In order to fully understand the battles between the disbelievers and Muslims, it is also necessary to recognize that the wars of Arabia took on two forms. Firstly, was what is referred to as a ‘feud’ in the English language. That is to say, that when war broke out between two Arabian tribes, until there was a formal reconciliation between the two, they were considered as being in a constant state of war. Upon finding an opportunity, they would fight with one another at intervals, and at times these wars would carry on for very long periods of time. As such, the Battle of Basūs, the mention of which has passed in the first volume of this book, was fought in the same manner, at intervals over a period of forty years. History reveals that some wars even lasted for a hundred years. However, it was not a custom in Arabia to fight without breaks. The reason for this seems to be that firstly, since every individual of the tribe was a warrior and there was no formally assembled independent army, for this reason, the tribes of Arabia could not pursue their wars continuously. Due to their other businesses, they were compelled to fight at intervals. Secondly, since every individual bore his own expenses in war, and usually there was no national fund available for this purpose, this individual monetary burden forced the Arabs to enter the field of battle with breaks. In order to carry forward this intermittent warfare, at times, a practice which was also employed was that after a battle it would be decided there and then, that now they would meet again at such and such a time and at such and such a place; and in this way, this practice would continue. As such, on the occasion of Uḥud, Abū Sufyān made a similar commitment with the Muslims, due to which the Ghazwah of Badrul-Mau‘idah took place. Therefore, it was not a practice of the Arabs to fight continuously, rather, they would fight at intervals. The time in between would be spent in preparation for war and in their other businesses. All of their battles were different links of the same chain. Since this unique point has been disregarded, some historians have stumbled, because they have attempted to identify separate causes for each of the battles between the Quraish and the Muslims. However, the truth is that when war first began between the Quraish and the Muslims, until reconciliation took place between them through a formal treaty, i.e., the Treaty of Ḥudaibiyyah, which took place in 6 A.H., both of these nations were in a state of war. During this era, all of the battles which ensued between the two were different feats of the same war and to search for independent causes of each is a grave error. Undoubtedly, there were times when a separate factor resulted in the occurrence of a battle in between, but the original cause always remained to be the ongoing initial conflict.
Along with this, it is also worthy of mention that on some occasions in Arab wars (and in actuality this is a practice which is found to exist in wars even today), along with the combatant tribes, other tribes would also step in due to their own national interests. For example, if a war broke out between A and B, in addition to the allies of both A and B joining them respectively, during the course of war, it would also happen that for some reason, a tribe would join forces with A and another tribe would join B. In this manner, the sphere of war would continue to expand. It was more or less this very situation which came about in the Islāmic wars. In words, initially it was the Muslims who received an ultimatum from the Quraish of Makkah, which they were ultimately compelled to accept. However, gradually thereafter many other tribes continued to be enveloped into this war. For example, if the Quraish of Makkah allied with another tribe against the Muslims, consequently the Muslims were put to war against that tribe as well; or if witnessing the example of the Quraish, another tribe instigated an offensive war of their own accord against the Muslims, war was initiated with them as well; or if an allied tribe was treacherous towards the Muslims due to a conspiracy of the Quriash, in this manner, war was instigated with them as well, and so on and so forth. Hence, after the fire of war was first ignited, its sphere continued to expand, until the flames of this fire began to blaze throughout the greater part of the region of Arabia, in a short period of time.