—Sārah, a client-woman of the Banū ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and an associate of ʿIkrima ibn Abī Jahl, for she had been one of those who harmed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Mecca.

I (the author) say: Some transmitters identify her as the very woman who carried Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah’s letter. It appears that she was first pardoned—or perhaps she fled—and that later her blood was declared lawful; Allah knows best. She remained in hiding until a guarantee of safety was sought for her from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he granted it. She lived on into the caliphate of ʿUmar, when a man rode over her with his horse and she died. Al-Suhaylī (1) adds that Fartanā likewise embraced Islam.

Ibn Isḥāq (2) said: As for ʿIkrima ibn Abī Jahl, he fled to Yemen. His wife, Umm Ḥakīm bint al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, had embraced Islam and sought the Prophet’s protection for him; he granted it. She then set out, found him, and brought him back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, whereupon he accepted Islam.

Al-Bayhaqī (3) relates: Abu Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Mamish al-Faqīh told us; Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qaṭṭān told us; Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Sulamī told us; Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal told us; Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr al-Hamdānī told us that al-Suddī, on the authority of Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd, from his father, said:

When the day of the Conquest of Mecca arrived, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted security to everyone except four men and two women, saying,

“Kill them even if you find them clinging to the curtains of the Kaʿbah.”

They were ʿIkrima ibn Abī Jahl, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khaṭal, Miqyās ibn Ṣubābah, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ.

• ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khaṭal was seized while grasping the curtains of the Kaʿbah. Saʿīd ibn Ḥurayth and ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir raced toward him; Saʿīd, the quicker of the two, reached him first and killed him.
• Miqyās was caught in the market and killed there.
• ʿIkrima boarded a ship, but a violent storm struck. The crew said to one another, “Be sincere, for your idols can do nothing for you here.” ʿIkrima declared, “By Allah, if sincerity alone saves at sea, it will save on land as well. O Allah, I pledge that if You deliver me from this, I will go to Muhammad, place my hand in his, and surely find him forgiving and generous.” He returned and embraced Islam.
• ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ hid with ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called the people to pledge allegiance, ʿUthmān brought him and stood him before the Prophet ﷺ, saying, “Messenger of Allah, accept ʿAbd Allāh’s pledge.” The Prophet looked at him three times, each time refusing, and then accepted his pledge.

Turning to his Companions he said, “Was there not a discerning man among you who, when he saw me withhold my hand from him, would stand up and kill him?”

They replied, “Messenger of Allah, we did not know what was in your heart; why did you not signal to us with your eye?”

He said, “It does not befit a prophet to act with treacherous eyes.”

Abu Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī (4) also transmitted this report through the chain of Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal with a similar wording.