The Al-Qarada raid was an event in early Islamic history which took place in the month of Jumada al-Thani, in the year 3 A.H of the Islamic calendar, i.e. November 624. The Meccans led by

Safwan ibn Umayya Ṣafwān ibn Umayya ibn Khalaf ibn Habib ibn Wahb ibn Hudhafa ibn Jumah al-Jumahi (; died 661) was a ''sahabi'' (companion) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari. ''Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk''. Translated by Landau-Tassero ...

h, who lived on trade, left in the Summer for Syria for their seasonal trade business. After

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

received intelligence about the Caravan's route, Muhammad ordered

Zayd ibn Haritha Zayd ibn Ḥāritha al-Kalbī () (), was an early Muslim, Sahabi and the adopted son of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. He is commonly regarded as the fourth person to have accepted Islam, after Muhammad's wife Khadija, Muhammad's cousin Ali, a ...

to go after the Caravan, and they successfully raided it and captured 100,000 dirhams worth of booty.Note: Book contains a list of battles of Muhammad in Arabic, English translation availabl
here
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Background

The Meccans were at loss on which trade route to take, since Muslims successfully attacked many of their caravans and intercepted their trade routes previously. Therefore, they tried to find another trade route for their caravan trade. A group of Quraysh headed by Safwan ibn Umayyah took the risk of sending a caravan through a route far east of Medina, using a reliable guide. However, Muhammad got news of the plan, and sent Zayd ibn Harithah with 100 men.
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Raid

News of the trade route leaked out through Nu'am Bin Masud al Ashja'i, who was under the effect of alcohol. They caught up with the Caravan at a place called al-Qardah. He trailed the caravan and made a sudden attack on it. The leader of the caravan fled without resistance, the caravan was carrying silver and goods. Zayd took the booty, and arrested their guide, they also captured two prisoners and took them back to Medina.

Return to Medina

The booty (goods) captured was valued at 100,000 dirhams. The booty was distributed among the fighters, and Muhammad got one-fifth and gave it to the poor. The guide in this raid, called Furat, became a prisoner of the Muslims.Tabari, vol vii, p.99 He later accepted Islam out of his own will, and was allowed to go free according to Ibn Hisham.Mubarakpuri, The sealed nectar: biography of the Noble Prophet , p. 291. The Sunan Abu Dawud hadith collection also mentions that a man called Furat was captured.

Islamic primary sources about the event

Biographical literature

This event is mentioned in

Ibn Hisham Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham ibn Ayyub al-Himyari (; died 7 May 833), known simply as Ibn Hisham, was a 9th-century Abbasid historian and scholar. He grew up in Basra, in modern-day Iraq and later moved to Egypt. Life Ibn Hisham has ...

's biography of Muhammad, as well as other historical sources, including books by Persian Jurist,

Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present-day ...

. Modern secondary sources which mention this, include the award-winning book,

Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum ''Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum'' (; ) is a seerah book (biography of Prophet Muhammad) by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri. It was awarded first prize by the Muslim World League in a worldwide competition of biographies of Prophet Muhammad held in Mecca in 19 ...

(The Sealed Nectar). The event is also mentioned by the Muslim jurist

Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb az-Zurʿī d-Dimashqī l-Ḥanbalī (29 January 1292–15 September 1350 CE / 691 AH–751 AH), commonly known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ("The son of the principal of he scho ...

in his biography of Muhammad,

Zad al-Ma'ad ''Zad al-Ma'ad Fi Hadyi Khair Al 'Ibaad'' () is a 5-volume book, translated as Provisions of the Hereafter in the Guidance of the Best of Servants, written by the Islamic scholar Ibn al-Qayyim. The word 'Zad' in Arabic is used to refer to the fo ...

.Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, Za'd al Ma'd, p. 2/91. (see als
Abridged zād al-maʻād

Hadith

The

Sahih Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...

hadith collection mention that Muhammad sent some people on a sariya (military expedition) to Nejd. The hadith says: , and also mention that Muhammad sent some Muslims on a Military expedition to Nejd. According to

, in this raid, a man called Furat was captured, also mentions this.

References

Notes

*{{citation, title=The sealed nectar: biography of the Noble Prophet, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_80rJHIaOMC&pg=PA290, first=Saifur Rahman Al, last=Mubarakpuri, year=2005, publisher=Darussalam Publications, isbn=978-9960-899-55-8 624 Campaigns ordered by Muhammad History of Najd