Islam critiqued revisits an expedition; Tabuk, another divine vitory?

In answer to the video "Surah 9:29 in Context"

Following the campaign of Ta'if, the Messenger of Allah then sent letters to the Kings and rulers of the territories adjoining the Arabian peninsula inviting them to Islam. 

After his death, his successors conquered all the countries to whose heads he had written letters calling them to Islam. This is the letter sent to Heraclius 

"Caesar then asked for the letter of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and it was read. Its contents were: "In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful (This letter is) from Muhammad, the slave of Allah, and His Apostle, to Heraculius, the Ruler of the Byzantine. Peace be upon the followers of guidance. Now then, I invite you to Islam (i.e. surrender to Allah), embrace Islam and you will be safe; embrace Islam and Allah will bestow on you a double reward. But if you reject this invitation of Islam, you shall be responsible for misguiding the tillers (i.e. your nation). O people of the Scriptures! Come to a word common to you and us and you, that we worship. None but Allah, and that we associate nothing in worship with Him; and that none of us shall take others as Lords besides Allah. Then if they turn away, say: Bear witness that we are (they who have surrendered (unto Him)..(3.64)"

The invitation is purely a religious one, without physical threat of armed conflict. The "safety" resulting from embracing Islam is in relation to divine punishment in the hereafter. This is made clear through the prophet's quote of 3:64 where eachone is free to choose his own path after guidance has been conveyed. The prophet's insistance here on the sin of misleading the common people is remarkable in that context. He firstly promises the ruler a double reward for accepting Islam (a counter productive incentive if the prophet's aim was his own enrichment through taxation of a foreign nation). The double reward being this ruler's own salvation coupled with being credited for introducing his own Trinitarian misguided folks to the truth of Islam. In those days it was the state religion that was emulated by the citizen. Rejection on the other hand doesnt entail invasion, which would have been what the prophet supposedly wanted in his material pursuit, but instead, we see again reference to spiritual consequences; the ruler will be responsible for misguiding his people. The prophet here skips even mentioning the personal sin of the ruler, and instead focuses on the enormity of misguiding the masses through spiritual tyranny. The prophet here is interested in guidance, more particularly of that ruler's own people, stuck for centuries in the dark conjectures of their Trinitarian falsehood.

In Rajab in the height of summer heat, a time of severe drought that discouraged many 9:81, the Prophet got all willing Muslims and newly converted Arab tribes to get ready for jihad against the Byzantines and their Arab allies. They were preparing a large assault on the northern approaches of Arabia (As confirmed by Sahih Muslim, Ibn Sa’d, Kitab Futuh al-Buldan and Al-Zurqani) to avenge the last engagement at Mu'tah and to crush the nascent power of the Muslims who now stood at the frontier of both the Byzantine and Persian empires. News about Byzantine soldiers setting up camps in the frontier strip of Syria reached the Prophet through the caravans traders travelling between the Hijaz and Syria.

The importance of that encounter was such that only the most hardened and serious elements were called to join. Although some failed answering the call, the prophet didnt blame them, even praised them as if they had accompanied him. On the other hand the half-hearted people seeking vain excuses, and hypocrites, were told to stay back even though they did not explicitly refuse joining. A small example to corroborate is that of Jadd b. Qays, the chief of Bani Salamah, who was told to remain behind based on his lust for female war captives. This by the way bellies the weak reports where it is the prophet that supposedly encouraged him to go to battle with the prospect of acquiring women captives. Some comentators have said that 9:49 refers to him. Although their freedom wasnt interfered with, these hypocrites and opportunistic Muslims would later be temporarily ostracized by the community, with the prophet even refusing to accept their zakat. They were neither fought nor killed, but were instead naturally cast away the more the Muslims gained ascendent over their open enemies. Most of them were known through their deeds and sayings, and were thus marked with shame and placed under scrutiny.

It is to be noted, the Byzantines were already busy fomenting sedition in Medina long before this military preparation. Their agent in Medina was a Christian monk named Abu ‘Amir ar-Rahib who had sought their help to eliminate the prophet and the Muslims. This man fled from Medina to Mecca following the Muslims' victory of Badr and began stirring the Quraysh in the subsequent battles against the prophet and actively participating in the battle of Uhud where he personally targeted the prophet. As the momentum began more and more to be on the Muslims' side, he eventually fled to Syria from where he began lobbying the Byzantines, as well as sending letters to his Medina accomplices, giving them instructions on how to prepare for his return together with his new powerful allies. Among the preparations the Medina hypocrites did, prior to the Tabuk expedition, was the building of a mosque, referred to in the Quran 9:107-110, that would serve as their base and possible luring ground where they could assassinate the prophet.

When rumors started spreading regarding a possible invasion, although fearful at the thought of having to face another enemy mightier than them, the Muslims did not immidiately make preparations for war. The manpower and organization required could not be set up simply based on rumors.

The Muslims themselves did not pay much heed to these talks and were instead more preoccupied by issues within the prophet's household. Had the Muslims been that easy to be triggered into war based on mere rumours, then they would have certainly gone forth considering the magnitude of the threat to their lives, and would not have dismissed that news as of lesser importance than the rumors of their leader divorcing his wives. It thus took another month before the Muslims started war preparations, meaning the rumors must have been confirmed during that time and enough evidence were gathered to convince the believers to go forth. They were convinced to prepare for a long march despite the severe drought and heat of that particular period, although the fruits of their trees and fields had ripened so as to be collected and relieve the people from the scarcity of produce, despite the battle front being at a long march and that the enemies in Medina and among the Quraysh could potentially stab the central government's back at that moment when all fighting men were far away.

The whole passage in sura tawba speaks of the difficulty of that endeavour, to the point it caused a seperation between the most sincere in faith from the rest. To argue that all these efforts and sacrifices were made because of mere rumours, is unfounded. When all were ready for the journey, the Prophet left Ali in control of Medina and delivered a sermon in which he asked all to help one another and spend from their wealth to the poor. Ali was the Muslims' standard bearer in nearly all Islamic battles and the fact that he was discharged from his jihad duties on that occasion highlights the degree of threat coming from the Medina hypocrites and the surrounding enemies.

The prophet would never had left Medina vulnerable at that point had he not reached a high level of certainty concerning the gathering Byzantines. Neither would the Muslims have overwhelmingly agreed to join given the risk to their homes and the aforementioned sacrifices they had to endure.

Again, never would they have left their capital at the mercy of their enemies simply based on rumours. All clans responded to the prophet's call to charity with generosity, the 1st one to give being Uthman (the 3rd Caliph) who also sponsored an army of poor people known as jayshu'l-`usrah for the occasion. 9:38-57 alludes to this episode. The largest ever army of Believers led by Muhammad arrived at Tabuk in the month of Sha'ban, but came the news that the Romans had withdrawn from the border towns. The enemy must have been informed through their Medina allies and spies of the formidable force gathered by the Muslims and thus eventually judged it wasnt in their interest to pursue such an adventure. In addition, they risked compromising their control over the Levant in case of defeat.

This was a humiliation considering the prestige of the Byzantines who were now reduced to negate/silence the whole thing, acting as if they had never intended launching an attack, and that any such report was a mere gossip, and thus wished to prove their impartiality regarding the events which took place in Arabia. However it is precisely this silence and lack of subsequent action that betrays them. Any empire, let alone that of the Romans, would see such an unprovoked move and show of force, alliances with border clans whom some were their former allies, as a major aggression. This is even seen in today's geopolitics. Any similar move would cause an arms race and amassing of troops on both sides of the border. Clearly the Byzantines' silence was due to them having seen the proof that the nascent Muslim nation could call their bluff at anytime.

The prophet thus had no reason to pursue them into their own territory as his goal had already been achieved. And further the Quran only allows fighting in self-defense, whether in the form of a pre-emptive strike of iminent danger, or in answer to an open attack. The only squirmish that occured was when the prophet sent a delegation to bring a local Christian chief, Ukaydir of Dumah, who had pledged alliegance to the Byzantines against the Muslims. The locals had previously been hostile to Muslim passers by and gathered forces to threaten Medina. The prophet desired to settle the matter with him peacefully and secure the Muslim nation's borders from hostile alliances.

The expedition sent by the prophet however resulted in one death among the enemies, the circumstances of that incident arent clear. Ukaydir was captured then released on the condition he would personally come to the prophet as requested, which he did. He agreed to stop all hostilities and be part of the Muslim alliance, under the Muslim state, benefitting from his rights and obligations as a member of a religious minority. Previously to that the prophet had shown him his kind intentions by even returning his royal coat that was brought to him by the prophet's envoy, saying that

"The dress of the people who will go to Paradise will be more wonderful".

The Muslims finally returned to Medina relieved that no fighting took place with the Byzantines, after several days of camping on the spot, signing several peace treaties to secure the nation's borders. Some reports state the Muslims remained in Tabuk for up to 2 weeks.

After the campaign of Tabuk which echoed in all corners of the Peninsula, the remaining pagan tribes came swearing allegiance to the Prophet, declaring their conversion and destroying their idols. The Prophet used to give the best welcome to anyone who sought him, and to reinstate the local leaders in their positions of power upon conversion to Islam. Now the conversion of the Hijaz was complete. The power of the Muslim nation extended from the frontiers of Byzantium in the north to Yemen and Hadramawt in the south and teachers were sent to the different provinces in order to preach the doctrines of Islam and educate the people in monotheism.
The Messenger of Allah had inflicted the greatest blow on the devil and his cult of idolatry from among all God's prophets, and in this way only Moses could compare to him.

24:55"Allah has promised to those of you who believe and do good that He will most certainly make them rulers in the earth as He made rulers those before them, and that He will most certainly establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them, and that He will most certainly, after their fear, give them security in exchange; they shall serve Me, not associating aught with Me; and whoever is ungrateful after this, these it is who are the transgressors."

These were not the words of a human being which had all the chances of not being materialized. They were the words of God which were spoken by His messenger at a time when the disbelievers were convinced that time itself would prove the prophet wrong and defeat his purpose, that his teachings were false or at best, a delusion 52:30. Thus they materialized and became part of history – in fact created history which has no parallel in the annals of this world.