Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam related to me, from his father, who said: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥāṭib narrated to us, from his father, from his grandfather Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah, who said:
“The Prophet ﷺ sent me to al-Muqawqis, the ruler of Alexandria, and I delivered the Messenger of Allah’s letter to him. He lodged me in his residence and I stayed with him for some time. Then he summoned me—having gathered his patricians—and said, ‘I wish to speak with you about something; I would like you to understand it well.’
‘I am listening,’ I replied.
He asked, ‘Tell me about your companion. Is he not a prophet?’
‘Indeed,’ I said, ‘he is the Messenger of Allah.’
He continued, ‘If that is so, why did he not invoke destruction upon his people when they expelled him?’
I answered, ‘What about Jesus? Do you not acknowledge that he was a messenger of Allah? Yet when his people seized him and wanted to crucify him, he did not pray for Allah to destroy them—until Allah raised him up to the lowest heaven.’
Al-Muqawqis remarked, ‘You are a wise man who has come from a wise man. These are gifts I am sending with you to him.’
He then presented three bond-women, among them Umm Ibrāhīm; one the Messenger of Allah ﷺ later gave to Abū Jahm ibn Ḥudhayfah al-ʿAdawī, and another he gave to Ḥassān ibn Thābit. He also sent along a selection of their finest luxuries.
The Expedition of Dhāt al-Salāsil
It is said that Dhāt al-Salāsil is a watering place in the land of Judhām.
Ibn Lahīʿah narrated: Abū al-Aswad told us, from ʿUrwah—and Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah also transmitted it, whose wording is adopted here—both saying: “The expedition of Dhāt al-Salāsil took place near the Syrian border against the tribes of Balī, Saʿd Allāh, and the neighboring clans of Quḍāʿah.”
In another report from ʿUrwah it is stated: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ against Balī—maternal relatives of al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil—and sent him against those adjacent to them from Quḍāʿah, appointing him as their commander.”
Ibn ʿUqbah added: “ʿAmr became apprehensive about the quarter in which he was stationed, so he sent a request to…"