Another narrator stated that the army set out in Jumada al-Akhir and reached Dhu al-Qissah, a spot two barīd postal stages and a few additional miles along the road toward Iraq. Over Madinah he left Sinān al-Damrī as his deputy, and he assigned ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd to guard the city’s approaches.

Ibn Lahiʿah reported: Usāmah ibn Zayd related to us, from al-Zuhri, from Ḥanzalah ibn ʿAlī al-Laythī, that Abu Bakr dispatched Khālid and instructed him to fight people over five obligations; whoever abandoned one of them he was to combat just as he would those who abandoned all five: bearing witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, establishing the prayer, paying the zakah, and fasting Ramadan.

ʿUrwah narrates from ʿĀʾishah: “Had what befell my father descended upon the firmly rooted mountains, they would have crumbled. Hypocrisy raised its head in Madinah and the Arabs apostatized, yet—by Allah—whenever they differed over even a single point, my father secured its full share for Islam.”

Yazīd ibn Rūmān relates that the people said to Abu Bakr, “Setting out yourself will achieve nothing, and you do not even know whom you will face. Appoint someone you trust and return to Madinah, for you have left hypocrisy there boiling.” So he invested Khālid with overall command, placed Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shamās over the Anṣār in particular, and ordered Khālid to make straight for Tulayḥah al-Asadī.

Al-Zuhri said: Khālid ibn al-Walīd marched out from Dhu al-Qissah with between 2,700 and 3,000 men, intent on Tulayḥah. He sent ahead ʿUkāshah ibn Miḥṣan al-Asadī, an ally of Banū ʿAbd Shams, and Thābit ibn Aqram al-Anṣārī—may Allah be pleased with them.