At the time of their departure he gave a letter to the commander and said...

At the time of their departure he gave a letter to the commander and said: "Open this letter after you have performed your journey for two days and act according to its contents[^3] and don't compel anyone of your companions to do a job".

After journeying for two days he opened the letter and found that the Prophet had given these orders: "When you look at my letter proceed on your way and camp in the land of 'Nakhlah' which is situated between Makkah and Ta'if and wait there for Quraysh and inform me about their activities". He acted according to the contents of the letter and all his companions followed him and alighted at that place.

In the meantime there came up suddenly a caravan of Quraysh which was going from Ta'if to Makkah under the supervision of 'Amr Khazrami. The Muslims had also camped near them. To ensure that the enemy might not become aware of their secret they cut the hair of their heads, to give the impression that they were proceeding to Makkah to perform the pilgrimage of the House of Allah.

Their appearance satisfied Quraysh and they said to one another: "These Muslims are going to perform 'Umra' and have nothing to do with us". At this moment the Muslims assembled for war consultations and began exchanging views.

Eventually they realized that in case they waited on that day, which was the last day of Rajab, the sacred month would no doubt come to an end but if in the meantime Quraysh moved away from that spot they would enter the area of 'haram' and fighting in that area was also prohibited. They therefore, concluded that it was preferable to fight in the sacred month than to do so in the area of 'haram'.

Thus, taking the enemy by surprise, they killed Amr Khazrami, [^4]the head of the caravan, with an arrow. As regards his subordinates all of them fled except Uthman bin Abdullah and Hakam bin Kaysan, who were captured by the Muslims. Abdullah bin Jahash brought the merchandise and the two captives to Madina. The Prophet was annoyed to find that the commander of the group had transgressed his orders and had fought in the sacred month instead of performing his duty.

He said: "I had not at all ordered you to fight in the sacred month". Quraysh used this incident as a propaganda weapon and spread the news that Muhammad had violated the respect of the sacred month. The Jews took this incident to be a bad omen and wanted to create trouble. The Muslims rebuked Abdullah and his companions.