(1) He said: When the verse instituting the statutory one-fifth was revealed, it confirmed the very division that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jahsh had already made.

(2) Ibn Isḥāq relates: When the detachment returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said, “I did not order you to fight during the Sacred Month.” He therefore impounded the caravan and the two captives and refused to take anything from the goods. At those words the men were stricken with remorse, certain they had ruined themselves, and their fellow Muslims reproached them for what they had done.

Quraysh proclaimed, “Muhammad and his companions have violated the Sacred Month—spilling blood, seizing wealth, and taking men prisoner!” Muslims still in Mecca who wished to counter them replied, “What they captured, they captured in Shaʿbān.”

The Jews, taking the matter as an evil omen for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, said, “ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī has been killed by Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh: ʿAmr—‘war has become populous’; al-Ḥaḍramī—‘war has arrived’; Wāqid—‘war has been ignited.’” Allah turned that augury against them and not in their favor.

When the debate became heated, Allah Most High revealed to His Messenger ﷺ (3):

“They ask you about fighting in the Sacred Month. Say: ‘Fighting in it is grave; but to bar people from the path of Allah, to disbelieve in Him, to prevent access to the Sacred Mosque, and to expel its people from it are graver with Allah; and persecution is worse than killing. They will not cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion, if they can.’” (al-Baqarah, 2:217)

(4) That is, even if you have killed during the Sacred Month, their shutting you off from Allah’s path while disbelieving in Him, their barring you from the Sacred Mosque, and their expelling you from it though you are its rightful people, are all greater with Allah than the killing you committed. As for “persecution is worse than killing,” they used to persecute a Muslim in his religion until they drove him back to disbelief after faith; this, in Allah’s sight, is worse than killing. Yet they persist in that most heinous crime without repentance, which is why Allah says: “They will not cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion, if they can.”

(5) Ibn Isḥāq continues: Once these verses were revealed and Allah removed the distress that weighed upon the Muslims, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ took possession of the caravan and the two prisoners. Quraysh then sent envoys to ransom ʿUthmān and al-Ḥakam ibn Kaysān, but the Prophet ﷺ said, “We will not ransom them until our two companions—meaning Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ and ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān—return; we fear you might harm them. If you kill them, we will kill your two men.” When Saʿd and ʿUtbah arrived safely, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ accepted the ransom and released the captives.

Al-Ḥakam ibn Kaysān embraced Islam—his Islam was excellent—and remained with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ until he was martyred at Biʾr Maʿūnah. ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh, however, returned to Mecca and died there as an unbeliever.