“Watch him; if he prevails, then he is a prophet—so follow him.” When the Conquest finally came, every clan proclaimed its Islam. My father therefore set out to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on behalf of the people of our encampment to declare their acceptance of Islam. He arrived and stayed with him for some time. When he returned, we went out to welcome him and he said, “I have truly come to you from the Messenger of Allah. He bids you do such-and-such, and to perform such-and-such prayers. When the time for prayer comes, let one of you give the call to prayer, and let the one who knows the most Qur’an among you lead.” They looked among the people of our settlement and found no one who knew more Qur’an than I, so they put me forward—though I was only seven, or perhaps six, years old. I used to lead them in prayer, and whenever I prostrated my cloak would ride up. A woman of the tribe would say, “Cover us from the backside of your reciter.” He continued, “Later I was given a cloak of Bahraini fabric for six or seven dirhams, and nothing has ever delighted me as much as that.”

Al-Bukhari recorded this report from Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, on his authority. Allah knows best.

The Expedition against Banu Jadhīmah

Ibn Isḥāq said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched detachments around Mecca calling people to Allah the Exalted, and did not order them to fight. Among those he sent was Khālid ibn al-Walīd, whom he instructed to travel through the lowlands of Tihāmah as a caller, not as a fighter. Yet he came upon the Banu Jadhīmah ibn ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Manāt ibn Kinānah and inflicted casualties upon them.

Muʿammar narrated from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from his father, who said: The Prophet ﷺ dispatched Khālid ibn al-Walīd to—I think he said—the Banu Jadhīmah, and he invited them to