Al-Ḥakam said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched Shujāʿ ibn Wahb with twenty-four men against a band of the Hawāzin, instructing him to launch a surprise raid. He traveled by night and lay low by day until, at dawn, he fell upon them while they were unaware. He had already directed his men not to pursue too far. They captured a great number of camels and sheep and drove them back to Madinah, so that each man’s share came to fifteen camels.

Another narrator states that they also seized captives, and that the commander chose one comely slave-girl for himself. Later her family arrived as Muslims, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ consulted the commander about returning the captives to them. He agreed; the captives were released, and the [slave-girl](1) was given the choice and opted to remain with him.

It may be that this expedition is the same as the one mentioned in the report transmitted by al-Shāfiʿī(2) from Mālik, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent a detachment toward Najd in which ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar took part. He said, “We captured many camels; our individual shares reached twelve camels, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted us an extra camel apiece.” The two Ṣaḥīḥs record it from Mālik, and Muslim also relates it from al-Layth and ʿUbaydullāh, all from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, in similar wording(3).

Abū Dāwūd(4) reports: Ḥannād told us, ʿAbdah told us, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched a detachment to Najd, and I went out with them. We took abundant livestock, and our commander awarded every man an extra camel as a bonus. When we came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he divided the booty among us, and each man received twelve camels after the khums had been set aside. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ neither called us to account for what our commander had given nor criticized him for it, so that each of us ended up with thirteen camels including the bonus.”(5)

The Expedition of Kaʿb ibn ʿUmayr against Banū Quḍāʿah in Greater Syria

Al-Wāqidī(6) said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, [from] al-Zuhri, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent Kaʿb ibn ʿUmayr al-Ghifārī with fifteen men. They reached Dhāt Aṭlāḥ(7) in Syria, where they found a large force assembled. They invited them to Islam, but the people refused and showered them with arrows. When the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw this—