“…some of your coats of mail. Shall we make good what is missing?”

Safwān answered, “No, Messenger of Allah. What is in my heart today was not there then.” (This report too is mursal.)

Ibn Isḥāq said (1): The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then set out with two thousand men from the people of Mecca, together with the ten thousand Companions who had come with him and through whom Allah had granted the conquest of the city, making them in all twelve thousand.

I say: According to ʿUrwah, al-Zuhrī, and Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, the combined strength of the two forces with which he advanced against Hawāzin was fourteen thousand, for—by their account—he had entered Mecca with twelve thousand and another two thousand of the newly freed captives (ṭulaqāʾ) were added to them.

Ibn Isḥāq also states that he departed Mecca on the fifth of Shawwāl and appointed ʿAttāb ibn Usayd ibn Abī al-ʿIyṣ ibn Umayyah ibn ʿAbd Shams al-Umawī as his deputy over its inhabitants.

I say: At that time ʿAttāb was about twenty years old.

Ibn Isḥāq continues: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ moved on, intent on confronting Hawāzin, and al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās al-Sulamī composed a poem about the campaign, from which are these verses (2):

“Carry to Hawāzin—high and low alike—
A message of frank advice sent forth by me.
I think the Messenger of Allah will reach you at dawn
With an army whose pillars span the earth’s wide plain.
Among them is Sulaym, your brother who will not desert you,
And the Muslims, servants of Allah, the clan of Ghassān.
On his right flank stand the sons of Asad,
And the twin leopards, the tribes of ʿAbs and Dhubyān.
The very earth quivers at the awe he inspires,
And at his vanguard are Aws and ʿUthmān.”

Ibn Isḥāq remarks: Aws and ʿUthmān are two sub-tribes of Muzaynah.

He also related to me—from al-Zuhrī, from Sinān ibn Abī Sinān al-Duʾalī, from Abū Wāqid al-Laythī—that al-Ḥārith ibn Mālik said:

“We set out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to Ḥunayn when we were still fresh from the days of ignorance. We marched with him to Ḥunayn.

“The idolaters of Quraysh and other Arabs had a great, green tree called Dhāt Anwāṭ; each year they would visit it, hang their weapons on it, slaughter at its foot, and stay there in devotion for a day.

“While traveling with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ we passed by a huge, green lote-tree. We called out from both sides of the road, ‘O Messenger of Allah, designate for us a Dhāt Anwāṭ just as they have a Dhāt Anwāṭ!’

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Allāhu akbar! By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, you have uttered just what the people of…’