After he had become a prophet,
Muhammad said about himself: " I didn't engage myself in anything
practiced by the Arabs in the pre-Islamic era." As a result of
that he didn't undertake any of the tasks that young people
usually endeavor to undertake who were equal with him in
age.
During that period, he was
renowned for honesty, trust and shyness but he grew up as a young
man in an environment when the Arabs indulged in wars at which
the sanctity of three months commonly known was violated wherein
wars were forbidden within those months. For that reason, they
were called:" The Wars of the Debauchers."
What are the Wars of Al-
Fujjar?
These wars were four in number at
which people's honors were scratched and violated as narrated by
Abul-Faraj Al-Esbahani who was famous for his knowledge of
history, the history of tribal kinship, biographies and history
of conquests and according to his narration, it runs as the
following:
The First Fujjar War:
This war arose between Kanana
tribe and Hawazin whose cause came to be: that Badr bin Maasher
Al-Kinani was a young bold and self-important figure who appeared
at Sug - Ekad followed by a folk from Kinana and held for himself
an assembly in which he took a great pride and honor while the
other opposing party stood as a challenger in defiance against
Badr Al-Kinani and his folk under the leadership of Al-Ehaimer
bin Mazin accompanied by a big group of Hawazin folk.
And as such, the war was about to
break out between the two opponent parties, but then they found
out that the matter need not be escalated and this made them
withdraw from the battle field besides, the conflict took place
during the month of Holy Rajab and for this reason it was called:
" The War of Debauchers.
The Second Fujjar
War:
This conflict took place between
the two tribes of Quraish and Hawazin and its cause was that a
number of Quraishi youths have harassed a woman from Hawazin and
the war ignited between the two rival parties and killings took
place between them and little blood was shed between the two
parties and it was incumbent upon Quraish to fight Bin Umaiyah
bin Abd Shams and the whole matter was settled with a signature,
an expiation and reconciliation.
The Third Fujjar War:
This war happened between the two
tribes of Kenana and Hawazin, too about an expiation which had to
be paid by a man from Hawazin.
But, the expiation was not paid,
for he became a broke. When a get-together was held at Suq Ekadh,
the man from Hawazin, the owner of the expiation rose to his feet
and scorned the man of Kinana with bad names and degraded Kinana
tribe at which a third party from Kinana approached the scorner
and gave him a heavy blow at his face and both folks entered into
a conflict which is extended into a war.
But after a while, the whole
matter was found easy to solve when Kinana tribe gave the
expiation and withdrew from the conflicting scene.
The Fourth Fujjar War:
This last and final scene of
conflict was ignited between the two tribes of Kinana and Quraish
and between the two tribes of Hazan and Qais
Aylan.
The cause of the conflict has been
a quarrel about a trading caravan belonging to the King of
Al-Hira at that time and that conflict occurred during the holy
month of Rajab. The author of AL-Seera Al-Halabiya thinks that
Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) had taken part in that war which had broken
out whose age at that time was 17-20 according to a number of
different sources.
But what is more probable is that
the cause of the war was because it took place during the holy
month of Rajab in which war was conventionally forbidden and not
because of the war itself.
No Participation in wars
Although there has been a number
of narrations and historical sources which talk about the
attendance of Muhammad (P.B.U. H.) to his grandfather Abdul
–Muttalib and his participation in those wars, there are some
other sources which denote that the Hashimites who refer to
Quraish tribe did not take part in any war involving
injustice, transgression, breach of relationships or war
legalization.
It was narrated that Abu Talib
said: When he was asked to take part in one of the Fujjar Wars
and it was during the holy month of Rajab that he
said:
"This is injustice, transgression
and legalization of war in the forbidden months; therefore, I
don't like to be present in such wars nor my family! Harb bin
Umayyad and Abdullah bin Jada'n Al-Taymi:
The Hashimites."We don't hold a
session to have a debate on any issue without seeing a community
of Hashim there in the meeting; therefore, Al-Zubair bin Abdul-
Muttalib was reluctantly obliged to indulge into the war heading
an army of the Hashimites saying:
"O Son of nourishing the bird and
watering the pilgrims! Don't be absent from us because we find in
your presence all victory and triumph. And he said: "Avoid
doing injustice, transgression
political rupture and slender; so
I don’t get absent from you and therefore, Muhammad's
participation in these wars were not clearly cut out or in other
words constant, not as some historians claim that because some
reviewers were suspicious of these claims.
Sat -
18 Rajab 1446H -
