Koran Curious - A Guide for Infidels and Believers by C.J. Werleman

glorious. We are equal: our dead are in paradise, yours in hell, and by God, you have not killed the Prophet. He is listening to us even as we speak!”
    Surprisingly, Abu Sufyan decided to withdraw his forces, presumably he had underestimated the Muslim casualties, and he called an end to the fighting for that day and withdrew his troops back to Mecca. This military blunder by Abu Sufyan was another pivotal moment for why Islam has survived today, for had he continued his rout of Muhammad’s warriors, he would’ve successfully demolished Medina and executed the prophet, and Islam would now only read as a historical footnote. Instead, Muhammad’s reputation continued to grow throughout the region and his name was heard throughout the Middle East.
    With the Meccans withdrawn, the casualties his army had suffered shocked Muhammad, and he vowed revenge against his former city. But it wouldn’t be long before Mecca would put him on the defensive again. On March 31 st , 627 the Meccans would send a fighting force of 10,000 men to Medina as the mother of all battles. Greatly outnumbered, Muhammad would prove his military leadership prowess by encircling the city with a trench. From this trench, the Muslim warriors would fight, thus nullifying the advantage the Meccans had with their cavalry. After twenty-seven days of fighting, the siege of Medina was locked in a stalemate. In desperation and as an act to boost the moral of the attackers, the Meccans called a truce and offered their two best warriors, Amr Abd Wudd and Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl, to duel the Muslim’s two best fighters. The Muslims accepted the duel, and opposing forces took a respite from fighting to watch these four gladiators battle it out to the death. The Muslims were victorious, the entire city of Medina shouted, “Allah Ahkbar” (God is great), in unison.
    The Meccans were now exhausted and underfed, victory seemed impossible. The will and fortitude of the Muslims had overwhelmed their opponents yet again, and as they retreated, Muhammad was able to trap and encircle the Qurayzah, the Jewish clan who joined forces with Mecca, before executing seven hundred of them and selling their families as slaves. This sent other Jewish and pagan clans an unmistakable message: that Muhammad wasn’t to be messed with, and again his prestige skyrocketed throughout Arabia.
    Karen Armstrong, ‘Islam: A Short History’ , makes the point that Islamic extremists and those who point to Koranic passages as examples of anti-Semitism, are guilty of taking these particular verses out of context. In Koranic passages that do show any hostility towards the Jews, he is not referring to the Jews or Judaism in general, but rather is specifically addressing the three Jewish clans who formed alliances with Mecca with the purpose of killing him.
    Conversions to Islam were now taking place en masse throughout towns and cities everywhere in southern Arabia. Although Muhammad reminded his followers he was but a mere messenger, his reputation had reached an almost god like altitude.
     

CHAPTER 8: THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO MECCA
     
    In the spring of 628, and with Muhammad and Islam’s popularity growing, the prophet believed he was ready for the ultimate victory party, a triumphant return to the city of his birth, Mecca. The Meccans had tried unsuccessfully to annihilate him and his followers for more than a decade now. They had placed boycotts on him; they had threatened him; they had paid assassins; and they had waged full-scale war against him, and each time he rose victorious. These military victories combined with the merciless revenge killing of the Jewish clan at the Battle of the Trench, and the reverence his followers laid upon him (one non-Muslim tribal chieftain observed, “I have visited Chosroes, King of Persia, at his court, the Roman Caesar in Constantinople and the Negus of Abyssinia in his own country, but never have I seen a king treated by his subjects with the veneration