The Al-Qarada raid was an event in early Islamic history which took place in Jumad at Thaniya, in the year 3 A.H of the Islamic calendar, i.e. November 624. The Meccans led by Safwan ibn Umayyah, who lived on trade, left in Summer for Syria for their seasonal trade business. After

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

received intelligence about the Caravan's route, Muhammad ordered

Zayd ibn Haritha Zayd ibn Haritha ( ar, زَيْد ٱبْن حَارِثَة, ') (), was an early Muslim, sahabah 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 Kha ...

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 ''Sunan Abu Dawood'' ( ar-at, سنن أبي داود, Sunan Abī Dāwūd) is one of the ''Kutub al-Sittah'' (six major hadith collections), collected by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (d.889). Introduction Abu Dawood compiled twenty-one books related to ...

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 Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām ibn Ayyūb al-Ḥimyarī al-Muʿāfirī al-Baṣrī ( ar, أبو محمد عبدالملك بن هشام ابن أيوب الحميري المعافري البصري; died 7 May 833), or Ibn Hisham, e ...

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

Tabari ( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari i ...

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

Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum ''Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum'' ( ar, الرحيق المختوم; ), is a seerah book, or biography of the Prophet, which was written by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri. This book was awarded first prize by the Muslim World League in a worldwide competition ...

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

Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb al-Zurʿī l-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 school ...

in his biography of Muhammad,

Zad al-Ma'ad ''Zad al-Ma'ad Fi Hadyi Khair Al 'Ibaad'' ( ar, زاد المعاد في هدي خير العباد) 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. ...

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

Hadith

The

Sahih Bukhari Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Al ...

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 Nejd