The Makkans' Pledge

immediately after the great conquest, the makkans came to realize that the only way to success lay in the avenue of islam. they complied with the new realities and gathered to pledge fealty to the prophet [pbuh]. the men came first pledging full obedience in all areas they can afford. then came the women to follow the men’s example. the prophet [pbuh] with ‘umar bin al-khattab receiving the pledge of fealty and communicating to them for him. hind bint ‘utbah, abu sufyan’s wife, came in the trail of women disguised lest the prophet [pbuh] should recognize and account for her, having chewed the liver of hamzah, his uncle. the prophet [pbuh] accepted their allegiance on condition that they associate none with allâh, to which they immediately agreed. he added that they should not practise theft. here hind complained that her husband, abu sufyan, was tight-fisted. her husband interrupted granting all his worldly possessions to her. the prophet [pbuh] laughed and recognized the woman. she implored him to extend his pardon to her and efface all her previous sins. some other conditions were appended including the prohibition of adultery, infanticide or forging falsehood. to all these orders, hind replied positively swearing that she would not have come to take an oath of allegiance if she had had the least seed of disobedience to him. on returning home, she broke her idol admitting her delusion as regards stone-gods.

the messenger of allâh [pbuh] stayed in makkah for 19 days. during that period he used to define the way to islam, guide people to the orthodox path. he ordered abu usaid al-khuza‘i to restore the pillars of the holy sanctuary, sent missions to all quarters inviting them to adopt islam and break down the graven images still lying in the vicinity of makkah, and he did have all of them scrapped, inculcating in the believers’ ears his words:

"whoever believes in allâh and the hereafter is supposed to scrap out the idols that should happen to be in his house."