Ibn Isḥāq (1) relates: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ told me that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ deployed his army at Dhū Ṭuwā, he ordered al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām to enter Mecca with part of the force by way of Kudā; al-Zubayr commanded the left wing. He likewise instructed Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah to enter with a detachment by way of Kadāʾ.

Ibn Isḥāq (2) continues: Some people of knowledge say that as Saʿd set off he cried, “Today is the day of carnage; today the Sacred Precinct will be violated.” A man—Ibn Hishām says it was ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—heard him and exclaimed, “Messenger of Allah, do you hear what Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah is saying? We fear he may assail Quraysh.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ therefore said to ʿAlī, “Catch up with him, take the standard from him, and you enter with it.”

I (the author) add: From another source—other than Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq—it is reported that when Abū Sufyān complained to the Prophet ﷺ of Saʿd’s words as he passed him, saying, “O Abū Sufyān, today is the day of carnage, today the Sacred Precinct will be violated”—meaning the Kaʿbah—the Prophet ﷺ replied, “Rather, this is a day on which the Kaʿbah is exalted.” He then ordered that the Anṣār’s banner be taken from Saʿd as a disciplinary measure. Some say it was handed to his son Qays ibn Saʿd, while Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, says it was given to al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām. Allah knows best.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir, in the biography of Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq ibn Dīnār, records: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Sarī al-Anṭākī narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād narrated to us; and Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah also told me, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave the banner on the day Mecca was conquered to Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah. Saʿd shook it and proclaimed, “Today is the day of carnage, the day the Sacred Precinct is violated,” which weighed heavily on Quraysh and filled their hearts with dread.

He added: A woman intercepted the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the march and recited:

O Prophet of guidance, to you the clan of Quraysh has fled—
yet now there is no time left for flight;
When the wide earth closed in around them
and the God of heaven turned against them;
[When the two rings of the girth tightened on the people
and the cry went up to bare the naked blade;](4)
Indeed, Saʿd would deal a back-breaking blow
to the folk of Ḥajūn and al-Baṭḥāʾ;
A Khazrajite who, if his fury allowed,
would pelt us with vultures and ravening beasts;
So restrain him—for he is a black lion,
a lion who plunges headlong into blood.