When they led him out of the Sanctuary1 to put him to death in non-sacred territory, Khubayb—the first to establish the custom of praying two rak‘ahs before execution—said, “Allow me to perform two rak‘ahs.” They agreed, so he prayed them. Then he said, “By Allah, were it not that you would think my prolonging the prayer was out of fear, I would have lengthened it. O Allah, count them one by one, destroy them utterly2, and leave none of them alive.” He then recited:
I care not, so long as I am killed a Muslim,
… upon whatever side for Allah my body falls.
And that is in the cause of the One God; and if He wills,
He will bless even the severed limbs of a torn-apart body3.
After that, Abu Saruʿah ʿUqbah ibn al-Harith stepped forward and killed him. Khubayb thus instituted for every Muslim executed in captivity the practice of offering this prayer4.
1) Concerning the phrase “When they took him out of the Haram,” Ibn Ishaq states that they led him to al-Tanim, just outside the Sacred Precinct.
2) Regarding “and kill them budadan”: it is transmitted with two vocalisations. With a kasra, biddan—the plural of budda, meaning a share or portion—i.e. kill them portion by portion, each receiving his allotted share. With a fatha, baddan—meaning dispersed—i.e. kill them separately, one after another, from the root tabdid (dispersion). Sources: Ibn al-Athir, al-Nihaya 1/105; Riyad al-Salihin, no. 1517.
3) In the phrase “awsal shilw mumazza”: awsal is the plural of wasl (a limb); shilw, with a kasra, denotes the body (though it can also mean a single limb), and here it refers to the whole body; mumazza means torn apart. Hence: the limbs of a body cut into pieces.
4) Al-Suhayli remarks: “The two rak‘as became a sunna—meaning for the condemned person—because they were performed in the Prophet’s time, he approved them, and the community regarded his action as commendable.” Al-Rawd al-Unuf, 6/192.