ʿAbd Allah said, “Thus the sunnah has established that envoys are not to be killed.

As for Ibn Athal, Allah has spared us from him, but Ibn al-Nawāḥah remained a concern in my heart until Allah enabled me to deal with him.” Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī narrated this in his Musnad from al-Masʿūdī, and it has a supporting chain.

Yūnus narrated from Ibn Isḥāq: He said, “Saʿd ibn Ṭāriq told me, on the authority of Salamah ibn Naʿīm ibn Masʿūd, from his father, that he heard the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—when the two envoys of Musaylimah the Liar came to him with his letter, say to them, ‘And do the two of you affirm what he affirms?’ They replied, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘By Allah, were it not that envoys are not executed, I would certainly have struck off your necks.’”

Ibn Isḥāq continued: Musaylimah had written to the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—late in the tenth year [AH]:

“From Musaylimah, the Messenger of Allah, to Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah. Peace be upon you. To proceed: I have been made a partner with you in this matter, and one half of the earth belongs to us, but Quraysh are a people who transgress.”

He wrote back to him: “From Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, to Musaylimah the Liar. Peace be upon those who follow right guidance. To proceed: the earth belongs to Allah; He causes whom He wills among His servants to inherit it, and the ultimate outcome is for the God-fearing.”

Later the delegation of the tribe of Tayyiʾ came to the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Among them was their leader Zayd al-Khīl. They embraced Islam, and the Messenger of Allah renamed him Zayd al-Khayr, granted him the district of Fayd and other lands, and he set off to return to his people. The Messenger of Allah said, “If Zayd escapes the fever of Medina—” It is related that the Messenger of Allah called it by a name other than “fever,” but we have not verified it.

When he reached a watering place in the Najd region called Qardah, he was stricken—