“You are mistaken; you have already slain my father’s killer, but it is your uncle al-Fākih ibn al-Mughīrah for whom you are taking revenge.” A quarrel thus broke out between them, and news of it reached the Messenger of God ﷺ, who said:

“Easy, Khālid; leave my Companions alone. By God, even if you owned the mountain of Uḥud in gold and spent it in the cause of God, you would still not equal a single morning or evening’s deed of one of my Companions.”

Ibn Isḥāq (1) then recounts the story of al-Fākih ibn al-Mughīrah ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Makhzūm, the paternal uncle of Khālid ibn al-Walīd. Al-Fākih set out with ʿAwf ibn ʿAbd ʿAwf (2) ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥārith ibn Zuhrah—accompanied by his son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—and with ʿAffān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayyah ibn ʿAbd Shams—accompanied by his son ʿUthmān—on a trading journey to Yemen. On their return they were carrying property that belonged to a man of Banū Jadhīmah who had died in Yemen and which they intended to deliver to his heirs.

A man from Banū Jadhīmah named Khālid ibn Hishām claimed the property for himself. He met them in the territory of Banū Jadhīmah and demanded it before they could reach the deceased man’s family. When they refused, he attacked them and they fought back until ʿAwf and al-Fākih were killed and their goods seized. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān killed his father’s killer, Khālid ibn Hishām, while ʿAffān and his son ʿUthmān fled to Mecca. Quraysh then considered marching against Banū Jadhīmah, but Banū Jadhīmah sent delegations to apologize, declaring that the affair had not been authorized by their leaders. They paid the blood-money for the two slain men and for the confiscated property, and hostilities were averted.

It was for this reason that Khālid ibn al-Walīd said to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, “I was only avenging your father,” referring to the time when Banū Jadhīmah had killed him. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān replied that he had already taken his revenge and slain the murderer, adding that Khālid was in fact avenging his own uncle al-Fākih ibn al-Mughīrah, who had been killed and robbed of his wealth. It is presumed of both men that they were not truly motivated by such desires; these remarks were uttered in the heat of dispute.

In reality, Khālid ibn al-Walīd sought only to champion Islam and its people, even though he erred in this affair. He assumed that the people were denigrating Islam by their words “ṣaba’nā, ṣaba’nā,” failing to understand that they meant, “We have embraced Islam.” He therefore killed many of them, took the rest captive, and later executed most of the captives as well. Despite this, the Messenger of God ﷺ did not relieve him of command; rather, he kept him in office, although he disavowed Khālid’s deed and paid compensation for every life or property wrongfully taken. This provides evidence for the legal opinion held by some scholars that the imam’s inadvertent errors are compensated from the public treasury rather than from his personal wealth—and God knows best.

For the same reason Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq did not dismiss him when he executed Mālik ibn Nuwairah during the Ridda wars, interpreting Khālid’s action when he struck off his head and married his wife, Umm Tamīm, in a similar light. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said to Abū Bakr, “Remove him, for there is rashness in his sword,” but Abū Bakr replied, “I will not sheath a sword that God has unsheathed against the idolaters.” (3)

Ibn Isḥāq (4) also said: “Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUtbah ibn al-Mughīrah ibn al-Akhnas related to me, from al-Zuhrī, from Ibn Abī—"