with the peaceful victory that the muslims achieved at bani an-nadeer invasion, their control over madinah was undisputedly established, and the hypocrites receded to a state of silence and stopped their artful machinations publicly. consequently the prophet [pbuh] had ample time to direct all his energies and human resources towards suppressing the desert bedouins and curbing their harmful provocations and wicked malicious practices of killing his missionaries and even contemplating an invasion of madinah itself. [fiqh as-seerah p.214] meanwhile, the muslim scouting groups reported building up of bedouin troops of bani muharib and tha‘labah of ghatfan around madinah. the prophet [pbuh], with the muslims, hurriedly set out to discipline those new outlaws, cast fear into their hearts and deter them from perpetrating further wicked practices. these deterring operations were carried out repeatedly and did produce effective results. the rebellious hard-hearted desert bedouins were terrorized into the mountains, and madinah remained completely immune against their raids.

in the context of these invasions, it is interesting to draw some prominence to a significant one ¾ dhat ar-riqa‘ (rags) campaign ¾ which some scholars claim, took place in najd ( a large area of tableland in the arabian peninsula) in rabi‘ ath-thani or jumada al-ula, 4 a.h. they substantiate their claim by saying that it was strategically necessary to carry out this campaign in order to quell the rebellious bedouins in order to meet the exigencies of the agreed upon encounter with the polytheists, i.e. minor badr battle in sha‘ban, 4 a.h. the most authentic opinion, however, is that dhat ar-riqa‘ campaign took place after the fall of khaibar. this is supported by the fact that abu hurairah and abu musa al-ash‘ari [r] witnessed the battle. abu hurairah embraced islam only some days before khaibar, and abu musa al-ash‘ari came back from abyssinia (ethiopia) and joined the prophet [pbuh] at khaibar. the rules relating to the prayer of fear which the prophet [pbuh] observed at dhat ar-riqa‘ campaign, were revealed at ‘asfan invasion and this beyond a shadow of doubt took place after al-khandaq (the trench) battle in late 5 a.h.