men of the Anṣār posted themselves at the door of the shelter, swords drawn, lest any of the idolaters should turn back against the Prophet ﷺ.
Ibn Isḥāq (1) relates: When the Muslims began laying hands on prisoners, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—so I have been told—noticed on the face of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh a look of displeasure at what the people were doing. He said to him,
“Saʿd, it seems to me that you are unhappy with what the people are doing?”
Saʿd replied, “Indeed, by Allah, O Messenger of Allah. This is the first battle in which Allah has struck the idolaters; to me, pressing hard in killing was dearer than keeping men alive.”
Ibn Isḥāq (2) also said: ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Maʿbad narrated to me, from some of his family, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, that the Prophet ﷺ said to his Companions that day:
“I know that certain men of Banū Hāshim and others have been brought out unwillingly and have no desire to fight us. If any of you meets someone from Banū Hāshim, let him not kill him; if he meets Abū al-Bukhtarī ibn Hishām ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Asad, let him not kill him; and if he meets al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the uncle of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, let him not kill him—for he has come out only under compulsion.”
Abū Ḥudhayfah ibn ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah said, “Shall we slay our fathers, sons, and brothers yet spare al-ʿAbbās? By Allah, if I meet him I will strike him with the sword!”
When these words reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said to ʿUmar,
“O Abū Ḥafṣ!” ʿUmar comments, “By Allah, that was the first day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave me the kunya Abū Ḥafṣ.” He continued, “Shall the face of the Messenger of Allah’s uncle be struck with the sword?”
ʿUmar then said, “O Messenger of Allah, allow me to cut off his head with the sword, for by Allah he has become a hypocrite.”
Abū Ḥudhayfah later said, “I do not feel secure from the consequence of the word I uttered that day, and I shall remain afraid of it unless martyrdom atones for me.” He was indeed killed as a martyr at the battle of al-Yamāmah—may Allah be pleased with him.
The Death of Abū al-Bukhtarī ibn Hishām
Ibn Isḥāq (3) states: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade the killing of Abū al-Bukhtarī because he had been the most restrained of Quraysh toward the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while in Mecca; he neither harmed him nor conveyed to him anything he disliked, and he was among those who helped annul the boycott document.
Al-Mujadhdhar ibn Ziyād al-Balawī, an ally of the Anṣār, encountered him and said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ has forbidden us to kill you.” Abū al-Bukhtarī had with him a companion who had left Mecca alongside him—Junādah ibn Mulayḥah of Banū Layth.
Abū al-Bukhtarī asked, “And my companion?”
Al-Mujadhdhar replied, “No, by Allah, we shall not spare your companion; the Messenger of Allah only ordered us concerning you.”
Abū al-Bukhtarī said, “No, by Allah! Then I will die together with him, so that the women of Quraysh in Mecca will not say that I abandoned my companion out of a desire to live.”
As he squared off against al-Mujadhdhar, Abū al-Bukhtarī chanted:
[rajaz verses]