so that his age reached sixty complete years, whereupon Allah took him unto Himself.
He was asked, “At what phase of life was he then?”
He replied, “At the very flower of manhood—strongest, fairest, most comely, and most full-fleshed.”
He was further asked, “Abū Ḥamzah, did you fight alongside the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?”
He said, “Yes. I was with him at Ḥunayn. The idolaters sallied forth at dawn and charged us so fiercely that we saw our own mounts behind our backs. Among them was a man who pressed upon us, shattering and scattering our ranks. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ beheld this, he dismounted; then Allah routed them and they turned in flight. When the Prophet ﷺ saw the victory, prisoners were brought to him one by one and they pledged allegiance to Islam.
“One of the Companions said, ‘I have made a vow: if that very man who was crushing us a moment ago is brought before me, I shall strike off his head.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained silent. The man was then brought. On seeing the Prophet ﷺ he cried, ‘O Prophet of Allah, I repent to Allah!’ The Prophet ﷺ held back from accepting his allegiance so that the other might fulfil his vow. The Companion kept looking at the Prophet ﷺ, awaiting a command to kill him, yet he held the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in awe. When the Prophet ﷺ saw that he would do nothing, he accepted the man’s pledge.
“The Companion then said, ‘O Prophet of Allah, what of my vow?’ He replied, ‘I withheld from him only so that you might carry out your vow.’
“The man protested, ‘O Messenger of Allah, could you not have signalled to me?’
“He answered, ‘It is not for a prophet to give covert signals.’”
This narration is unique to Aḥmad. (1)
Aḥmad also said: Yazīd related to us; Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, reported that part of the supplication of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the day of Ḥunayn was: “O Allah, if You so will, You will not be worshipped after this day.” Its chain is triple-linked and meets the criteria of the two Shaykhs, yet none of the authors of the canonical collections recorded it through this route. (2)
Al-Bukhārī said: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār told us; Ghundar narrated to us; Shuʿbah, from Abū Isḥāq, who heard al-Barrāʾ ibn ʿĀzib.
A man from the tribe of Qays asked him, “Did you flee from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the day of Ḥunayn?”
He replied, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not flee. Hawāzin were expert archers. When we charged them they broke and ran, and we bent over the spoils; then they met us with their arrows. I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ upon his white mule while Abū Sufyān was holding its reins, and he was saying:
‘I am the Prophet, no lie!
I am the son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib!’” (3)
Al-Bukhārī also transmitted it from Abū’l-Walīd, from Shuʿbah, and cited the verse of rajaz:
“I am the Prophet, no lie! …
I am the son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib!”
Al-Bukhārī further said that Isrā’īl and Zuhayr narrated from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barrāʾ: “Then he dismounted from his mule.” (4)
Muslim and al-Nasā’ī transmitted it as well from Bundār, and Muslim added the name of Abū Mūsā. Both of them took it from Ghundar. (5)