his leg. Yet when he stretched it out and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wiped over it, every hurt it had suffered in the past disappeared and no pain at all remained to be feared in the future. In this way the two reports are reconciled, and Allah knows best.

Moreover, Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah in his “Maghāzī” (1) gives the same narrative as Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, naming the men who set out on the mission just as Ibn Isḥāq, Ibrāhīm, and Abū ʿUbayd do.

He then says: al-Zuhrī related that Ibn Kaʿb (2) said: When they reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he was standing on the pulpit. He said, “Faces that have prospered!” They replied, “May your face prosper, O Messenger of Allah.” He asked, “Did you do away with him?” They said, “Yes.” He said, “Hand me the sword.” When it was given to him he unsheathed it and remarked, “Yes—his provision lay upon the edge of this sword.”

The Killing of Khālid ibn Sufyān ibn Nubayḥ al-Hudhalī (3)

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī records this in “Dalāʾil” (4) immediately after the account of Abū Rāfiʿ’s death.

Imām Aḥmad (5) narrates: Yaʿqūb told us; my father told us, from Ibn Isḥāq; he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr related to me, from the son of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, from his father, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ summoned me and said, “News has reached me that Khālid ibn Sufyān ibn Nubayḥ al-Hudhalī is gathering men to attack me. He is at ʿUrana; go to him and kill him.”

I asked, “O Messenger of Allah, describe him to me so that I may recognize him.”

He answered, “When you see him, you will feel a shudder.”

I set out with my sword slung across me until I came upon him at ʿUrana. He was there with several women, looking for a place for them to camp, and it was the time of the ʿAṣr prayer. When I saw him I experienced exactly the shiver the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had described. I moved toward him, but fearing that grappling with him might delay my prayer, I prayed while walking toward him, nodding my head for the bowing and prostration.

When I reached him he said, “Who are you?”

I replied, “A man of the Arabs who has heard about you and the force you are mustering against this man, so I have come for that purpose.”

He said, “Yes, that is what we are doing.”

I walked with him for a while, and when the moment was right I struck him with my sword until I had killed him. I then departed, leaving his womenfolk bent over him in mourning.

When I returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he saw me, he said, “A face that has triumphed!”

I said, “I have killed him, O Messenger of Allah.”