April 2021 – Page 31 – Aal-e-Qutub Aal-e-Syed Abdullah Shah Ghazi

Post-Hudaibiyah Hostilities

The Invasion of Ghabalı or Dhi Qarad

It was in fact not a battle but rather a clash carried out against a platoon of Bani Fazarah. It occurred at Dhi Qarad, a reservoir of water a day’s journey from Madinah. Al-Bukhari named a chapter about it in which he indicated that it occurred three days before the battle of Khaibar. Muslim reported a chain of narration from Salamah bin Al-Akwa’t saying the same. The majority of the writers on the battles of the Prophetﷺ list it before AlHudaibiyah, but what is most correct is what Al-Bukhari and Muslim mentioned. [1] It has been narrated on the authority of Salamah bin Al-Akwa’ it, the hero of this battle: “Allâh’s Messengerﷺ

sent one of his slaves Rabah with his camels to a nearby pasture. I, taking Talhah’s horse, went there for the same purpose. When the day dawned, ‘Abdur-Rahman Al-Fazari made a raid, drove away all the camels, and killed the man who looked after them. I told Rabah to ride the horse, take it to Talhah and inform Allâh’s Messenger ﷺ that the polytheists had made away with his camels. Then I stood upon a hillock and turning my face to Madinah, shouted thrice: ‘Come to our help!’ After that I set out in pursuit of the raiders, shooting at them with arrows and chanting (self-eulogistic) verse: I am the son of Al-Akwa’ Today is the day of defeat for the mean. By Allâh, I continued shooting at them and killing their animals. Whenever a horseman turned upon me, I would come to a tree (hidding myself) sitting at its base, shoot at him and killing his horse. At last they entered a narrow mountain gap. I ascended that mountain and held them checked throwing stones at them. I continued to chase them in this way until I got all the camels

released, none remaining with them. They fled in all directions and I following shooting at them continually until they dropped more than thirty mantles and thirty lances, lightening their burden. On everything they dropped, I put a mark with some stones so that Allâh’s Messengerﷺ than and his Companions might recognize them (that it was booty left by the enemy). They went on until they came to a narrow valley. They sat down to eat something, and I sat on the top of a tapering rock. Four of them ascended the mountain coming towards me. When they were near enough to hear me, I shouted: ‘Do you recognize me?’ They said: ‘No. Who are you?’ I said: ‘I am Salamah, son of Al-Akwa’. I can get anyone of you I like, but none of you can get me.’ So they returned. I did not move from my place until I saw the horsemen of Allâh’s Messenger ﷺ came riding through the trees. The foremost among them was Akhram, behind him was Abu Qatadah Al-Ansari followed by Al-Miqdad bin Al-Aswad. Akhram and ‘Abdur-Rahman Al-Fazari inﷺ combat. Akhram killed ‘Abdur-Rahman’s horse but the latter managed to strike him with his lance and kill him. ‘Abdur-Rahman turned around riding Akhram’s horse. Abu Qatadah, seeing this, got engaged in fierce combat with ‘AbdurRahman, struck him with his lance and it was fatal. The polytheists consequently fled away and I was in their pursuit until before sunset they reached a valley with a spring of water called Dhi Qarad. They rested there to have a drink. I however, running in hot pursuit, turned them out of the valley before they could drink a drop of water. Later on, the Prophet ﷺ along with his Companions, overtook me. I said: ‘O Messenger of Allâh, ﷺlet me select from our people one hundred men and I will follow the plunderers and finish them.’ In reply, the Prophet said:ﷺ ‘Ibn Al-Akwa’. you have taken enough and so now you have to show nobility: they have reached the locality of Ghatafan where they are having feast.’ He added: “Our best horseman today is Abu Qatadah, and our best footman today is Salamah.’ He allotted me two shares of the booty – the share meant for the horseman and the other meant for the

footman. Intending to return to Madinah, as an honor, he made me mount behind him on his she-camel called Al-‘Adba’,”[1] Ibn Umm Maktum was given the administration of Madinah and Miqdad bin ‘Amr city in the standard by the Prophetﷺ during this invasion.

1- By the heavens and The Knocker.
2- How will you comprehend what the The Knocker is?
3- It’s a piercing star.
86- At-Tariq The Knocker, 1-3

The word “Tariq” stems from the root “TaRaQa” meaning “knocking, striking.” In many translations of the Quran this word was taken
for a name and left untranslated. The word may also mean “to pulsate” like a beating heart, from which the word “pulsar” is derived,
denoting an object that is far away in space, and like a star produces a
regular radio signal.

LITTLE GREEN MEN OF THE UNIVERSE

In 1967 Jocellyn Bell accidentally stumbled on a gravity time warp a
million times greater than that produced by the sun. The object she
detected was emitting regular pulses. These pulses were reminiscent of
heart-beats. At the time, such a pulsating object was not known to
exist in space. At first, it was concluded that these signals might well
have been propagated by intelligent beings, inhabitants of other planets. Invitation cards were printed, the media were notified and a seminar was arranged. LGM (Little Green Men) signified that intelligent
creatures had been detected and were contacted by radio signals. Not
long after, the source of the signals in question was discovered: it was
a spinning neutron star, an object whose velocity was incommensurably great. The neutron star had another name: “pulsar.” Bell’s dis-covery failed to establish contact with the inhabitants of space, but she
had found pulsars. The words “pulsar” and “pulsating” seem to
accord with the word Tariq of the Quran, which means “knocker.”

CAN YOU COMPREHEND WHAT A PULSAR IS?

In the second verse of the sura, The Knocker, we read: “How will
you comprehend what The Knocker is?” A spoonful of matter taken
from a pulsar would weigh one billion tons. Were we to depose a small
particle of it on earth, the particle would pierce it and end up in its
center. Just think of it, a spoonful of any matter on earth hardly
weighing more than a few grams! This shows how difficult it is to conceive of a pulsar. A pulsar is produced by the compression of stars a
couple of times bigger than the sun. The diameter of a pulsar can be
about 15-20 km. Were we to compress our world in a like manner, we
would have a sphere of 100 meters of diameter. It takes the earth 24
hours to rotate around its own axis, whereas the pulsar rotates around
its own axis many times per second; all these things show how difficult it is to comprehend this striking, pulsating star.

LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN WORK A MIRACLE

Some have tried to identify the star mentioned in the verse and have
claimed it to be a certain celestial body, like Saturn or Venus. Mustafa
Mlivo, who claims these assumptions are not correct and that “Tariq”
is none other than a pulsar, says the following:
Characteristics of the celestial object mentioned in 86:1-3 are:
1- It pulsates (knocks);
2- It is a star;
3- It penetrates, pierces, drills.
None of the solar system planets meets all those criteria because:
A- None of the planets produces pulsations that give the
impression of knocking, beating.
B- None of them is a star. They are cold celestial bodies.

C- None of them produces such an intensive radiation.
As one can see, the Quran had already mentioned a star that was
to be discovered. This star was indeed discovered, but in the year
1970. Since the concept of a “pulsating star” could not be imagined
at that time, it was rendered in translation as it stood, i.e., “Tariq,”
the meaning of it being explained in footnotes, in dictionaries and
interpretations.
The Quran whose every sentence, every word is based on the finest
of meanings, wherein lie hidden realms still to be discovered. The
more we study the Quran, the more we are enlightened, the more we
learn.