The Hudaybiyyah peace treaty is an important event in Islamic history. In the year 6 Hijri, fourteen hundred companions left for Umrah (pilgrimage to Makkah) with the Prophet (P.B.U.H) but the Quraysh stopped them at Hudaybiyyah. After much negotiation, an agreement was settled, called the Hudaybiyyah peace treaty, which allowed Muslims to perform Umrah the following year, but they had to return this year. There were other conditions in the treaty that Muslims considered disgraceful.
When the Muslims were returning disappointed after considering this incident as their defeat, Allah Almighty revealed the verses of Surah Fath in which this treaty was described as an ‘open victory’. In the time to come, it became very clear that this statement of Allah Almighty was one hundred percent correct. Two years after this incident, Muslims had become the rulers of the whole of Arabia and, just two decades later, of the entire civilized world.
While there are many more lessons to be found in this Hudaybiyyah peace treaty, it also shows that there are two sides to every issue in life. This Hudaybiyyah treaty was considered by the Muslims as their humiliation and defeat based on certain conditions. But another aspect of this incident was that the Quraysh, who did not even want to give the Muslims the right to live, for the first time declared the Muslims as an equal power in Arabia. Those who could not even think of allowing Muslims to enter the Haram were now forced to allow Muslims to perform Umrah themselves. The Quraysh did not do all this out of love for the Muslims, but it was the greatest acknowledgment of their defeat against the growing power of the Muslims. The Muslims could not see all this in the intensity of their emotions, but the existence of Allah Almighty, Who is above every weakness, called this situation a “clear victory”.
There is a positive side to every problem in life. Man should always look at this positive side. Building the future by enduring the hardships of the present; attaining heaven by enduring the hardships of patience; deserving of God’s forgiveness by forgiving the evils of the people; persevering on the path of great success by giving up the shortcut of small benefits; these and alike other aspects come before the individual and the nation, but we do not see them.
A successful person is not one who does not face hardships, defeats, disappointments and troubles in life. The successful person is the one who sees the other side and the other aspect hidden in all of them.
Translated by Muzamil Nazeer