Sariyyat Abū al-ʿUjāʾ

The Sariyyah of Abū al-ʿUjāʾ was a military expedition organized by the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ during the Madinan period and entrusted to Abū al-ʿUjāʾ al-Sulamī. The expedition is generally dated to 8 AH / 629 CE and was directed toward groups of Banū Sulaym in the region surrounding Madīnah. Like many smaller sarāyā of the later Madinan years, its objective was to monitor potentially hostile tribes and maintain security along important routes connected to the Muslim community.

According to the classical sīrah and maghāzī traditions, the Muslim detachment encountered resistance from members of Banū Sulaym, leading to a brief confrontation. During the engagement, Abū al-ʿUjāʾ was reportedly wounded, while the opposing tribesmen dispersed into the desert. The expedition did not result in a major battle, yet it reflected the continuing tensions between the expanding Muslim polity and certain tribal groups of central Arabia.

Although the reports concerning this sariyyah are relatively brief, the expedition illustrates the Prophet’s ﷺ broader military and political strategy in the later Madinan period. Small mobile detachments were frequently dispatched to deter hostile activity, strengthen Muslim authority, and secure the regions surrounding Madīnah. The Sariyyah of Abū al-ʿUjāʾ is therefore remembered as part of the wider network of expeditions recorded in the early maghāzī literature.

## References

1 Ṣafī al-Raḥmān Mubārakpūrī, al-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm (Urdu) (Lahore: Maktabah al-Salafiyyah, 1995), 525. 2 Shiblī Nuʿmānī and Syed Sulaimān Nadwī, Sīrat al-Nabī (Lahore: Maktabah Khalīl, 1990), 1: 272. 3 Muhammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, Urdu trans. Sāʾīm Chishtī (Lahore: Chishtī Kutubkhānah, 2024)

## References
4 Qāḍī Muḥammad Sulaymān Salmān Manṣūrpūrī, Wa-mā arsalnāka illā raḥmatan li’l-ʿālamīn (Lahore: Progressive Books, 2022), 2: 166.

## References
5 Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Muḥammad Bākhshīsh Abū Mālik (Casablanca: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1994).