The Conquest of Mecca and Final Years

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah in 6 AH, which al-Mubarakpuri presents as one of the most strategically significant moments in the prophetic biography, appeared to many Companions as a humiliation when it was first signed. The Muslims had traveled from Medina intending to perform umrah at the Kaaba, but the Quraysh refused to allow them entry to Mecca. The resulting treaty imposed terms that seemed unfavorable — the Muslims would return home without performing umrah that year, any Muslim who came from Mecca to Medina would be returned to Quraysh, and a ten-year non-aggression pact would be observed. Umar ibn al-Khattab was among those deeply troubled by the terms. But the Quran described it as a manifest victory, and subsequent events vindicated that description entirely.

The two years following Hudaybiyyah saw Islam spread with remarkable speed. The Prophet sent letters to the rulers of the major powers of the world — the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, the Persian Emperor Khosrow II, the Negus of Abyssinia, the ruler of Egypt, and the chieftains of Yemen and Bahrain — calling them to Islam. Some received these letters with respect; others dismissed them. But the very act of addressing the world's powers signaled that Islam was no longer a regional Arabian movement but a universal message addressed to all of humanity.

In 8 AH, the Quraysh violated the treaty by attacking a tribe allied with the Muslims. The Prophet moved quickly and decisively. He assembled an army of ten thousand Companions and marched on Mecca in secret. Al-Mubarakpuri narrates the Conquest of Mecca with close attention to the Prophet's instructions that bloodshed be minimized and that no one who entered their home or the mosque of Abu Sufyan be harmed. The entry into Mecca was largely peaceful. Abu Sufyan himself, the long-time leader of Quraysh opposition to Islam, accepted Islam on the eve of the conquest, and the Prophet granted a general amnesty to the Meccan population — including those who had persecuted, tortured, and killed Muslims for years.

The Prophet entered the Kaaba, smashed its idols, and re-consecrated it as a house of pure monotheistic worship. The significance of this moment was immense: the city that had expelled the Prophet and persecuted his followers was now the spiritual center of Islam, and the Kaaba — built by Ibrahim — was restored to its original purpose.

The final years of the Prophet's life were marked by the consolidation of the Islamic state across the Arabian Peninsula, the defeat of the last major pagan confederacy at the Battle of Hunayn, and the dispatch of governors, teachers, and Quran reciters to the tribes and regions that had accepted Islam. The Farewell Pilgrimage in 10 AH gathered over a hundred thousand Companions in Mecca for the final hajj performed under the Prophet's leadership. His sermon at Arafat summarized the ethical and spiritual core of Islam's message — the equality of human beings before God, the sanctity of life and property, the prohibition of usury and injustice, and the permanent authority of the Quran and the Sunnah. The Prophet returned to Medina and died in 11 AH in the apartment of Aisha, with his head in her lap, at the age of approximately sixty-three.