“You have set out at a most unusual hour, one at which you never depart.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him, “Have you not heard what your companion has said?”

“Which companion, O Messenger of Allah?”

“ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy.”

“And what did he say?”

“He claims that, when we return to Madinah, ‘the mighty will surely drive out from it the lowly.’”

Usayd replied, “By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, if you wish you may expel him; by Allah, he is the humiliated one and you are the honored.”

He then added, “Messenger of Allah, treat him gently. By Allah, Allah sent you to us while his people were already stringing beads to crown him; he imagines that you have stripped him of his kingdom.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ kept the people marching that entire day until evening, through the night until dawn, and through part of the next day until the sun became oppressive. He then halted them; they had scarcely touched the ground before they collapsed asleep. He did this only to divert them from yesterday’s talk concerning ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy.

He later set out again with the people, taking the Ḥijāz route, and encamped at a water source in the Ḥijāz a little above al-Naqīʿ called Buqʿāʾ. No sooner had they moved on than a violent wind struck the people, distressing and frightening them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Do not be afraid of it; it has blown only because a great man among the chiefs of the unbelievers has died.”

When they reached Madinah they discovered that Rafāʿah ibn Zayd ibn al-Tābūt—of Banū Qaynuqāʿ, an eminent figure among the Jews and a refuge for the hypocrites—had died that very day (1). Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah and al-Wāqidī report the same.

Muslim (2) also transmits, through al-Aʿmash from Abū Sufyān from Jābir, a report similar to this story, though he does not name the deceased hypocrite: “A strong wind blew while the Prophet ﷺ was on one of his journeys, and he said, ‘It is for the death of a hypocrite.’ When we reached Madinah we found that one of the great men of the hypocrites had died.”

Ibn Isḥāq (3) says: The sūrah in which Allah mentions the hypocrites was revealed concerning Ibn Ubayy and those of like mind. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ took hold of Zayd ibn Arqam’s ear and said, “This is the ear through which Allah caused the truth to be heard.”

I say: I have discussed its full commentary in my book Tafsīr (5), which suffices to spare us from repeating it here, and I have set out all the chains of transmission for this report from Zayd ibn Arqam—praise and grace belong to Allah. Whoever wishes to consult it, or to copy it here, should refer to that work. Allah grants success.

Ibn Isḥāq (6) also relates: ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah told me that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “Messenger of Allah, news has reached me that you intend to kill ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy because of what has reached you about him. If you are going to do so, then command me and I will bring you his head. By Allah, the Khazraj know that there has never been a man among them more dutiful to his father than I.”