78 – Khalid ibn al-Walid al-Makhzumi * (al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Nasa’i, Ibn Majah)
Khalid was the son of al-Mughira ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar ibn Makhzum ibn Yaqaza ibn Kaʿb.

He was “the Sword of Allah,” the champion of Islam, the lion of the battlefronts; a noble imam, illustrious emir, and commander of the warriors. He was Abu Sulayman al-Qurashi, al-Makhzumi, from Mecca, and the nephew of the Mother of the Believers Maymunah bint al-Harith (1).

He embraced Islam and migrated in Safar of the eighth year AH. Soon after, he set out for jihad and was present at the Battle of Muʾtah, where the three commanders appointed by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—his freedman Zayd, his cousin Jaʿfar “the man of two wings,” and Ibn Rawahah—were martyred. The army was left leaderless, so Khalid immediately assumed command, took up the banner, charged the enemy, and victory was granted.

The Prophet ﷺ named him “the Sword of Allah,” saying: “Indeed, Khalid is a sword that Allah has unsheathed against the polytheists.”

He witnessed the Conquest (of Mecca) and Hunayn, held command during the Prophet’s lifetime, and devoted his coats of mail and helmet to Allah’s cause. He fought the apostates and Musaylimah, campaigned in Iraq and prevailed; then he traversed the vast desert from the border of Iraq to the threshold of Syria in only five nights with the army under his command. He took part in the Syrian wars, and there was not a hand-span of his body but upon it—