He said, “I will give you what remains of this money as a safeguard on behalf of the Messenger of God ﷺ against anything of which neither we nor you are aware.” ʿAlī did so, then returned to the Messenger of God ﷺ and related what had happened. The Prophet ﷺ said,

“You have acted correctly and done well.”

The Messenger of God ﷺ then rose, faced the qiblah standing, and raised his hands so high that the area beneath his shoulders could be seen. He prayed,

“O Allah, I declare my innocence before You of what Khālid ibn al-Walīd has done,”

and he repeated this three times.

Ibn Isḥāq (1) says: Some who excuse Khālid report that he said, “I did not fight until ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥudhāfah al-Sahmī ordered me, saying, ‘The Messenger of God ﷺ has instructed you to fight them because they refused to accept Islam.’”

Ibn Hishām (2) relates: Abū ʿAmr al-Madanī said that when Khālid ibn al-Walīd reached them they kept saying, “ṣaba’nā, ṣaba’nā” (3). These chains, however, are mursal and broken.

Imām Aḥmad transmitted: ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us, Muʿammar from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: “The Messenger of God ﷺ sent Khālid ibn al-Walīd to the Banū—he said, I think—Jadhīmah. He invited them to Islam, but they did not know how to say, ‘We have embraced Islam,’ and instead kept repeating, ‘ṣaba’nā, ṣaba’nā.’ Khālid then began taking them prisoner and killing them. (4)

“He handed a captive to each of us, and the next morning Khālid ordered that every man kill his captive.

“I said, ‘By God, I will not kill my captive, and none of my companions will kill theirs.’

“We went to the Prophet ﷺ and informed him of Khālid’s action. The Prophet ﷺ thereupon raised his hands and said,

‘O Allah, I declare my innocence before You of what Khālid has done,’ twice.” (5)

Al-Bukhārī and al-Nasāʾī (6) have also recorded this report through ʿAbd al-Razzāq with similar wording.

Ibn Isḥāq (7) says: When Jaḥdam saw what Khālid was doing, he said, “O Banū Jadhīmah, the blow has fallen! I warned you about the very thing you are now facing.”

Ibn Isḥāq (8) further reports that there was, as I have been told, an exchange between Khālid and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf about the matter. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said to him, “Have you acted by the code of the Age of Ignorance within Islam?” Khālid replied, “I was only avenging your father.” ʿAbd al-Raḥmān responded: