BISMILLAH IR RAHMAN IR RAHEEM The Spoils of War Adapted for children from an authentic Hadith Transmitted by Abu Hurayrah by (Anne Stephens) Khadeijah A. Darwish THE SPOILS OF WAR Prophet Muhammad, praise and peace be upon him, told his companions that before Islam Allah decreed that the Jews were forbidden to keep anything they seized after a battle as spoils of war. He told them that Allah decreed that all the spoils should be sacrificed by gathering them together and burning them. However, the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, informed his companions that on account of their poverty Allah in His Mercy had turned toward the Muslims and that the spoils of war had been permitted to them. There was a certain prophet who was about to lead his army into battle. He gathered them together and informed them that only certain people were allowed to take part in that particular battle. Those who were to remain behind were those who had made a marriage contract but had not as yet been able to set up home together, those who had built the walls of their home but had not erected its roof and those who had purchased either pregnant ewes or she-camels which were about to give birth. Once the prophet and his army were ready he gave the order to march. They reached the town of the enemy just before sunset and their prophet said to the sun, "You are commissioned as I am commissioned." Then he supplicated to Allah saying, "O Allah, delay the setting of the sun for us" and the sun was prevented from setting until after the battle when the prophet and his army were victorious. Now that the battle was over the prophet called upon his men to gather up the spoils of war and bring it to him so that everything might be sacrificed according to their law. Soon, the spoils of war were heaped up into a huge pile and the prophet tried to set light to it, but no matter how hard he tried it refused to burn. The prophet knew the reason it would not burn was because Allah had not accepted it so he called his army together and announced, "Someone amongst you has stolen from the spoils of war. Let a man from each tribe come forward and give me his allegiance." One by one the tribal representatives took the hand of the prophet and pledged their allegiance. Then, just as one tribal representative took the hand of the prophet it stuck firmly and the prophet announced, "Someone in your tribe is guilty of theft, let each man pledge their allegiance to me." Each member of the tribe pledged their allegiance and once again the hands of either two or three men stuck to the prophet's whereupon he said, "One of you is guilty of theft." It was a very shameful time and the thief knew he could no longer hide what he had done so he fetched all the stolen spoils of war and placed them with the other spoils of war. What he had stolen was gold, not just a little bit but an amount of gold equal to the size of a cow's head! Now that all the spoils of war had been gathered the prophet lit the fire, and all the spoils were consumed whereupon they knew it had been accepted. Peace be upon all the prophets of Allah. QUIZ TIME What was the name of the prophet who led his army? What did he say to the sun? What happened to the sun? Was the prophet victorious? What did they do after the battle? Why didn't the fire burn? What did the prophet ask each tribal representative to do? How did the prophet determine the tribe to which the thief belonged? What had the thief hidden? Did Allah accept the spoils of war in the end? QUIZ ANSWERS Prophet Muhammad, praise and peace be upon him, did not tell us. "You have been commissioned as I have been commissioned." It was prevented from setting. Yes. They gathered the soils of war to be burned. Because someone had stolen some of the spoils of war. Pledge his allegiance for his tribe. When the tribal representative pledged his allegiance his hand stuck to the prophet's, so he knew the thief was from that tribe. He had hidden gold the size of a cow's head. Yes. SCORE 1 - 3 Why not read the story again and try and get a higher score. We know you can do it! 4 -6 Good try! 7-8 Very Good 9-10 Excellent! Very well done, you are a star student Allah.com Don't forget to read the Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad, praise and peace be upon him, there are lots of good stories and he helps us to be better people.