Ibn Isḥāq (1) said: A trustworthy informant told me, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik, that he used to say, “The only person who struck Saʿd that day was Abū Usāmah al-Jushamī, an ally of the Banū Makhzūm.” Abū Usāmah composed the following verses on the matter, which he recited to ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl:

O ʿIkrimah! Why did you not chide me when you declared
“Within Madinah’s towers, may Khālid be your ransom”?
Was I not the one who fixed in Saʿd a barbed shaft
that stubbornly lodged between the sinews of his elbow?
From that wound Saʿd met his appointed end, and the women wailed—
grey-haired matrons and budding maidens alike.
You yourself had defended him when he called upon ʿUbaydah,
struggling against a host arrayed before him,
At a time when one man swerved from the path in confusion,
while another advanced upon it in fear yet with intent.

Ibn Isḥāq (2) added, “Allah knows best which of these reports is correct.” Ibn Hishām said, “It is also said that the archer who wounded Saʿd was Khafājah ibn ʿĀṣim ibn Ḥibbān.”

I say: Allah answered the supplication of His ally Saʿd ibn Muʿādh concerning the Banū Qurayẓah and cooled his eyes. By His power and facilitation He made them themselves request that ruling—as will be explained later—so he decreed the execution of their fighting men and the enslavement of their women and children. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him: “You have judged them with the judgment of Allah from above seven heavens.” (3)

Ibn Isḥāq (4) said: Yahyā ibn ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr related to me, from his father ʿAbbād:

Safiyyah bint ʿAbd Allāh was in Fāriʿ, the fortress of Ḥassān ibn Thābit. He said: Ḥassān was with us there, together with the women and children.

Safiyyah said: A Jewish man passed by and began to circle the fortress. The Banū Qurayẓah had taken up arms and broken their covenant with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and there was no one between us and them to defend us. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the Muslims were confronting the enemy head-on and could not leave their positions to help us were anyone to attack.

So I said, “Ḥassān, as you can see, this Jew is prowling around the fortress. By Allah, I do not trust him not to expose our vulnerability to the Jews behind us, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his Companions are occupied. Go down to him and kill him.”

He replied, “May Allah forgive you, daughter of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. You know well that this is not my line of work.”

She continued: When he said that and I saw no action from him, I girded myself, took a tent-pole, descended from the fortress, and struck him with it until he was dead. When I had finished, I returned to the fortress and said, “Ḥassān, go down and strip him, for the only thing that kept me from taking his spoils was that he is a man.”

He said, “I have no need of his spoils, daughter of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.”