• In that same year Zayd ibn Ḥārithah was sent on an expedition to al-Ḥumūm. There he captured a woman from the tribe of Muzaynah named Ḥalīmah. She guided the detachment to a settlement of Banū Sulaym, from which they seized camels, sheep, and a number of captives. Among the prisoners was Ḥalīmah’s own husband, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted her to him and set the two of them free.
• That year as well Zayd ibn Ḥārithah marched, in Jumādā al-Ūlā, against Banū Thaʿlabah with fifteen men. The Bedouins fled, and he captured twenty of their camels before returning after four nights.
• During the same month Zayd ibn Ḥārithah also set out toward al-ʿIṣ.
Al-Wāqidī adds: In this year the property being transported by Abū al-ʿĀṣ ibn al-Rabīʿ was seized. He sought protection with Zaynab, daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and she granted it. Ibn Isḥāq has already related how his caravan was taken, his companions killed, and how he escaped alone until he reached Madinah. His wife Zaynab—may Allah be pleased with her—had emigrated after Badr. When he arrived he pleaded for her protection, and after the Dawn Prayer she publicly announced it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ confirmed her pledge and ordered the people to return whatever they had taken from his caravan; they restored everything until not a single item was missing. Abū al-ʿĀṣ then went back to Mecca, returned the deposits he was holding for their owners, embraced Islam, and set out again for Madinah. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ thereupon restored his wife to him on the basis of their original marriage, without a new contract or dowry, as has already been explained. Six years separated her emigration from his conversion—though another report says two—and we have shown that the two accounts are not inconsistent: his Islam came two years after the ruling that believing women might no longer remain with unbelieving husbands. His conversion therefore occurred in the eighth year, the Year of the Conquest, not in the sixth as al-Wāqidī maintained—Allah knows best.
Al-Wāqidī also relates that in this same year Dihyah ibn Khalīfah al-Kalbī returned from the Byzantine Emperor, who had honored him with money and robes of distinction. When he reached Ḥismā a band from the tribe of Judhām waylaid him and stripped him of everything. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ therefore dispatched Zayd ibn Ḥārithah—may Allah be pleased with him—against them as well.
Al-Wāqidī said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar narrated to me from Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUtbah who said: ʿAlī—may Allah honor his face—went out with one hundred men until he encamped near a clan of Banū Saʿd ibn Bakr. News had reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that they were gathering to aid the Jews of Khaybar. ʿAlī traveled by night, lay in ambush by day, and captured one of their scouts, who admitted that he had been sent to Khaybar to offer them assistance in exchange for a share of Khaybar’s dates.