the Prophet ﷺ, who said, “Hatib, what moved you to this?”

He replied, “My family are still among them, and I was afraid they might be cut off; so I said to myself, ‘I shall write a letter that will not harm Allah or His Messenger.’”

Thereupon I drew my sword and said, “Messenger of Allah, allow me to strike off his head, for he has fallen into disbelief!”

He answered, “And what makes you certain? Perhaps Allah has already looked upon the people of Badr and said, ‘Do whatever you wish, for I have forgiven you.’” This ḥadīth is ḥasan.

Ibn Isḥāq transmits a similar version and adds that the verse was then revealed: “O you who believe, do not take My enemy and your enemy as allies” (al-Mumtaḥana 60:1).

Ibn Isḥāq also reported—from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ then continued on his journey, appointing Abū Ruhm al-Ghifārī to govern Madinah. He departed when ten nights of Ramadan had passed. He fasted, and the people fasted with him, until he reached al-Kudayd, between ʿUsfān and Amj; there he broke his fast.

The personal name of Abū Ruhm was Kulthūm ibn Ḥuṣayn.

Saʿīd ibn Bashīr narrated from Qatādah that Khuzaʿah embraced Islam in return for a sum of silver, whereupon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ accepted their Islam and counted their conversion as having occurred in their own territory.

Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and others said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ incorporated Khuzaʿah into his treaty on the day of al-Ḥudaybiyah.

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim said: Someone who heard ʿAmr ibn Dīnār told me, from Ibn ʿUmar, that Khuzaʿah were the allies of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while Nufāthah were the allies of Abū Sufyān. When Nufāthah attacked Khuzaʿah, Quraysh backed them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not march against Quraysh until he sent to them (the clan of) Ḍumrah, offering them one of three options: to pay the blood-money for those of Khuzaʿah who had been killed; to renounce their alliance with Nufāthah; or to annul the treaty, placing both sides on equal terms. They said: