THE STORY OF MU'AWIYA BUN ABU SUFYAN (r.t.a) (Episode 1)

 Muslims Till Death:

ASSALAAMU ALAYKUM WARAHMATULLAH WABARAKAATUHU . LET'S START TONIGHT'S EDUCATION. OUR TOPIC IS 👇.                                                                            *THE STORY OF MU'AWIYA BUN  ABU SUFYAN (r.t.a) (Episode 1)*                                                                                                                
Saturday 22nd February 2025. 25 Sha'aban 1446 AH

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Mu'awiya's year of birth is uncertain with 597, 603 or 605 cited by the Muslim traditional sources. His father Abu Sufyan ibn Harb was a prominent Meccan merchant who often led trade caravans to Syria. He emerged as the preeminent leader of the Banu Abd Shams clan of the Quraysh, the dominant tribe of Mecca, during the early stages of its conflict with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The latter also hailed from the Quraysh and was distantly related to Mu'awiya via their common paternal ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy. Mu'awiya's mother, Hind bint Utba, was also a member of the Banu Abd Shams.
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In 624, Muhammad and his followers attempted to intercept a Meccan caravan led by Mu'awiya's father on its return from Syria, prompting Abu Sufyan to call for reinforcements. The Qurayshite relief army was routed in the ensuing Battle of Badr, in which Mu'awiya's elder brother Hanzala and their maternal grandfather, Utba ibn Rabi'a, were killed. Abu Sufyan replaced the slain leader of the Meccan army, Abu Jahl, and led the Meccans to victory against the Muslims at the Battle of Uhud in 625. After his abortive siege of the Holy Prophet pbuh in Medina at the Battle of the Trench in 627, he lost his leadership position among the Quraysh. Mu'awiya and his father may have reached an understanding with Prophet pbuh during the truce negotiations at Hudaybiyya in 628 and Mu'awiya's widowed sister, Umm Habiba, was wed to Muhammad in 629.
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When Prophet captured Mecca in 630, Mu'awiya, his father and his elder brother Yazid embraced Islam. After his abortive siege of the Holy Prophet pbuh in Medina at the Battle of the Trench in 627, he lost his leadership position among the Quraysh. Mu'awiya and his father may have reached an understanding with Prophet pbuh during the truce negotiations at Hudaybiyya in 628 and Mu'awiya's widowed sister, Umm Habiba, was wed to Muhammad in 629. When Prophet captured Mecca in 630, Mu'awiya, his father and his elder brother Yazid embraced Islam.  As part of Prophet's efforts to reconcile with his tribesmen, Mu'awiya was made one of his kātibs (scribes), being one of seventeen literate members of the Quraysh at that time.
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The family moved to Medina to maintain their new-found influence in the nascent Muslim community. After Muhammad died in 632, Abu Bakr became caliph (leader of the Muslim community). Having to contend with challenges to his leadership from the Ansar, the natives of Medina who had provided Prophet pbuh safe haven from his erstwhile Meccan opponents, and the mass defections of several Arab tribes, Abu Bakr(rta) reached out to the Quraysh, particularly its two strongest clans, the Banu Makhzum and Banu Abd Shams, to shore up support for the Caliphate. Among those Qurayshites whom he appointed to suppress the rebel Arab tribes during the Ridda wars (632–633) was Mu'awiya's brother Yazid, whom he later dispatched as one of four commanders in charge of the Muslim conquest of Byzantine Syria in c. 634.
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The caliph appointed Mu'awiya commander of Yazid's vanguard. Through these appointments Abu Bakr gave the family of Abu Sufyan a stake in the conquest of Syria, where Abu Sufyan already owned property in the vicinity of Damascus, in return for the loyalty of the Banu Abd Shams. Abu Bakr's successor Umar (r.

634–644) appointed Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah as the general commander of the Muslim army in Syria in 636 after the rout of the Byzantines at the Battle of Yarmouk, which paved the way for the conquest of the remainder of Syria. Mu'awiya was among the Arab troops that entered Jerusalem with Caliph Umar in 637.
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Afterward, Mu'awiya and Yazid were dispatched by Abu Ubayda to conquer the coastal towns of Sidon, Beirut and Byblos.

Following the death of Abu Ubayda in the plague of Amwas in 639, Umar split the command of Syria, appointing Yazid as governor of the military districts of Damascus, Jordan and Palestine, and Iyad ibn Ghanm governor of Homs and the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia). When Yazid succumbed to the plague later that year, Umar appointed Mu'awiya the military and fiscal governor of Damascus, and possibly Jordan as well.
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In 640 or 641, Mu'awiya captured Caesarea, the district capital of Byzantine Palestine, and then captured Ascalon, completing the Muslim conquest of Palestine. As early as 640/41, Mu'awiya may have led a campaign against Byzantine Cilicia and proceeded to Euchaita, deep in Byzantine territory. In 644, he led a foray against Amorium in Byzantine Anatolia. Upon the accession of Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656), Mu'awiya's governorship was enlarged to include Palestine, while Umayr ibn Sa'd al-Ansari was confirmed as governor of the Homs-Jazira district. In late 646 or early 647, Uthman attached the Homs-Jazira district to Mu'awiya's Syrian governorship, greatly increasing the military manpower at his disposal.
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The successive promotions of Abu Sufyan's sons contradicted Umar's efforts to curtail the influence of the Qurayshite aristocracy in the Muslim state in favor of the early Muslim converts. According to the historian Leone Caetani, this exceptional treatment stemmed from Umar's personal respect of the Umayyads, the branch of the Banu Abd Shams to which Mu'awiya belonged. This is doubted by the historian Wilferd Madelung, who surmises that Umar had little choice, due to the lack of a suitable alternative to Mu'awiya in Syria and the ongoing plague in the region, which precluded the deployment of commanders more preferable to Umar from Medina.
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During the reign of Uthman, Mu'awiya formed an alliance with the Banu Kalb, the predominant tribe in the Syrian steppe extending from the oasis of Dumat al-Jandal in the south to the approaches of Palmyra and the chief component of the Quda'a confederation present throughout Syria. Medina consistently courted the Kalb, which had remained mostly neutral during the Arab–Byzantine wars, particularly after Medina's entreaties to the Byzantines' principal Arab allies, the Ghassanids, were rebuffed. Before the advent of Islam in Syria, the Kalb and the Quda'a, long under the influence of Greco-Aramaic culture and the Monophysite church, had served Byzantium as subordinates of its Ghassanid client kings to guard the Syrian frontier against invasions by the Sasanian Persians and the latter's Arab clients, the Lakhmids.
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By the time the Muslims entered Syria, the Kalb and the Quda'a had accumulated significant military experience and were accustomed to hierarchical order and obedience. To harness their strength and thereby secure his foothold in Syria, Mu'awiya consecrated ties to the Kalb's ruling house, the clan of Bahdal ibn Unayf, by wedding the latter's daughter Maysun in c. 650. He also married Maysun's paternal cousin, Na'ila bint Umara, for a short period. Mu'awiya's reliance on the native Syrian Arab tribes was compounded by the heavy toll inflicted on the Muslim troops in Syria by the plague of Amwas, which caused troop numbers to dwindle from 24,000 in 637 to 4,000 in 639.

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End of Today's Education. Subhaanaka Allaahumma wabihamdika asha-hadu an laa ilaaha illaa Anta astagfiruka wa atuubu ilaika. Suggestions and problems are welcome. *We shall continue on this story in sha Allah* . May  HE strengthen and make us steadfast in faith. May HE accept our ibaadat and grant us the Good in this World and the Hereafter. May Allah Azza wa jalla forgive and  grant us Jannah...AMIN