The ‘Sacrilegious’ Wars

muhammad [pbuh] was hardly fifteen when the ‘sacrilegious’ wars — which continued with varying fortunes and considerable loss of human life for a number of years — broke out between quraish and banu kinana on the one side and qais ‘ailan tribe on the other. it was thus called because the inviolables were made violable, the prohibited months being included. harb bin omaiyah, on account of his outstanding position and honourable descent, used to be the leader of quraish and their allies. in one of those battles, the prophet [pbuh] attended on his uncles but did not raise arms against their opponents. his efforts were confined to picking up the arrows of the enemy as they fell, and handing them over to his uncles. [ibn hisham 1/184-187; qalb jazeerat al-arab p.260]