At sunset, a few days after the forced march, the Prophet (sa) called for his men to halt to offer the evening prayer. Lady Ayesha's camel was made to kneel and as she dismounted the weakened clasp of the onyx necklace her mother had given her on her wedding day came undone and her necklace fell off. She did not notice it was missing for sometime but when she did she became very sad.

They wondered if they would have to delay saying the prayer for it would be necessary for everyone to renew their ablution. That night, Allah in His Mercy sent a new Revelation that spoke of an alternate way in which one might make ablution when water was unavailable:

“If you are ill or on a journey, or if any of you come from the toilet or you have touched (had intercourse with) women, and you cannot find water, so touch pure dust and wipe your faces and your hands. Allah is the Pardoner, the Forgiver." (Koran 4:43)

The Prophet (sa) recited the new verse to his followers and demonstrated how to make the dry kind of ablution, tayamun, with pure, unpolluted dust and the Muslims rejoiced at not having to delay the Dawn prayer. After having heard this Revelation, Usayd went to Abu Bakr telling him that it was not the first blessing they had received on his account. It was daybreak, the prayer had been offered and there was still no sign of the necklace. It was time to move and as Lady Ayesha's camel got up, there, lying underneath it lay her necklace.

The Race

As they journeyed back to Medina they came across a valley in which it was decided to camp and the two tents of the Prophet (sa) were erected some distance away from the others. Lady Ayesha, who was young and full of energy, invited the Prophet (sa) to race with her as he had done in Mecca before the migration, and so they raced with one another.

This time the Prophet (sa) won the race whereupon he said, "This is for the other race, the one in which you were the winner." Later, Lady Ayesha explained that one day, when she was little, the Prophet (sa) went to visit her father and saw she had something in her hand. He asked her to bring it to him, but in her playfulness she would not and had run away from him whereupon the Prophet (sa) pretended to run after her, but let her get away.

The Last Stage of the Journey

Medina was but a few stops away when the order to halt was given. Once more, during their rest period, the clasp of Lady Ayesha's necklace came undone and slipped from her without notice. The time had come to resume the march, but just before she mounted her howdah she felt the need to answer the call of nature and slipped away far from everyone's sight.

When she returned, Lady Umm Salamah and herself seated themselves inside their individual howdahs and drew the curtains around them as they waited for them to be lifted up on to the back of their camels. To her great alarm, as Lady Ayesha was making herself comfortable she realized her necklace had slipped yet again and so she left her howdah to go and look for it. Everyone was busy with their own affairs and nobody noticed her leave the howdah. Whilst she searched for the necklace the howdahs were mounted onto the camels, and no one realized that she was not inside, and the order to march was given.

Lady Ayesha found her necklace but when she returned everyone had left. She didn't know what to do for the best so she thought if she remained where her howdah had been, then, sooner or later, someone would be sure to notice she wasn't with them and realize that she had been left behind at the last halt, and as she waited she was overcome by tiredness and fell sound asleep. Safwan, Muattal’s son had been designated to trail behind the army. His duties were to be on the look out for any possible threat from the rear and to retrieve any item that may have either been left behind or dropped as the army marched on ahead.

The hours passed by and as Safwan drew near to the last camp he noticed a figure asleep in the sand and decided to investigate. When he reached the camp he dismounted from his camel and went over to the sleeper. Lady Ayesha was not wearing her veil so he was able to recognize her as he had seen her before the Prophet's wives were obliged to wear the veil. As soon as he realized who the sleeping person was he exclaimed, "Indeed we are for Allah, and to Him we return. It is the wife of the Messenger of Allah !"

Until that moment Lady Ayesha had remained asleep, but upon hearing his voice she woke up and quickly drew the veil over her face. She was relieved to see him and Safwan offered her his camel and walked on foot as he led the camel on to the next halt. At the next halt, the howdahs had been lifted from the camels and set down upon the sand. When Lady Ayesha did not come out of her howdah it was presumed she must have fallen asleep, and no one thought anymore about it. It was almost time to resume the march, when to everyone's astonishment Safwan entered the camp leading Lady Ayesha riding on his camel.

Neither the Prophet (sa) nor the companions thought anymore about the incident, they were glad that she was safe and sound, but the tongues of the hypocrites, ever searching for a way to harm the holy family, started to concoct slanderous lies about Lady Ayesha and Safwan.

The Division of the Spoils of War

Upon their return to Medina the spoils of war were distributed evenly amongst those that had taken part in the campaign. Among those taken captive was Juwayriyah, the daughter of Harith, chief of the Mutalik. Juwayriyah had been given to an Ansar who decided to ask a high ransom for her release on account of her father’s rank. Juwayriyah was troubled by the price so she went to the Prophet (sa), who was staying in the apartment of Lady Ayesha that day, to request him to intervene on her behalf.

Meanwhile, Juwayriyah's father learned of his daughter's position and set off with his sons for Medina with a fine herd of camels to ransom her. However, when he reached the valley of Atik his love of two extremely fine camels prompted him to keep them and not to offer them as part of the ransom, so he hid them with the intent of retrieval after he had secured his daughter's release.

When Harith reached Medina he went to the Prophet (sa) and offered the camels, but much to his astonishment and that of his sons, the Prophet (sa) inquired, "Where are the other camels?" Then he proceeded to tell Harith the exact place where they were hidden in the valley of Atik. Harith and his sons were completely overcome, for no one except the three knew what they had done nor yet where they had hidden the camels. Harith and his sons exclaimed, "I bear witness that there is no god except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah!"

The two camels were fetched and given to the Prophet (sa) and Juwayriyah was returned to her father, and like her father, she too embraced Islam. Tribal ties had been strengthened enormously through the bonds of the Prophet's marriages and the Prophet (sa) offered to marry Juwayriyah. Juwayriyah accepted and an apartment was added to those of her co-wives. When the Ansars and Muhajirs learned that the Prophet (sa) was going to take Lady Juwayriyah to be his wife they released all the unransomed captives, of whom there were approximately one hundred families, and Lady Ayesha was heard to say, "I know of no woman, who was a greater blessing to her tribe than her."