Abū Lubābah retorted, “May Allah prove your claim false!”

The Jews then said, “Zayd has returned only in disarray.”

Usāmah relates: I went off until I was alone with my father and asked, “Is what you say really true?” He replied, “Yes, by Allah, my son, it is true.” My courage rose, so I went back to that hypocrite and said, “You are the one alarming the people about the Messenger of Allah and the Muslims. When the Messenger of Allah arrives, we shall bring you before him, and he will surely strike off your neck.” He answered, “I only repeated something I heard the people saying.”

They report that the captives were then brought in under the guard of Shuqrān, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who had fought with them at Badr. The number that was recorded was forty-nine men.

Al-Wāqidī (1) comments: Originally they were seventy, a figure unanimously agreed upon beyond any doubt.

He continues: At al-Rawḥāʾ the leading men came out to meet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, congratulating him on the victory Allah had bestowed upon him.

Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr said, “Messenger of Allah, praise be to Allah Who granted you victory and gladdened your eyes. By Allah, Messenger of Allah, my absence from Badr was not because I thought you would meet an enemy; I assumed it was only the caravan. Had I thought you would face an enemy, I would never have stayed behind.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “You have spoken the truth.”

Ibn Isḥāq (2) says: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then set out for Madinah with the prisoners, among them ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ and al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith. He appointed ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf ibn Mabdhūl ibn ʿAmr ibn Ghanm ibn Māzin ibn al-Najjār over the extra booty (al-nafāl). A Muslim poet—whom Ibn Hishām identifies as ʿAdiyy ibn Abī al-Zaghbāʾ—recited these rajaz lines:

Steady their breasts, O Basbas!
No camping beneath the talh trees awaits them,
Nor halt in the desert stretch of Ghamīr;
The people’s mounts must not be detained.
Drive them on along the road, O prudent one—
Allah has given victory and al-Akhnas has fled!

He goes on: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ pressed forward, and when he emerged from the pass of al-Ṣafrāʾ he halted at a sand-hill between the pass and al-Nāziyah called Sayr, where there was an acacia tree. There he distributed the additional spoils that Allah had granted the Muslims from the idolaters, allotting them equally. He then resumed the march, and when he reached al-Rawḥāʾ the Muslims came out to meet him, congratulating him and those with him on the victory Allah had granted.

Salamah ibn Salamah ibn Waqsh said—according to the report of ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar and Yazīd ibn Rumān—“What are you congratulating us for? By Allah, the only ones we encountered were bald old women, tethered like hobbled camels, and we slaughtered them!”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ smiled and said, “Young cousin, those were the chiefs.”

Ibn Hishām (3) comments: he meant the nobles and leaders.