Al-Bayhaqī (1) relates: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aṣamm informed us; Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī informed us; al-Ḥasan ibn Bishr al-Kūfī informed us; al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of Qatādah, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, said:

On the day of the Conquest of Mecca the Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted amnesty to all people except four: ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn Khatal, Miqyās ibn Ṣubābah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ, and Umm Sārah.

As for ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn Khatal, he was killed while clinging to the curtains of the Kaʿbah.

A man of the Anṣār had vowed that he would kill ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ whenever he saw him. Ibn Abī Sarḥ was the foster-brother of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, and ʿUthmān brought him to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to plead on his behalf. When the Anṣārī caught sight of him he grasped his sword and advanced, but found him sitting in the Prophet’s circle. He paced to and fro, reluctant to strike. The Prophet ﷺ then stretched out his hand and accepted Ibn Abī Sarḥ’s allegiance, and said to the Anṣārī,

“I was waiting for you to carry out your vow.”

The man replied, “Messenger of Allah, I was in awe of you. Could you not have signalled to me?”

He said, “It is not befitting for a prophet to give furtive signals.”

With regard to Miqyās ibn Ṣubābah: after embracing Islam he killed a Muslim man and then apostatized.

As for Umm Sārah, she was a bondwoman allied to Quraysh. She came to the Prophet ﷺ, complained of her poverty, and he gave her something. He also dispatched a man with her carrying a letter to the people of Mecca; this is the incident that concerns Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (2) reports, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm, that the brother of Miqyās, Hishām, was killed on the day of Banū al-Muṣṭaliq by a Muslim who thought he was a polytheist. Miqyās arrived professing Islam in order to claim his brother’s blood-money. Once he received it, he attacked and killed his brother’s slayer and returned to Mecca as an idolater. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared his blood lawful, he was slain between Ṣafā and Marwah.

Ibn Isḥāq and al-Bayhaqī (3) have cited the verses he composed after killing his brother’s killer:

He cooled my rage—he who lay upon the plain, propped up,
His garments soaked with the blood of throats.
Before I struck him, cares weighed upon my soul
And robbed me of the comfort of my couch.
By his death I smote Fihr and made his blood-money due—
The nobles of Banū al-Najjār, lofty lords of Fāriʿ.
Thus I fulfilled my vow and took my vengeance,
And I was the first to turn back to the idols.

[Author’s note:] It is also said that the two singing-girls whose blood had been declared lawful belonged to this same Miqyās ibn Ṣubābah, and that it was his cousin who killed him between Ṣafā and Marwah.