the muslims were all well settled in madinah only months after the hijrah. their longing for makkah increased with every new day, as they thought of their loved ones whom they had left behind, of their property and wealth which they had forsaken, and of the injuries which the quraysh had inflicted upon them in the past. what they would now do was for them a constant question. the majority of historians think that the muslims, led by muhammad, thought of avenging themselves on the quraysh and of declaring war against them. some even claim that the muslims had thought of declaring this war ever since they arrived in madinah, and that if they had not opened hostilities at that time it was because they were preoccupied with the business of settling down and organizing their own lives. they reasoned that muhammad had concluded the great covenant of al `aqabah precisely in order to wage war against all opponents and that it was natural for his and his companions' attention first to fall upon the quraysh-a fact proven by quraysh's own mobilization upon hearing of the conclusion of the said pact.