—as they relate—she miscarried (1). Her brother-in-law Kinānah knelt down, spilled out his quiver, and declared, “By Allah, no man shall come near me but that I lodge an arrow in him!” The people therefore backed away from him (2).

Abū Sufyān then arrived with a company of Quraysh and said, “Good man, lower your arrows so we may speak with you.” Kinānah complied, and Abū Sufyān came up and said, “You have not acted rightly. You set out with the woman in full view of the people, even though you know the calamity and misfortune that has befallen us through Muhammad. When people see you taking his daughter to him publicly, before all our eyes, they will think humiliation has overtaken us, that we have grown weak and feeble. By my life, we have no need to detain her from her father, nor do we have any blood-score (3) against her. Go back with the woman; when the commotion has subsided and the people have heard that we sent her back, then slip her away quietly and join her with her father.” And so he did.

Ibn Isḥāq (4) adds that when those men who had escorted Zaynab returned to Mecca, Hind rebuked them with the following verse:
“In peace you boast with harshness and coarse disdain,
Yet in war you are but women, timid and constrained.” (5)
Some say she recited these lines for those who came back from Badr after so many of their number had been killed.

Ibn Isḥāq (6) continues: Zaynab remained a few nights; then, when the hubbub was over, Kinānah took her out by night and handed her to Zayd ibn Ḥārithah and his companion, who brought her by night to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Al-Bayhaqī relates in Dalāʾil (7), through ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr—from ʿUrwah—from ʿĀʾishah—the story of her departure, of her being turned back, and of her miscarriage. He states that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent Zayd ibn Ḥārithah and gave him his ring so that she would recognize him. Zayd acted tactfully, giving the ring to a shepherd in Mecca, who delivered it to Zaynab. When she saw it she recognized it and asked, “Who gave you this?” He answered, “A man on the outskirts of Mecca.” Zaynab then slipped out by night, mounted behind him, and he brought her to Madinah.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say, “She is the best of my daughters; she was afflicted because of me.”

When this reached ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, he came to ʿUrwah and said, “What is this report I hear that you are relating?” (8) ʿUrwah replied, “By Allah, I would not wish to possess everything between East and West if it meant I detracted from Fāṭimah in a right that is hers. As for the rest—you have my word (9) that I shall never relate it again.”