Sariyyat Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ

The Sariyyah of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ was among the earliest military expeditions organized by the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ after the Hijrah to Madīnah. The expedition occurred in 1 AH / 623 CE and formed part of the broader effort to monitor Quraysh caravan routes and assert the presence of the Muslim community in the region surrounding Madīnah. The Prophet ﷺ appointed Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ (RA) as commander of a small detachment composed primarily of muhājirūn, reportedly numbering around twenty men. The mission was directed toward al-Kharrār, a location situated near an important trade route used by the Quraysh caravans traveling between Makkah and Syria.

According to the classical sīrah sources, the Muslim detachment travelled on foot by night and concealed themselves during the day to avoid detection. Their objective was to intercept a Quraysh caravan, but by the time they reached al-Kharrār, the caravan had already passed the area. Consequently, no military engagement occurred, and the expedition returned to Madīnah without combat. Despite the absence of fighting, the expedition reflected the evolving strategic posture of the Muslims as they sought to challenge Quraysh economic influence and secure the survival of the nascent Islamic polity.

The Sariyyah of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ occupies an important place in maghāzī literature because it illustrates the earliest phase of Muslim military organization before the major battles of Badr, Uḥud, and al-Khandaq. Some historical reports also note that Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ (RA) was the first Muslim to shoot an arrow in the path of God during one of the early expeditions, symbolizing the beginning of armed resistance against Quraysh persecution. Classical historians including Ibn Hishām, al-Wāqidī, Ibn Saʿd, and al-Ṭabarī preserve accounts of the expedition in their narratives of the formative Madinan period.

## References

1 Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Saʿd al-Baṣrī, Ṭabaqāt Ibn Saʿd, trans. ʿAbdullāh al-ʿAmadī (Karachi: Dār al-Ishāʿat, 2003), 1: 246. 2 Qāḍī Muḥammad Sulaymān Salmān Manṣūrpūrī, Wa-mā arsalnāka illā raḥmatan li’l-ʿālamīn (Lahore: Progressive Books, 2022), 2: 150-70. 3 Muhammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, Urdu trans. Sāʾīm Chishtī (Lahore: Chishtī Kutubkhānah, 2024). 4 Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Muḥammad Bākhshīsh Abū Mālik (Casablanca: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1994).