Perhaps because of the departure of Abdullah ibn Ubayy with his 300 supporters and the consequent feeling of weakness that spread among the Muslims, some of the Ansar put to the Prophet the proposition that they should ask their Jewish allies to fight alongside them.

The Prophet, however, rejected this proposition out of hand, saying: "We do not need them."

It should be pointed out here that the Prophet was not against seeking help from non-Muslims in principle. On several occasions he sought, and received, help from people who did not, at the time, accept his message or that he was God's Messenger.

Several years before the Battle of Uhud, the Prophet sought the support of Al-Mutim ibn Adiy to enter Makkah safely after the failure of his mission in Ta'if.

When the Prophet left Makkah to emigrate to Madinah, he employed Abdullah

ibn Arqat as a guide to take him through unfamiliar routes. Later, when he was making preparations to fight the Battle of Hunain, the Prophet borrowed 100 shields of body armour and a large quantity of weapons from Safwan ibn Umayyah.

He also asked Mabad ibn Abi Mabad of the tribe of Khuzaah to try to discourage the Quraish from attacking the Muslims at Hamra Al-Asad. None of these people was a Muslim at the time when the Prophet sought his help.

One of them at least — Al-Mutim ibn Adiy — died without ever embracing Islam. Thus the idea of seeking outside help — or more specifically, seeking help from

non-Muslims — is not unacceptable to Islam or to the Prophet.

 Yet he rejected the proposition made by the Ansar to seek the help of their

Jewish allies. This case then needs to be considered in order to determine the cause of the Prophet Muhammad's attitude.

If one reviews these cases where the Prophet sought outside help, one finds that in

none of them was there any question of compromise being asked or given with respect to any principle of Islam.

Thus the Prophet teaches that if this condition is fulfilled, seeking help from outsiders for the benefit of the Muslim community is both acceptable and sound.

The sort of help offered in these incidents was either technical expertise or armament or protection in case of defenselessness against an overpowering enemy.

At no time did the Prophet seek advice (apart from that based on technical expertise) or military support from non-believers.

It is not difficult to determine the reasoning behind this attitude. With regard to advice in order to formulate an opinion and adopt an attitude, the reason for limiting it to Muslims only is that there can never be complete trust that a non-Muslim will give absolutely objective advice to help a religion in which he does not believe.

Military support is also ruled out, because the admission of non-Muslims into an Islamic army constitutes an ever-present danger of it causing a split by withdrawing their support at any time, just as Abdullah ibn Ubayy did when he persuaded one-third of the Muslim army to desert, even before the Muslims reached the battlefield.

From another point of view, if the help of non-Muslims is sought in the actual fighting of a war fought for the cause of God, there could be only two situations. Firstly, there are enough of them to make their presence in the army felt by every soldier.

In such a case, they themselves constitute an apparent danger should they ever contemplate moving against the Muslims in any way, such as joining forces with the enemy, or merely by withdrawing their support when Muslims are in the thick of battle.

If, on the other hand, they represent no danger because there are so few of them, then their presence cannot significantly affect the outcome of the battle. It is better, therefore, not to seek their help at all to guard against any possibility that any one of them should act as a spy for the enemy.

This, then, is the lesson the Prophet taught the Muslims when he said to those who proposed that they should seek help from their Jewish allies: "I do not seek help from a non-Muslim."

One should distinguish here between ‘seeking help’ from nonbelievers and 'cooperation' with a non-believer. Seeking help places Muslims in a weak position vis-à-vis the non-believers. The Muslims are thus the beneficiaries of such help while the non-believers stand to gain nothing from helping.

Cooperation, on the other hand, signifies a situation where both cooperating parties benefit. The fact that the other party stands to benefit from such cooperation serves as a guarantee of its good intentions.

Islam approves of such cooperation, provided that it is limited to the field where cooperation is needed and that the benefit accruing to the Muslims should be greater than that accruing to the non-Muslims.

At Uhud Before the Battle

The Prophet and his 700 Companions who remained with him marched on until they reached Uhud. Their determination to defend the cause of Islam with their lives was unshakeable.

Every one of them was more than ready to give his life for the sake of Islam. The fact that they were heavily outnumbered did not cause them to be down-hearted. They realized that they were on God's side.

As Muslims, they believed that victory can be achieved only with God's help. He alone can grant victory to any particular group of people. They, therefore, prayed God to grant them His help so that they might achieve victory.

Every time the Muslims faced an enemy, they always felt that they would come out with one of two very welcome results: either victory or martyrdom.

Uhud is a mountain with numerous well-defined passages and routes, intersected by a number of valleys, stretching out into a wide semi-circle opposite the narrow plain where the Quraish had encamped. There are numerous pockets in its slopes where soldiers may hide if a defensive strategy is adopted.

The Prophet encamped by the side of the mountain, close to a hill called Mount Ainain which overlooked the plain. The Prophet marshaled his troops, taking advantage of the position of the hill so that they would face their enemy with the hill at their back providing protection against any possible pincer attack.

He deployed 50 marksmen, who were good with arrows, on top of Mount Ainain, giving their command to Abdullah ibn Jubair.

The Prophet's strict orders to these marksmen were that they should protect the Muslims from behind and not allow the enemy to overrun their positions at any cost. He also ordered them not to leave their positions whatever the outcome of the battle.

This last order the Prophet stressed so strongly that he told them that they were not to move, even if they saw with their own eyes their fellow Muslims being killed left, right and center. If the Quraish's horsemen were to try to climb the hill in order to attack the Muslims from behind, they were to repel them with their arrows.

When the Prophet had deployed his troops, he spoke to them, encouraging them to fight and exert their maximum efforts. He also told them not to start fighting until he gave the battle order. At that moment the enemy troops appeared in the plain below

and the two armies were now face to face.

The women from the Quraish were singing and playing music to encourage their troops and boost their morale. When the two armies stood facing each other,

Abu Sufyan, now the undisputed leader of the Quraish, started implementing the strategy he had devised.

He addressed the Ansar in the vain hope of splitting the Muslim ranks. He said to the Aws and the Khazraj that the Quraish had no quarrel with them and did not wish to fight them.

If the Aws and the Khazraj would leave the Quraish to settle their score with their kinsmen, — that is, the Muhajirun (the Muslims who emigrated from Makkah) — then they had nothing to fear from the Quraish. No one replied, and no one was interested in what Abu Sufyan said.

Next spoke Abu Amir, the man who used to foretell that the Prophet was soon to appear, but when the Prophet emigrated to Madinah, Abu Aamir left his people, the Aws, and joined the Quraish with 50 of his kinsfolk. He now made his speech, hoping to persuade his tribesmen to leave the Muslim ranks.

He called to the Aws to respond to him. A response was made, but it was the opposite of what he used to assert to the Quraish. He always claimed that he was the undisputed leader of the Aws and that they would not do anything which displeased him. Their response, however, was to curse and stone him.

Humiliated, he ran back to the Quraish, saying: "Some unknown evil overtook my people after I left them."

Thus the Quraish failed in their two initial aims: to take the Muslims by surprise, and to cause a split in their ranks. The only option left to them was to fight.

To be continued...