until about midday, when Abū Jahl came upon the two of them and said,
“O Abū Safwān, who is this man with you?”
“He is Saʿd,” Umayyah replied.
Abū Jahl retorted, “So you circumambulate Mecca in safety even though you have given refuge to the renegades (1) and claim that you support and assist them! By Allah, were you not in the company of Abū Safwān you would not make it back to your family unharmed.”
Saʿd raised his voice and said, “By Allah, if you keep me from this, I shall keep you from something far worse: the road you take through Madinah.”
Umayyah said to him, “Do not raise your voice against Abū al-Ḥakam, for he is the chief of the valley’s people.”
Saʿd replied, “Leave it, O Umayyah. By Allah, I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘They will kill you.’”
“In Mecca?” Umayyah asked.
“I do not know,” Saʿd answered.
Umayyah was seized with great fear. When he returned home he said, “O Umm Safwān, do you know what Saʿd has just said to me?”
“What did he say?” she asked.
“He claims that Muhammad told them they will kill me. I asked him, ‘In Mecca?’ and he said, ‘I do not know.’”
Umayyah said, “By Allah, I will not leave Mecca.”
Yet when the Day of Badr approached, Abū Jahl rallied the people, saying, “Go rescue your caravan!” Umayyah loathed the idea of going out. Abū Jahl came to him and said, “O Abū Safwān, if the people see you—the leader of the valley—stay behind, they too will stay behind.” He persisted until Umayyah said, “Since you have prevailed over me (2), by Allah I shall buy the finest camel in Mecca.”
Then Umayyah said, “O Umm Safwān, equip me.”
She replied, “O Abū Safwān, have you forgotten what your brother from Yathrib told you?”
He said, “No, but I intend to go only a short distance with them.”
Whenever Umayyah set out he would not halt at a camp without hobbling his camel, and he continued in that manner until Allah caused him to be killed at Badr.
Al-Bukhārī narrates this report in another place (3) through Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, from Isrāʾīl, from Abū Isḥāq, in similar form; al-Bukhārī alone (4) records it.
Imām Aḥmad also transmits it (5) from Khalaf ibn al-Walīd and from Abū Saʿīd, both on the authority of Isrāʾīl. In Isrāʾīl’s version his wife says, “By Allah, Muhammad does not lie.”
Ibn Isḥāq (6) said: When they had completed their preparations and resolved to march, they recalled the conflict (7) that had taken place between them and Banū Bakr ibn ʿAbd Manāh ibn Kinānah and said, “We fear they may attack us from the rear.” The war between Quraysh and Banū Bakr had begun over a son of Ḥafṣ ibn al-Akhyaf of Banū ʿĀmir ibn Luʾayy, whom a man of Banū Bakr had killed at the instigation of ʿĀmir ibn Yazīd ibn ʿĀmir ibn al-Mulawwih. His brother, Makraz ibn Ḥafṣ, then avenged him by killing ʿĀmir and hacking with his sword into