Then al-Bukhārī (1) said: Musa ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us, and ʿAmr ibn Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; my grandfather—Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ—told me that Abān ibn Saʿīd came to the Prophet ﷺ and greeted him with salām. Abū Hurayrah thereupon said, “O Messenger of Allah, this man is the killer of Ibn Qawqal.” Abān retorted to Abū Hurayrah, “How strange you are! A mere tuft of camel-hair fallen from a stray beast (2) censures me over a man whom Allah honored through my hand and kept from disgracing me with his.” Al-Bukhārī records this report here as a solitary narration.

He also says in the Book of Jihād (3): al-Ḥumaydī narrated to us, from Sufyān, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAnbasah ibn Saʿīd, from Abū Hurayrah who said: “I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Khaybar after it had been conquered and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, allot me a share.’ Someone from the family of Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ said, ‘Do not give him anything.’ I replied, ‘O Messenger of Allah, this man is the killer of Ibn Qawqal.’” —and the narration continues.

Sufyān added: “Al-Saʿīdī—meaning ʿAmr ibn Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd—related it to me from his grandfather, from Abū Hurayrah in these very words.” This ḥadīth makes it explicit that Abū Hurayrah was not present at Khaybar. Earlier, at the start of the discussion of this expedition, we cited Imām Aḥmad (4) through the isnād of ʿArāk ibn Mālik, from Abū Hurayrah, stating that he arrived at the Messenger of Allah ﷺ after Khaybar had been taken, addressed the Muslims, and said, “Include us in your shares.”

Imām Aḥmad likewise said (5): Rūḥ narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār, who said: Abū Hurayrah declared, “Never did I attend a conquest with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ without being given a portion—except Khaybar, for it was set aside exclusively for the people of Ḥudaybiyyah.”

I say: Abū Hurayrah and Abū Mūsā both arrived (6) in the interval between Ḥudaybiyyah and Khaybar.

Al-Bukhārī (7) also said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Muʿāwiyah ibn ʿAmr narrated to us; Abū Isḥāq narrated to us, from Mālik ibn Anas, who told me that Sālim—the freedman of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muṭīʿ—heard Abū Hurayrah say: “We opened Khaybar and took no gold or silver as booty; rather we acquired camels, cattle, goods, and orchards. We then set out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ toward Wādī al-Qurā, accompanied by a slave of his named Midʿam, whom someone from Banū al-Ḍubayb had given him. While Midʿam was unloading the saddle-gear of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, a stray arrow struck him and he was killed. The people exclaimed, ‘Congratulations to him—martyrdom!’ but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

‘By no means! By Him in whose hand is my soul, the cloak he took on the day of Khaybar, before the spoils had been divided, will be blazing upon him as fire.’”