History books narrate that Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, sent four armies to Levant, each led by a different commander and aimed at four objectives: Homs, Damascus, Jordan, and Palestine. The total number of soldiers in these armies was twenty-four thousand, which included one thousand companions, among them one hundred who were present at the Battle of Badr.
Six months had passed, and the four armies were engaged in limited clashes on various fronts without achieving any notable victory. Heraclius began to assemble a great army to fight the Muslims. When Abu Bakr learned of this, he sent a message to Khalid ibn al-Walid, instructing him to leave Iraq and head to Syria as quickly as possible. Thus, he embarked on his famous journey, which remains a military mystery to this day, traversing the desert with nine thousand fighters in eighteen days—a journey that was not known at that time for anyone to complete in less than four weeks.
Khalid arrived in the Levant and found the four armies scattered, each one in a different direction. Sharhabil's army was fighting on the walls of Busrā and was on the verge of suffering a severe defeat, so Khalid came to his aid, and Busra al-Sham was opened through a peace agreement. It became the first large city to fall into the hands of the Muslims since the beginning of the campaign in the Levant. At that point, the Romans began gathering their forces at Ajnadayn(which is a location near Jerusalem, between it and Gaza and Ashkelon), and it seemed that they were determined to expel the Muslims from the Levant, as that was the largest force they had assembled for a single battle up to that time.
Khalid called the four armies to gather in Ajnadayn, and they collectively engaged in the first decisive battle in the Levant. The number of Romans was about ninety thousand fighters, which was approximately three times the number of Muslims. However, the unity of the Muslim armies under one leadership compensated for the numerical disadvantage and equipment. Thus, the first great victory for the armies of the conquest of Greater Syria was achieved on the twenty-seventh of Jumada al-Awwal in the thirteenth year of the Hijra, followed by a major victory in Marj al-Suffar three weeks later (a wide plain extending between al-Kisweh and Ghabaghib south of Damascus), then two more significant victories in Fahl and Baysan before the end of the year. In the following year, Damascus was conquered, and then Homs was opened in the second spring of the fifteenth year.
Heraclius realized that the Levant was on the verge of permanently slipping from the control of the Romans, so he spent the following months assembling one of the largest military forces that the land of the Levant had ever seen throughout history. He gathered an army of about a quarter of a million soldiers and descended upon Yarmouk. Abu Ubayda
consulted his companions (as Umar had appointed him over the armies of the Levant after the death of Abu Bakr), and most of them advised him to withdraw from the Levant, fearing for the Muslims' survival, as they numbered thirty-three thousand, meaning the Romans were seven times the number of the Muslims. Khalid ibn al-Walid suggested fighting, and Abu Ubayda agreed with his opinion and appointed him as the commander of the battle.
Until that time, the Muslims were fighting in an organized manner, with each of the five armies being an independent entity with its own leader and formation. The armies would support each other in battle. When Khalid saw the Byzantine army formed into a solid block in a unified deployment, he addressed the leaders of the armies and said: "O leaders, is there something you would do that would glorify the religion of God and bring you no shame? For this is a day among the days of God, in which neither oppression nor arrogance should prevail. Purify your struggle and your actions for the sake of God, and do not fight against a people who are organized and deployed while you are in support and spread. For this is neither appropriate nor permissible."
They said: What is the opinion? He said: Indeed, Abu Bakr did not send us as leaders of the armies except when he believed that we would prevail. Had he known what would happen, he would have gathered you all into one army. What you are experiencing in terms of division is more harmful to the Muslims than what has befallen them and more beneficial to the polytheists than their numbers. And I have known that the world has divided you. So, take care, for each of your leaders has been placed in charge of a region, and it does not diminish him if he submits to another of the leaders, nor does it increase him if he submits to him. Indeed, the leadership of some of you over others does not diminish your standing before Allah. So come together, for these people have prepared and united for a day to come that has no equal. If we push them back to their trench today, we will continue to push them back. And if they defeat us, we will not succeed afterward.
Ahmad Adel Kamal said in his book El Nafes "The Road to Damascus," describing the two armies on the day of Yarmouk: "The Romans marched in a formation unlike anything ever seen before, and the Muslim army marched in a formation that the Arabs had never known before. Khalid integrated the five armies into a complete union, so they became one army unrelated to the original divisions. When we examine the units of the unified army, we find that each one contains elements from the five original armies. Therefore, none of the commanders on the day of Yarmouk led their own army that was sent by Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him; rather, each of the four commanders led a quarter of the unified army under the command of Khalid ibn al-Walid."
There was then a victory that was one of the greatest military victories in history, where one hundred thirty thousand of the Romans were killed, and the remaining scattered in the valleys and hills. Three thousand Muslims were martyred, and the lands of the Levant became a home for Islam until the end of time by God's command. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.
Moreover, Khalid's speech addressed to the commanders of armies in that time is still applicable to the princes in this time. If he were to be resurrected today and witness the condition of the faction leaders in Syria, he would not address them in any other manner.
O leaders, be mindful of God! This is a day among the days of God, where oppression and arrogance should not prevail. Purify your struggle and your work for the sake of God, and do not fight the Assad regime and its allies while you are scattered and divided. This is neither permissible nor rational in any faith or belief. Your division is more harmful to the people of Syria than the calamity that has beset them, and it serves the regime more than numbers and weapons do. The world has divided you, and each of you has been separated into factions. Your allegiance to one prince does not diminish the ranks of another, nor does it increase your own standing. The leadership of some of you over others does not detract from your standing before God, so come together and unify your forces and strengthen your ranks. Your enemies have prepared and united for a day that has no equivalent. If you overcome them today, you will remain victorious, but if you are defeated, you will never succeed again, by God’s decree.
This letter is addressed to you by Khalid ibn al-Walid from behind the veil of the centuries. So where are the listeners? And where are the responders?
The source: Syrian Scholars Association.
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