reaching the sacred mosque to perform the Umrah he had intended. Commentators report that some companions later judged the truce itself, rather than the later capture of the city, to be the real turning point, since it opened the way for the message of Islam to reach people who had been kept from it by years of open conflict.

Timeline: from Hudaybiyyah to the conquest of Mecca

Sources agree closely on the sequence of events, though the exact Gregorian dates are harder to pin down, since the year and Hijri month are more secure and useful than forcing the whole negotiation into one exact Gregorian date. Ibn Hisham’s biography of the Prophet ﷺ and al-Tabari’s history both preserve accounts of this period, and modern scholarship still works from their narrations alongside the hadith collections.

Date (Hijri) Approx. Gregorian Event
Dhu al-Qi’dah, 6 AH March 628 CE Muhammad ﷺ and the Quraysh conclude the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya.
Dhu al-Qi’dah, 6 AH March 628 CE Surah al-Fath is revealed on the return journey to Medina.
Dhu al-Qi’dah, 7 AH 629 CE Under the treaty’s terms, the Muslims return and are given three days of access to the Ka’aba, completing the deferred Umrah.
Sha’ban, 8 AH c. December 629 CE The Banu Bakr, allied with the Quraysh, launch a night raid against the Banu Ka’b of Khuza’ah, a tribe allied with the Muslims.
Ramadan, 8 AH late 629 or 630 CE The treaty is considered breached, and Muhammad ﷺ marches on Mecca, which surrenders without the large battle many had feared.

Even the date of the conquest itself is not settled among early narrators. The date the Prophet ﷺ set out for Mecca is variously given as the 2nd, 6th or 10th of Ramadan, and the date he entered the city is given as the 10th, 17th, 18th, 19th or 20th of Ramadan. This is a case where the sources openly disagree, and later writers have not tried to force a single answer.

Who broke the treaty, and how

Under the treaty, Arab tribes were free to ally with either side, and any aggression against an allied tribe gave its protector the right to respond; the Banu Bakr chose the Quraysh, while the Banu Khuza’ah chose the Muslims. When the Banu Bakr attacked the Banu Khuza’ah with support from some men of Quraysh, the ten-year truce was treated as void from the Muslim side. The conquest of Mecca that followed is widely described as remarkably peaceful given the years of hostility that had come before it, something historians link directly back to the breathing space the truce had created.

What this story leaves the reader

Three things stand out clearly enough that the sources do not disagree on them, even where small details differ elsewhere.

  • Patience can look like loss at the time. The companions who found the terms hard to accept were not wrong to feel that way. The Quran did not ask them to pretend otherwise; it told them afterward that they had misjudged what counted as a victory.
  • Keeping an agreement matters even when it is costly. The Abu Jandal episode shows the Prophet ﷺ honouring the letter of the treaty in a moment that was clearly painful to everyone present.
  • A pause in conflict can do more than a battle. The two years of truce let Islam spread through contact and conversation rather than through the sword, and tribes across Arabia had the chance to weigh the message on its own terms.

Readers who want to place these events on a modern calendar, or who are tracking other dates in the Islamic year, can use the Hijri converter alongside the timeline above.

Sources