Hadhrad al-Aslami said:
“I was that day among the cavalry of Khālid ibn al-Walīd. A young man from Banū Jadhīmah—about my own age—was there, his hands tied to his neck with a rope, while some women were gathered not far away from him. He called out:
‘Young man!’
I replied, ‘What do you want?’
He said, ‘Will you take hold of this rope, lead me over to those women so that I may speak to them for a moment, and then bring me back? After that you may do with me whatever you wish.’
I said, ‘By God, what you ask is easy.’ So I took the rope and led him until I set him before the women. Then he recited:
‘Embrace Islam, Ḥubaysh, before life slips away!’ (1)

[In Ṭawīl metre]
Have I not shown you—when I sought you and found you
in Ḥalyah or came upon you in al-Khawāniq—
That it befits a lover, who braves the dark of night
and its dangers, to be granted the boon he desires?
I bear no blame; I said, while our people were still together,
“Repay me with affection before the first calamity strikes.
Repay me with affection before separation spreads far abroad
and the prince leads the beloved away.”
Never have I betrayed a secret trust,
nor has any vision pleased my eye since you.
What has befallen the clan alone distracts from love—
save only a bond that is true and deep. (2)

One of the women answered:
‘And may you live—ten greetings, and nine in odd number, and eight in succession!’ (3)

I then turned back with him, and his neck was struck.

Ibn Isḥāq (4) said: Abū Firās ibn Abī Sunbulah al-Aslami related to me, from certain elders among them who were present, that when his neck had been struck she came to him, bent over him, and did not cease kissing him until she died beside him.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī (5) narrated—through al-Humaydī, from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Nawfal ibn Musāḥiq—that he heard a man of Muzaynah called Ibn ʿiṣām, from his father, say:
‘Whenever the Messenger of God ﷺ dispatched a detachment he would say, “If you see a mosque or hear a call to prayer, do not kill anyone.”
The Messenger of God ﷺ once sent us out on an expedition and gave us that instruction. We headed toward Tihāmah and came upon a man driving a group of women. We told him, “Embrace Islam.”
He said, “What is Islam?”—and when we explained it, he showed that he did not know it.
He asked, “If I do not accept it, what will you do?”
We answered, “We will kill you.”
He said, “Will you grant me a little time until I catch up with the women?”
We replied, “Yes—but we shall surely overtake you.”
He reached the women and called out, “Embrace Islam, Ḥubaysh, before life runs out!”—and one of the women responded, “Embrace it ten times, and nine in odd number, and eight in succession.” Then