Casting the Leaders of Unbelief into a Well on the Day of Badr
Ibn Isḥāq said: Yazīd ibn Rūmān related to me, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said:
When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered that the slain be thrown into the well, they were cast into it—except for Umayyah ibn Khalaf. His body had swollen inside his coat of mail until it completely filled it. When they tried to pull him out, his flesh began to fall apart, so they let him remain and covered him with whatever earth and stones would conceal him.
When the bodies had been thrown into the well, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood over them and said:
“O people of the well! Have you found true what your Lord promised you? For I have indeed found true what my Lord promised me.”
His Companions asked, “Messenger of Allah, are you speaking to people who are dead?” He replied, “They now know that the promise of their Lord is true.”
ʿĀʾishah said, “People kept saying, ‘They heard what he said to them,’ but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ merely said, ‘They know.’ ”
Ibn Isḥāq also said: Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl related to me, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said:
The Companions heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the middle of the night saying, “O people of the well—ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, Shaybah ibn Rabīʿah, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, Abū Jahl ibn Hishām,” and he listed those who lay in the well, “have you found the promise of your Lord to be true? For I have found the promise of my Lord to me to be true.”
The Muslims said, “Messenger of Allah, are you calling out to corpses that have decayed?” He answered, “You are no better able to hear what I am saying than they are; they simply cannot reply.”
Imām Aḥmad likewise transmitted this through Ibn Abī ʿAdiyy, from Ḥumayd, from Anas, in a similar wording, and its chain meets the criteria of the two Ṣaḥīḥs.
Ibn Isḥāq further said: A certain scholar informed me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“O people of the well! How wretched a clan you proved to be toward your Prophet: you called me a liar while others believed me; you expelled me while others sheltered me; you fought me while others aided me. Have you found true what your Lord promised you? For I have certainly found true what my Lord promised me.”
I say: This is among the reports that our Mother ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, interpreted—just as she gathered