- The Muslims marched towards the invaders with an army of 1000 men.
- Munafiqs revealed: Abdullah ibn Ubayy deserted the army and left with 300 of the men, the munafiqs.
- Battle tactics used by Prophet Muhammad
- Fortications abandoned: The prophet gave the archerers unambiguous instructions to maintain a defensive position, yet they were ignored to try and obtain some spoils of war, giving the enemy a critical advantage
In many ways, this event was a precursor to Imam Ali's succession being ignored years down the road:
- If 300 men were blatantly hypocritical when the population was just 2000, then how many must have been munafiqs when there were 100,000 Muslims when the Prophet Muhammad passed away?
- The prophet gave clear, unambiguous instructions to the archers, yet they were ignored for some spoils of war. What instructions might such people ignore to gain the caliphate?
Lecture notes available at http://www.why-quran.org/?p=486.
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