Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (2/157)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ rose and sought redress concerning ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl. From the pulpit he declared, “O community of Muslims! Who will give me satisfaction (1) against a man whose hurtful talk about my household has reached me (2)? By Allah, I know nothing of my family but good, and they have mentioned a man of whom I likewise know only good; he never entered upon my family except when I was present.”

Saʿd ibn Muʿādh stood and said, “Messenger of Allah, I will relieve you of him. If he is from the Aws, I shall strike off his neck; and if he is from our brothers the Khazraj, order us and we will carry out your command.”

Then Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah—chief of the Khazraj, who had been a righteous man but was overcome by tribal zeal (3)—stood up and retorted, “You have lied—by Allah’s life—you will not kill him, and you cannot kill him!”

Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr, a cousin of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, then rose and said, “You have lied—by Allah’s life—we shall surely kill him! You are a hypocrite defending the hypocrites.”

At that, the two clans, the Aws and the Khazraj, surged against each other (4) until they almost came to blows, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained standing on the pulpit. He kept calming them until they quieted down, and he too fell silent.

ʿĀʾishah said: I wept that whole day and night; my tears would not cease, and no sleep came to my eyes. By morning my parents were with me, and I had now wept for two nights and a day without sleeping and without my tears stopping, until I feared that weeping would split my liver (5).

While they were sitting with me and I was still crying, a woman from the Anṣār asked permission to enter. I allowed her in, and she sat down and wept with me.

We were in that state when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came in, greeted us with peace, and then—

(1) “Who will give me satisfaction”: i.e., who will stand up for me and deal with him.
(2) Lit. “has reached me.”
(3) The phrase means that a surge of tribal pride seized him.
(4) “Surged” conveys the verb tatawāra, meaning they leapt at one another in fury.
(5) Arabic idiom for extreme anguish, “tear my insides apart.”

(1) That is: who will accept my excuse if I punish him for his disgraceful deeds and the evil that issued from him? Others interpret it as: who will come to my aid? The term al-adhir denotes “one who gives support.” (2) The printed edition has a mistaken reading: “yulhaq.” (3) Meaning: I angered him. In Muammar’s version preserved by Muslim, the wording is “ijtahiltuhu,” i.e., I drove him to act ignorantly. (4) That is: they rushed at one another in a leap of tribal partisanship. (5) Muslim and Ahmad add: “while my parents assumed that crying would split my liver.”

فَقَامَ رَسُوْلُ اللهِ ﷺ فَاسْتَعْذَرَ مِنْ عَبْدِ اللهِ بنِ أُبَيِّ ابْنِ سَلُوْلٍ، فَقَالَ وَهُوَ عَلَى المِنْبَرِ: (يَا مَعْشَرَ المُسْلِمِيْنَ! مَنْ يَعْذِرُنِي (١) مِنْ رَجُلٍ قَدْ بَلَغَنِي (٢) أَذَاهُ فِي أَهْلِ بَيْتِي، فَوَاللهِ مَا عَلِمْتُ عَلَى أَهْلِي إِلاَّ خَيْراً، وَلَقَدْ ذَكَرُوا رَجُلاً مَا عَلِمْتُ عَلَيْهِ إِلاَّ خَيْراً، وَمَا كَانَ يَدْخُلُ عَلَى أَهْلِي إِلاَّ مَعِي) . فَقَامَ سَعْدُ بنُ مُعَاذٍ، فَقَالَ: يَا رَسُوْلَ اللهِ! أَنَا أَعْذِرُكَ مِنْهُ، إِنْ كَانَ مِنَ الأَوْسِ ضَرَبْتُ عُنُقَهُ، وَإِنْ كَانَ مِنْ إِخْوَانِنَا مِنَ الخَزْرَجِ أَمَرْتَنَا فَفَعَلْنَا أَمْرَكَ. فَقَامَ سَعْدُ بنُ عُبَادَةَ - وَهُوَ سَيِّدُ الخَزْرَجِ، وَكَانَ قَبْلَ ذَلِكَ رَجُلاً صَالِحاً، وَلَكِنِ احْتَمَلَتْهُ (٣) الحَمِيَّةُ - فَقَالَ سَعْدٌ: كَذَبْتَ - لَعَمْرُ اللهِ - لاَ تَقْتُلُهُ، وَلاَ تَقْدِرُ عَلَى قَتْلِهِ. فَقَامَ أُسَيْدُ بنُ حُضَيْرٍ - وَهُوَ ابْنُ عَمِّ سَعْدِ بنِ مُعَاذٍ - فَقَالَ: كَذَبْتَ - لَعَمْرُ اللهِ - لَنَقْتُلَنَّهُ، فَإِنَّكَ مُنَافِقٌ تُجَادِلُ عَنِ المُنَافِقِيْنَ. فَتَثَاوَرَ (٤) الحَيَّانِ الأَوْسُ وَالخَزْرَجُ، حَتَّى هَمُّوا أَنْ يَقْتَتِلُوا، وَرَسُوْلُ اللهِ ﷺ قَائِمٌ عَلَى المِنْبَرِ، فَلَمْ يَزَلْ يَخْفِضُهُمْ حَتَّى سَكَتُوا، وَسَكَتَ. قَالَتْ: فَبَكَيْتُ يَوْمِي ذَلِكَ وَلَيْلَتِي، لاَ يَرْقَأُ لِي دَمْعٌ، وَلاَ أَكْتَحِلُ بِنَوْمٍ، فَأَصْبَحَ أَبَوَايَ عِنْدِي، وَقَدْ بَكَيْتُ لَيْلَتَيْنِ وَيَوْماً، لاَ أَكْتَحِلُ بِنَوْمٍ، وَلاَ يَرْقَأُ لِي دَمْعٌ، حَتَّى ظَنَنْتُ أَنَّ البُكَاءَ فَالِقٌ كَبِدِي (٥) . فَبَيْنَمَا هُمَا جَالِسَانِ عِنْدِي وَأَنَا أَبْكِي، اسْتَأْذَنَتْ عَلَيَّ امْرَأَةٌ مِنَ الأَنْصَارِ، فَأَذِنْتُ لَهَا، فَجَلَسَتْ تَبْكِي مَعِي. فَبَيْنَمَا نَحْنُ عَلَى ذَلِكَ، دَخَلَ عَلَيْنَا رَسُوْلُ اللهِ ﷺ فَسَلَّمَ، ثُمَّ

(١) أي: من يقوم بعذري إن جازيته على قبيح فعاله، وسوء ما صدر منه، وقيل: معناه: من ينصرني، والعذير: الناصر. (٢) تحرفت في المطبوع إلى " يلحق ". (٣) أي: أغضبته، وفي رواية معمر عند مسلم " اجتهلته "، أي: حملته على الجهل. (٤) أي: تواثبا، وتناهضا للنزاع والعصبية. (٥) في مسلم وأحمد: وأبواي يظنان أن البكاء فالق كبدي.