The march to al-Hudaybiyya

The Prophet set out from Medina in Dhu al-Qa'da of the 6th year AH as a pilgrim for the lesser pilgrimage ('umra), carrying only the arms of a traveller. He reached al-Hudaybiyya at its far end, after leaving the main road to the Haram ¹.

He set out on Monday, the first of Dhu al-Qa'da of the 6th year AH, with about fourteen hundred of his companions, and with him his wife Umm Salama ². When he was at Dhu al-Hulayfa, he garlanded and marked the offering animals and entered ihram for 'umra, so that people would feel safe from his war ². He had sent ahead a scout from Khuza'a, who brought him news near Asfan that Quraysh had gathered the Ahabish and those with them to bar the Muslims from the House ³.

He then left the main road that passes by al-Tan'im to the Haram, and took a rough road between the valleys, by the pass of al-Mirar, which descends to al-Hudaybiyya from below Mecca ⁴. Khalid ibn al-Walid, with two hundred horsemen at Kura' al-Ghamim on the main road, saw the Muslims deviating from his way, and hurried to warn Quraysh ⁴.

Al-Qaswa' knelt at the pass of al-Mirar. The Prophet said that the one who had held her back was the one who held back the elephant. Then he urged her on, she sprang up, and he turned the army until he stopped at the far end of al-Hudaybiyya, at a small spring with little water ⁵.