He said, “Yes.”

He continued: “Whenever I passed him he would call, ‘O ʿAbd al-Ilāh,’ and I would answer and converse with him. Then, on the Day of Badr, I walked by while he was standing with his son ʿAlī, holding the boy’s hand. I was carrying several coats of mail I had taken as spoil. When he saw me he called, ‘O ʿAbd ʿAmr!’ but I did not respond. Then he said, ‘O ʿAbd al-Ilāh!’ I replied, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Will you deal with me? I am better for you than those coats of mail you are carrying.’ I said, ‘Yes, by Allah.’

“So I dropped the armor and took hold of him and his son. As I led them off he kept repeating, ‘I have never seen a day like this! Do you people have no need of milk?’ and I walked on with the two of them.

Ibn Isḥāq relates—ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Abī ʿAwn narrated to me, from Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, from his father, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf—that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said:

“While I was walking between Umayyah and his son, holding their hands, Umayyah said to me, ‘O ʿAbd al-Ilāh, who is that man of yours marked with an ostrich feather on his chest?’ I answered, ‘That is Ḥamzah.’ He said, ‘He is the one who has done us terrible deeds.’

“By Allah, I was still leading the two of them when Bilāl saw Umayyah with me. (Umayyah was the very man who had tortured Bilāl in Mecca for embracing Islam.) When Bilāl recognized him he exclaimed, ‘The head of unbelief—Umayyah ibn Khalaf! I shall not live if he lives!’

“I said, ‘O Bilāl, he is my prisoner.’ He replied, ‘I shall not live if he lives!’ Then he cried at the top of his voice, ‘O Helpers of Allah! The head of unbelief—Umayyah ibn Khalaf! I shall not live if he lives!’ They surrounded us until they hemmed us in as tight as a leather bag, and I kept fending them off.

“Someone struck from behind with his sword and hit his son’s leg; the boy fell, and Umayyah screamed—never have I heard a cry like it. I said, ‘Save yourself; there is no escape! By Allah, I cannot help you.’ Then they hacked the two of them with their swords until they finished them off.

“Later I would say, ‘May Allah have mercy on Bilāl—he made me lose my coats of mail and my captives.’ ”

Al-Bukhārī likewise recorded this report in his Ṣaḥīḥ, with wording very close to this. Under the chapter on Agency he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (Ibn ʿAbd Allāh) narrated to us—Yūsuf (Ibn al-Mājishūn) narrated to us—from Ṣāliḥ ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, from his father, from his grandfather ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, who said:

“I had drawn up a pact with Umayyah ibn Khalaf stipulating that he would protect my dependents in Mecca and I would protect his in Madinah. When I wrote ‘al-Raḥmān’ he said, ‘I do not know al-Raḥmān; write me with the name you bore in the Age of Ignorance.’ So I wrote ‘ʿAbd ʿAmr.’ Then, on the Day of Badr, I climbed a hill to conceal him while the people slept, and he caught sight of him…"