His mother called after him, “Go on, my son—you have lingered long enough.” ʿĀʾishah added, “So I said to her, ‘Mother of Saʿd, I wish Saʿd’s coat of mail covered him more fully than it does.’

Saʿd was then struck by an arrow that severed the median vein of his arm. The archer was Ibn al-ʿArqah, and when the shaft found its mark he shouted, “Take that from me—I am Ibn al-ʿArqah!” Saʿd replied, “May Allah make your face sweat in the Fire! O Allah, if You have kept any fighting against Quraysh in store, keep me alive for it, for no people are dearer to me to combat for Your sake than those who harmed Your Messenger, denied him, and drove him out. But if You have ended the war between them and us, then make this wound my martyrdom, and do not let me die until my eyes are cooled by what You decree for Banū Qurayẓah.”

Safiyyah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was in Fāriʿ—the fortress of Ḥassān ibn Thābit—together with several women and children. She relates: “A Jewish man passed by and began to circle the fortress. Banū Qurayẓah had taken up arms and broken their pact, and there was no one between them and us to defend us, while the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and the Muslims were confronting the enemy and could not turn aside to reach us.

“I said, ‘Ḥassān! As you see, this Jew is circling the fortress. By Allah, I fear he will reveal our vulnerable spot to the Jews behind us, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his Companions are preoccupied. Go down and kill him.’ He answered, ‘May Allah forgive you, daughter of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib; you know that such a task is not for me.’

“When he said that and I saw he would do nothing, I tied my clothes around me, took up a pole, descended from the fortress, and struck the man with it until he was dead. When I had finished I returned to the fortress and said, ‘Ḥassān, go down and strip him; the only thing that kept me from taking his belongings was that he is a man.’ He replied, ‘I have no need of his spoils.’”