Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 149some distance with it. A large and important expeditionsuch as this had never before gone without the Prophet sacommanding in person. As the Prophet sa walked along tobid the expedition farewell, he counselled andinstructed. When they reached the spot where thepeople of Medina generally bade farewell to friends andrelations going to Syria, the Prophet sa stopped and said:I urge you to fear God and to deal justly with Muslimswho go with you. Go to war in the name of Allah and fightthe enemy in Syria, who is your enemy, as well as Allah's.When you are in Syria, you will meet those who rememberGod much in their houses of worship. You should have nodispute with them, and give no trouble to them. In theenemy country do not kill any women or children, nor theblind or the old; do not cut down any tree, nor pull downany building (Halbiyya, Vol. 3).Having said this, the Prophet sa returned and theMuslim army marched forward. It was the first Muslimarmy sent to fight the Christians. When Muslimsreached the Syrian border, they heard that the Kaiserhimself had taken the field with one hundred thousandof his own soldiers and another hundred thousandrecruited from the Christian tribes of Arabia. Confrontedby such large enemy numbers, the Muslims half wantedto stop on the way and send word to the Prophet sa atMedina. For he might be able to reinforce their numbersor wish to send fresh instructions. When the armyleaders took counsel, ‘Abdullah bin Rawaha ra stood up,full of fire, and said, "My people, you set out from yourhomes to die as martyrs in the way of God, and nowwhen martyrdom is in sight you seem to flinch. We havenot fought so far because we were better equipped thanthe enemy in men or material. Our mainstay was ourfaith. If the enemy is so many times superior to us innumbers or equipment, what does it matter? Onereward out of two we must have. We either win, or die asmartyrs in the way of God." The army heard ibnRawaha ra and was much impressed. He was right, they