embrace Islam. Unable, however, to say, “We have become Muslims,” they kept repeating, “Ṣabaʾnā, Ṣabaʾnā” (we have renounced our former faith). Khalid then set upon them, killing and taking captives, assigning every one of us a prisoner. When morning came, Khalid ordered that each man kill the captive in his charge. Ibn ʿUmar said, “By Allah, I will not kill my captive, and none of my companions will kill his captive.”

They later came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and told him what Khalid had done. The Prophet, raising his hands, said, “O Allah, I disavow before You what Khalid has done”—twice. Recorded by al-Bukhari.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Ḥakīm ibn Ḥakīm ibn ʿAbbād ibn Ḥanīf related to me, from Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, who said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ conquered Mecca, he dispatched Khalid ibn al-Walid, who advanced until he encamped among Banu Jadhīmah at their water source. In the pre-Islamic days they had killed his uncle al-Fākih ibn al-Mughīrah and the father of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf. In the course of the report it says that Khalid ordered some of their men to be taken prisoner and their necks struck.

When this reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said, “O Allah, I disavow before You what Khalid ibn al-Walid has done.” He then summoned ʿAlī and said, “Go to these people; pay the blood-money for their slain and compensate them for their property, and trample the customs of the Age of Ignorance under your feet.”

ʿAlī set out with money the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had given him and paid them for their blood and their losses, to the point that he even gave them the price of a dog’s drinking bowl. Some money still remained with ʿAlī, so he said, “I am giving you this as a precaution on behalf of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for matters of which he is unaware, and of which you, too, are unaware.” He handed it over to them, then returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and told him what he had done. The Prophet said, “You have done well and acted rightly.”