within a host that roars like a foaming sea—
Quraysh have broken the promise made to thee.
They have torn the covenant once firmly tied,
and set ambushers for me on Kaddā’s side.
They boasted that no one would heed my plea;
yet they are the lowest and fewest to see.
They fell upon us at al-Watīr in deepest night,
and butchered us while we bowed and prostrated in prayer’s rite.

The Messenger of Allah said,
“Help has come to you, ʿAmr ibn Sālim.”

The Prophet ﷺ had scarcely finished speaking when a bank of cloud (1) passed overhead. He remarked,
“This cloud is heralding victory for Banū Kaʿb.”

He then ordered the people to make ready, concealed from them the direction of his march, and prayed that Allah would veil his movements from Quraysh until he could take them unawares in their own land.

Ibn Isḥāq (2) said: The incident that first stirred hostilities was that a man of Banū al-Ḥaḍramī named Mālik ibn ʿAbbād—an ally of al-Aswad ibn Ruzn—set out on a trading journey. When he reached the territory of Khuzaʿah they attacked, killed him, and seized his goods. Banū Bakr then killed a man of Khuzaʿah in reprisal. Still before Islam, Khuzaʿah retaliated against the clan of al-Aswad ibn Ruzn al-Duʾilī—who were the most eminent branch of Banū Kinānah, namely Salmā, Kulthūm and Dhuʾayb—and slew them at ʿArafah near the boundary stones of the Sanctuary.

Ibn Isḥāq (3) said: A man of the Duʾil related to me that in the Jāhiliyyah the blood money for a member of Banū al-Aswad ibn Ruzn was reckoned at double the usual amount.

Ibn Isḥāq (4) said: While Banū Bakr and Khuzaʿah stood thus, Islam intervened between them. On the day of al-Ḥudaybiyah Banū Bakr entered the pact of Quraysh, whereas Khuzaʿah entered the pact of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and a truce was concluded. Banū al-Duʾil of Banū Bakr took advantage of the truce, wishing to exact blood-revenge from Khuzaʿah for those men. Naufal ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Duʾilī—then their chief and commander, though not all of Banū Bakr followed him—set out with his men. They surprised Khuzaʿah by night at al-Watīr, a watering place of theirs, killed one of them, and the fight spread. Quraysh supplied Banū Bakr with weapons, and some men of Quraysh fought alongside them secretly by night until they drove Khuzaʿah back into the Sacred Precinct. When they reached it,

Banū Bakr cried, “O Naufal, we have entered the Ḥaram—your god, your god!”

He answered with a shocking retort: “There is no god today! O Banū Bakr, take your revenge. By my life, you choke with thirst in the Sanctuary—will you not seize your vengeance within it?”

Khuzaʿah fled for refuge to the house of Budayl ibn Warqāʾ in Mecca and to the house of a freedman of theirs named Rāfiʿ.