Rebuttal to Answering Islam's Article, "Muhammad and the Treaty of Hudaybiyya"

by

Bassam Zawadi

Their article can be accessed here. 

I only wish to respond to one part of their article. That is when they claim that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the one who broke the Treaty of Hudaybiyya. 

Answering Islam says:

MUHAMMAD BREAKS HIS WORD AND THE TREATY OF HUDAYBIYYA

Later, other Meccans came to Muhammad and according to the Treaty asked Muhammad to return some women. Muhammad refused to honor his word and the Treaty. Instead he had the Muslims return any dowries that were given to the women.

"Umm Kulthum Uqba Muayt migrated to the apostle during this period. Her two brothers Umara and Walid sons of Uqba came and asked the apostle to return her to them in accordance with the agreement between him and Quraysh at Hudaybiyya, but he would not. God forbade it. ..... Sirat page 509.

The Sunan of Abu Dawud in volume 2, #2759 says:

"... Thereafter some believing women who were immigrants came. (Allah sent down: O ye who believe when believing women come to you as emigrants). Allah most high forbade them to send them back, but ordered them to restore the dower."

Muhammad claimed that now God allowed him to break the Treaty, stating the conditions were only a test of the Muslim women's faith. Once again, Muhammad has a convenient "revelation" justifying his actions [see Sura 60:10]. Once again, Muhammad puts the responsibility on God's shoulders for his sin, i.e., allowing him to break his word.

My Response:

This is far from the truth. The Quraysh are the ones who broke the treaty. 

Taken from http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/pillars/fasting/tajuddin/fast_76.html:

Khuza`ah had no choice but to inform the Messenger, their ally, that Banu Bakar and their allies Quraysh had unilaterally broken the treaty of Hudaybiyah by attacking them. The Messenger promised them, "I will prevent from you what I will prevent from myself." (Ibn Hishaam)

The Quraish realized they had broken the treaty with the Messenger by attacking the Muslims' allies.

Answering Islam quotes Surah 66:10 to show that Prophet Muhammad broke the treaty. However, if you read the Tafsir of this verse. You see, what happened was that a woman from the tribe of Mecca came to Madinah. Her relatives came to take her back, and they told Prophet Muhammad to stick to the treaty. However, the Prophet replied by saying that the treaty only said that escaping MEN should be returned, and the treaty mentions nothing about women who escape. 

Taken from http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/english/books/state/chapter_22.html:

2. If anyone from Quraysh embraced Islam and came to Muhammad without the permission of his guardian, he would return him to them, and if anyone from those with Muhammad came to Quraysh they need not return him to Muhammad.

Taken from http://www.islamvision.org/TruceofHudaibiyah.asp:

Another condition of the Treaty was that if anyone from the Quraysh came over to the Prophet (Peace be upon him) without obtaining the permission of his guardian he would be returned to them, but if anyone of those with the Prophet (Peace be upon him) escaped to the Quraysh, they would not be bound to return him.

Taken from http://www.inter-islam.org/Seerah/TheTreatyofHudaibiyaL1P1.html:

If any Makkan Muslim went to Madinah the Muslims would return him to Makkah, but if any Muslim from Madinah went to Makkah he would not be returned to Madinah. 

So, as we can see, the Quraysh did not clearly specify that the treaty was binding on both men and women. Allah sent down 66:10 to reaffirm to the Prophet that he should not return any believing women to the Quraysh. But either way, the Prophet did not break the treaty!

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