Keeping this fact in view he sent men to Makkah as well as...

Keeping this fact in view he sent men to Makkah as well as to the areas adjoining Medina to invite Muslims to fight in the path of Allah and also to ask well-to-do Muslims to provide for the expenses of war by making payment of zakat. Soon after the proclamation made by the Prophet, 30,000 persons declared their readiness to participate in the battle and gathered in the camping ground of Medina (Thaniyya tul Wida’). The expenses of the war were provided by collecting zakat.

Out of these 30,000 men, 10,000 were mounted soldiers and the remaining 20,000 were infantry-men. Later the Prophet ordered that every tribe should choose a standard for itself [2] .

People who refused to participate in the Battle The Battle of Tabuk was the best occasion on which the self-sacrificing persons and the pretenders and hypocrites could be recognized because general mobilization was ordered when the weather was very hot and the business community of Medina was ready to harvest the palm dates. Refusal of some of them, on various pretexts, to take part in the battle cast off the veil from their real faces and Qur’anic verses were revealed condemning their action.

Some persons declined to take part in this sacred jihad for the following reasons: 1. When the Prophet proposed that Jadd ibn Qays, who was an influential man, join the army against the Romans, he replied thus: “I have a fanatical attachment with women. I am, therefore, afraid that I may chance to see Roman women and may not be able to control myself”. On having heard this childish excuse of his the Prophet decided to leave him alone and to contact others.

Jadd was condemned by Allah in verse 49 of Qur’an 9. 2. The hypocrites: Those persons, who had ostensibly embraced Islam but had, in fact, no interest in it, were preventing the people on different pretexts from taking part in this jihad. At times they put forth the excuse that the weather was very hot. The Divine revelation replied to their objection in verse 81 of Qur’an 9.

There were some persons who frightened the Muslims of participation in this battle and said : “The Arabs are not competent to fight with the Romans and consequently all the participants in the battle will be tied with ropes and sold in the free markets “ [3] . 3.