for you have already granted protection to everyone—red and black alike.’
The Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘Catch up with him; he is under my protection.’ ʿUmayr set off, overtook Safwān, and called out, ‘The Messenger of Allah has guaranteed your safety.’ Safwān answered, ‘By Allah, I shall not be convinced until I see a token of this pledge that I can recognize.’ ʿUmayr returned, and the Prophet ﷺ gave him a striped cloak of fine cloth (burd ḥibrah) that he had been wrapped in when he entered Mecca. ʿUmayr brought it back, whereupon Safwān said, ‘Messenger of Allah, have you indeed granted me the security this man claims?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ Safwān said, ‘Give me a month to decide.’ The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘You have two months; perhaps Allah will guide you.’
Umm Ḥakīm bint al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām—who had already embraced Islam and was the wife of ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl—asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for permission to pursue her husband. He allowed her to go and granted him safe-conduct. She set out with a Roman slave who attempted to violate her. She kept him at bay with promises until she reached some people of the tribe of ʿAk, enlisted their help against him, and they bound him. She then caught up with her husband in part of Tihāmah just as he had boarded a ship. When he sat down in it he called upon al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā. The crew said, ‘No supplication is acceptable here except to Allah alone, in utter sincerity.’ ʿIkrimah said, ‘By Allah, if He alone is worshipped at sea, then He alone must be worshipped on land. I swear by Allah, I will return to Muhammad.’ He went back with his wife, entered upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, pledged allegiance, and his pledge was accepted.
A man of Hudhayl came home to his wife, who reproached and taunted him for having fled. He responded with these verses:
Had you but seen us at al-Khandamah
When Safwān fled and ʿIkrimah fled,
The gleaming swords had caught them up,
Severing every forearm, cleaving every skull—
Then you would not have uttered a single word of blame.
The Prophet ﷺ entered Mecca in the month of Ramadan. He later borrowed from Safwān—so it is said—one hundred coats of mail with their full equipment, for Safwān possessed more weapons than anyone else. The Prophet remained in Mecca for a little over ten nights.