Jihad: The forgotten obligation

18: The Reward of Spying in Jihaad

Narrated Jabir (r), the Prophet (saw) said, "Who will bring me the information about the enemy on the day (of the battle) of al-Azhab (the confederates)?". Az-Zubair (ra) said, "I will". The Prophet (saw) said again, "Who will bring the information about the enemy?" Az-Zubair (ra) said, "I will". The Prophet (saw) said, "Every Prophet had a hawari (disciple) and my hawari (disciple) is az-Zubair" (Sahih Bukhari, p.399, vol.1)

The Prophet (saw) was a successful commander. One of the names of the Prophet (saw) was the Prophet of wars. The Prophet (saw) was quoted as saying, "I am Muhammad and Ahmed and the Prophet of mercy and the Prophet of repentance and the last Prophet and the Hashir (the person who will gather everyone on the day of Judgement) and the Prophet of wars". (Shamail Tirmidhi, p.25)

The Prophet (saw) was well acquainted with the tactics and weapons of war. With reference to the books of Seerah, we learn that the Prophet (saw) was an exceptional commander and displayed remarkable knowledge of war strategy. The Prophet (saw) developed the Sahabas (ra) accordingly used to say: "War is strategy (to deceive the enemy)", thereby expressing that strategy plays a vital role in wars.

We learn from the narration of Bukhari that the Prophet (saw) used to use double meaning words in war affairs, so that the battle tactics would stay a secret.

The Prophet (saw) kept his plans of war very secretive at the time of the victory of Makkah and kept a close eye at all incidents on this occasion. When one Sahabi made a mistake and tried to inform the polytheists of Makkah about the plans, the Prophet (saw) changed this effort into failure and kept the plans so secretive to the extent that the unbelievers were only informed when the fierce army of the Muslims had reached them. The benefit of this was that Makkah was conquered without bloodshed, with the exception of one or two fronts there was no confrontation. This was a great war strategy.

The Prophet (saw) used to fight in the front line in the elevation of Allah's word and this enabled him to be aware of the plans of the unbelievers. The Prophet (saw) was always mindful that the unbelievers were looking for any opportunity to attack him; and due to his understanding of war tactics and general awareness, many schemes of the unbelievers turned into failures.

Khalid bin Sufyan was preparing an army against the Prophet (saw). The Prophet (saw) sent a Sahabi (companion) to kill him.

Ka'b bin Ashraf, who was a Jew, planned to wage the last final war by uniting with the mushrikeen (polytheists). The Prophet (saw) appointed Muhammad bin Muslim, who killed him.

Whereas the Masjid ad-Dharar was a well planned scheme of the mushrikeen and the Jews which was demolished.

One main aspect of war is spying on the enemy's army, and this was requested by the Prophet (saw) in the earlier mentioned hadith. Zubair (ra) compiled with this request and for this he received the noble status of Hawari (disciple). The Prophet (saw) keen interest in war tactics was due to Allah's commandments.

The Muslims have the opportunity to revive Allah's commandments and the way of the Prophet (saw) and by doing this they can overpower the enemy and the era of Islamic glory can become a reality once again.