He then faced the assembled men and said, "By Allah, were it not that you would suppose I have prolonged my prayer out of dread of being killed, I would have lengthened it still further." Thus—so the narrator adds—Khubayb was the first Muslim to establish the practice of praying these two rakʿahs before execution.

They lifted him onto a wooden stake, and when they had tied him firmly he said, "O Allah, we have delivered the message of Your Messenger; so convey to him this morning what is being done to us." He then supplicated: "O Allah, count them one by one, destroy them piecemeal, and leave not a single one of them alive." After that they put him to death.

Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān used to say, "I was present that day among those who stood with Abū Sufyān, and I saw him hurl himself to the ground in terror at Khubayb’s supplication." People would remark: "If a man is cursed and lies down on his side, the curse slips past him."

Benefit: Al-Suhaylī states that these two rakʿahs became a Sunnah—i.e., for one who is about to be executed—because they were performed during the lifetime of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; he approved of them and praised the deed. He also notes that Zayd ibn Ḥārithah prayed them while the Prophet was still alive.

Al-Suhaylī then transmits, through his chain from Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah → Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn → Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bukayr → al-Layth ibn Saʿd, who said:

“It reached me that Zayd ibn Ḥārithah hired a mule from a man in al-Ṭāʾif, and the muleteer stipulated that he could set him down wherever he wished. He diverted him to a deserted ruin in which lay many slain people. When he was about to kill him, Zayd said, ‘Allow me to pray two rakʿahs.’

“The man replied, ‘Pray two rakʿahs; those others prayed often enough and their prayers did them no good.’ So I prayed. When he came to kill me I said, ‘O Most Merciful of the merciful!’ A voice cried out, ‘Do not kill him!’ Frightened, he went to look around but saw nothing. He returned to kill me, and again I said, ‘O Most Merciful of the merciful!’ Once more he heard the voice say, ‘Do not kill him!’ He went off, looked around, and came back. I said a third time, ‘O Most Merciful of the merciful!’—and suddenly I beheld a horseman on a mount, a spear in his hand whose point blazed with fire. He thrust it through the man until the weapon passed cleanly and the killer fell dead.

“The horseman then said, ‘When you called upon Allah the first time, I was in the seventh heaven; when you called the second time, I was in the lowest heaven; and when you called the third time, I came to you.’”

Al-Suhaylī adds that Ḥujr ibn ʿAdiyy ibn al-Adbar also prayed these two rakʿahs when he was brought from Iraq to Muʿāwiyah along with a letter from Ziyād ibn Abīh alleging that he had rebelled and sought to depose him. The letter bore the testimony of several Successors, among them al-Ḥasan and Ibn Sīrīn. When Ḥujr entered upon Muʿāwiyah he said, “Peace be upon you, O Commander of the Faithful.” Muʿāwiyah replied, “Am I the Commander of the Faithful?” and ordered his execution, whereupon Ḥujr prayed two rakʿahs before he was killed—may Allah have mercy on him.

ʿĀʾishah later reproached Muʿāwiyah for having him killed. He said, “It was those who testified against him who killed him.” He then added, “Leave me and Ḥujr; I shall meet him on the broad path on the Day of Resurrection.” She said, “What has become of the forbearance of Abū Sufyān?” He replied, “It vanished when someone like you from my own people was no longer with me.”

In the Maghāzī of Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah it is related that Khubayb and Zayd ibn al-Dathinnah were killed on the same day, and that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was heard that very day saying, “Peace be upon you both—or upon you—Khubayb, whom Quraysh has killed.”