will protect you from me?’
I answered, ‘Allah.’ So he returned the sword to its sheath, and there he is now, sitting down.”

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did not retaliate against him. The man was the chieftain of his tribe; when the Prophet pardoned him, he went back to his people saying, “I will never stay with a people who are at war with you.”

Al-Ḥākim relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq:

“A certain man used to sit with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and whenever the Prophet spoke the man’s face would twitch. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to him, ‘Remain as you are.’ He went on twitching until he died.”