Military career of Muhammad

History

Campaign against the Jews of Medina

Expulsion of the Banu Qaynuqa'

In April 624, after the Battle of Badr, the Banu Qaynuqa violated the Constitution of Medina by shaming a Muslim woman by pinning and tearing her clothes. A Muslim man who witnessed this, killed the Jewish man responsible for it in retaliation. The Jews came in group against the Muslim and killed him. After a successive chain of similar revenge killings, enmity grew between Muslims and the Banu Qaynuqa', which led Muhammad to lay siege to their fortress. The Qaynuqa' had a strength of around 700. After being besieged for 14–15 days, the tribe eventually surrendered to Muhammad, who initially wanted to capture the men of Banu Qaynuqa', but ultimately yielded to Abdullah ibn 'Ubayy and agreed to expel the Qaynuqa'. The tribe eventually went northward toward Der'aa in modern-day Syria and assimilated themselves into the local Jewish population.

Expulsion of the Banu Nadir

In May 625, Muhammad laid siege to the Banu Nadir, after he came to know that they were plotting to assassinate him. The siege is said to have lasted anywhere between six and fifteen days. Enjoying their strategic advantage due to the thick foliage of palm trees surrounding their castles, the Banu Nadir pelted the Muslims with stones and showered arrows upon them from their castles. In response, Muhammad is said to have commanded the burning of the palm trees. The tribe eventually surrendered and was expelled, moving northward toward Khaybar, another Jewish fort city around 150 km (95 mi) north of Medina and was captured again during the Battle of Khaybar. They were allowed to live around Khaybar until the Rashidun caliph, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, expelled them for a second time.

Invasion of the Banu Qurayza

During the Battle of the Trench in December 626 and January 627, the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, whose forts were located in southern Medina, were caught conspiring to ally themselves with the confederates and were charged with treachery. After the retreat of the coalition, Muslims besieged their forts, and they were the last of the Jewish tribes of Medina. The Banu Qurayza surrendered and all the men and one woman were beheaded, apart from a few who converted to Islam, while all the other women and children were enslaved.

In dealing with Muhammad's treatment of the Jews of Medina, aside from political explanations, western historians and biographers have explained it as "the punishment of the Medinan Jews, who were invited to convert and refused, perfectly exemplify the Quran's tales of what happened to those who rejected the prophets of old." Francis Edward Peters adds that Muhammad was possibly emboldened by his military successes and also wanted to push his advantage. Economical motivations, according to Peters, also existed since the poverty of the Meccan migrants was a source of concern for Muhammad. Peters argues that Muhammad's treatment of the Jews of Medina was "quite extraordinary" and is "quite at odds with Muhammad's treatment of the Jews he encountered outside Medina."

According to Welch, Muhammad's treatment of the three major Jewish tribes brought Muhammad closer to his goal of organizing a community strictly on a religious basis.

Siege of Khaybar

In March 628, according to Muslims sources, the Jews of Khaybar, along with the Banu Nadir, who were exiled from Medina by Muhammad for violating the Constitution of Medina, and the Banu Ghatafan, were planning to attack the Muslims. When Muhammad learned of their alliance, he gathered an army of 1,500 soldiers and besieged the Jewish fortress at Khaybar. Scottish historian and orientalist, William Montgomery Watt agrees with this view. Italian orientalist Laura Veccia Vaglieri claims other motives pushed Muhammad to invade the forts of Khaybar.

On the other side, the Banu Ghatafan were afraid that the Muslims would attack them at any time, so they refused to help the Jews at Khaybar. After capturing six of the eight Jewish forts in Medina, the Jews of Khaybar finally surrendered and were allowed to live in the oasis on the condition that they would give one-half of their produce to the Muslims. Two Jewish commanders were killed in the siege.

They continued to live in the oasis for several more years until they were expelled by caliph 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. The imposition of tribute upon the conquered Jews served as a precedent for provisions in the Islamic law for the jizya.

Byzantine campaign

In the final years of his life, after suppressing the two main factions that were leading in the opposition against him; the Meccans and the Jews, Muhammad led an active campaign against the main force in the north, the Byzantine Empire, which was involved in several wars against the Sasanian Empire, known as the Roman–Persian Wars.

Following a defeat in the Battle of Mu'tah in Muhammad's campaign against the Byzantine began with the final expedition led by Muhammad himself, the Tabuk expedition, which is also known as the Usra expedition. Muhammad heard of the gathering of a large Byzantine–Ghassanid alliance against the Muslims in Tabuk and led a force of some 30,000 men to look for them. After waiting and scouting for the enemy for twenty days, Muhammad returned to Medina.

Statistics

The number of all casualties on all sides, in all the battles of Muhammad, is approximately 1,000. A contemporary Islamic scholar, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, says that "during the 23-years in which this revolution was completed, 80 military expeditions took place. Fewer than 20 expeditions actually involved any fighting. 259 Muslims and 759 non-Muslims died in these battles – a total of 1018 dead." Most of those killed were men from the Banu Qurayza tribe after they surrendered to a siege as an aftermath of the Invasion of Banu Qurayza.

Legacy

Javed Ahmed Ghamidi writes in Mizan that there are certain directives of the Qur’an pertaining to war which were specific only to Muhammad against divinely-specified peoples of his times (the polytheists and the Israelites and Nazarites of Arabia and some other Jews, Christians, et al.) as a form of divine punishment—for they had persistently denied the truth of Muhammad's mission even after it had been made conclusively evident to them by Allah through Muhammad, and asked the polytheists of Arabia for submission to Islam as a condition for exoneration and the others for jizya and submission to the political authority of the Muslims for military protection as the dhimmis of the Muslims. Therefore, after Muhammad and his companions, there is no concept in Islam obliging Muslims to wage war for propagation or implementation of Islam, hence now, the only valid reason for war is to end oppression when all other measures have failed. Though, up until the last 50 years, Jihad was seen mostly as an offensive military action to spread Islam's domain. (Jihad without Apologetics. Christopher J van der Krogt, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, vol. 21, no. 2, April 2010, pp. 127–142).

Offensive Jihad (Jihad al-Talab) is traditionally classified as a communal duty (Fard Kifayah) by the majority of classical Islamic jurists. Within traditional jurisprudence, some scholars argue that once a legal consensus (ijma) is established on the nature of this duty, it cannot be superseded by the opinions of later generations.

Jurisprudential views of the four madhabs

While there is a general consensus that Jihad al-Talab is a communal obligation, the four primary Sunni schools of law provide specific nuances regarding its implementation:

• Hanafi school: Classical Hanafi jurists, such as Al-Kasani, defined jihad as the active call to Islam and fighting those who oppose its spread. They maintain that the obligation is fulfilled if a sufficient group of Muslims provides defense and initiative.
• Maliki school: In the Maliki tradition, it is held that the Imam should ideally initiate a campaign against non-Muslim territory at least once a year to ensure the propagation of the faith.
• Shafi'i school: Al-Shafi'i emphasized that the purpose of offensive jihad is to ensure the supremacy of Islamic law, requiring at least one annual expedition if capability exists.
• Hanbali school: The Hanbali view aligns with the communal obligation, arguing fighting is necessary against those who hinder the spread of Islam.

Traditionalist critiques of modernist reinterpretations

Traditionalist critics argue that modern interpretations of jihad—which often restrict it solely to a defensive context—frequently deviate from the established methodologies of Usul al-Fiqh (principles of jurisprudence). These critics maintain that such modernists operate as "independent" interpreters (mujtahid), ignoring the cumulative weight of the four madhabs and the binding nature of historical consensus (ijma).

Furthermore, some scholars characterize these modern shifts as religious innovation (bid'ah). They contend that by bypassing traditional legal rules and prioritizing contemporary political frameworks over classical jurisprudence, modernists are not following the established rules of the four schools but are instead offering subjective, individualized opinions.