Saʿīd narrates—from Muṣʿab ibn Shaybah, from his father—who said:

I went out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the Day of Ḥunayn. By Allah, it was neither Islam nor any real knowledge of him that took me out, but rather my refusal to let Hawāzin triumph over Quraysh. While I was standing beside him I said, “Messenger of Allah, I can see piebald horses.” He replied, “O Shaybah, no one sees them except a disbeliever.” He then placed his hand on my chest and said, “O Allah, guide Shaybah.” He struck it a second time, repeating, “O Allah, guide Shaybah,” then struck it a third time and said, “O Allah, guide Shaybah.” By Allah, before he lifted his hand from my chest the third time there was no one in all creation dearer to me than he. He then went on to recount how the two sides met, the Muslims briefly fled, al-ʿAbbās called out, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sought aid until Allah routed the idolaters.

Al-Bayhaqī (1) said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzanī narrated to us; Yūsuf ibn Mūsā narrated to us; Hishām ibn Khālid narrated to us; al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to me, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, from Abū Bakr al-Hadhlī, from ʿIkrimah, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, from Shaybah ibn ʿUthmān, who said:

When I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the Day of Ḥunayn exposed, I remembered my father and my uncle—both killed by ʿAlī and Ḥamzah—and I said, “Today I shall avenge myself on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” I moved to approach him from his right, but there stood al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib in a white coat of mail that shone like silver through the dust, and I thought, “His uncle; he will never desert him.” I came from his left and found Abū Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. I thought, “His cousin; he will never desert him.” I approached from behind; nothing remained but to strike him with my sword when a tongue of fire shot up between us like a flash of lightning. I feared it would burn me, so I covered my eyes with my hand and stepped backward. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ turned and said, “O Shayb, come close—O Allah, drive Satan away from him.” I raised my eyes to him, and he became dearer to me than my own hearing and sight. He then said, “O Shayb, fight the disbelievers.”

Ibn Isḥāq (2) reported that Shaybah ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Ṭalḥah of Banū ʿAbd al-Dār said: “I declared, ‘Today I shall avenge myself—my father had been killed at Uḥud—today I will kill Muḥammad.’ I circled around the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to kill him, but something came over my heart so that I could not do it, and I knew that he was protected from me.”

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (3) also said: My father, Isḥāq ibn Yasār, told me—from someone who told him—from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, who said: We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the Day of Ḥunayn while the people were fighting when I looked and saw something like a black canopy descending from the sky until it settled between us and the enemy. Suddenly the valley was filled with scattered “ants,” and then came the rout of the enemy; we had no doubt