“Whoever is content to waive his claim, let him do so; and whoever prefers to keep his allotted share until we give it to him from the first spoils that God bestows upon us, let him do so.”

The people answered, “We have gladly waived it, O Messenger of God.”

He said to them, “We cannot tell who among you has consented and who has not. Return, therefore, and have your spokesmen convey your decision to us.”

So the people went back, their leaders spoke with them, and then they returned to the Messenger of God ﷺ and informed him that they had all willingly consented. This is all that has reached us regarding the captives of Hawāzin. Al-Bukhārī did not address the refusal of al-Aqraʿ, ʿUyaynah, and their clans; he simply remained silent—and an explicit affirmation is preferred to a denial, so how much more to mere silence!

Al-Bukhārī also relates—through al-Zuhrī, who said: ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim told me, on the authority of his father, who was informed by Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim—that while he was with the Messenger of God ﷺ, the people accompanying him on the return from Ḥunayn, the desert Bedouins crowded around the Messenger of God ﷺ begging from him until they forced him against a samurah tree and snatched off his cloak. The Messenger of God ﷺ stopped and said, “Give me back my cloak! If I had livestock equal in number to these trees, I would divide it among you; you would never find me stingy, untruthful, or cowardly.” This report is unique to al-Bukhārī.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Abū Wajzah Yazīd ibn ʿUbayd al-Saʿdī told me that the Messenger of God ﷺ gave ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib a slave-girl named Rayṭah bint Hilāl ibn Ḥayyān ibn ʿUmayrah. He gave ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān a girl named Zaynab bint Ḥayyān ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥayyān. And he gave ʿUmar a girl, whom ʿUmar then presented to his son ʿAbd Allāh.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Nāfiʿ related to me, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, who said: “I sent her to my maternal kin of the Banū Jumah so they could groom and prepare her for me while I circumambulated the House. I intended to be with her when I returned. When I left the Mosque after finishing, I found the people running about. I asked, ‘What is the matter?’ They said, ‘The Messenger of God ﷺ has given back our women and our children.’ I said, ‘Your woman is with the Banū Jumah—go and take her.’ They went and reclaimed her.”

Ibn Isḥāq also said: As for ʿUyaynah ibn Ḥiṣn, he had taken an old woman from among the women of Hawāzin and said, when he seized her, “I see an elderly woman; I suspect she has lineage among the clan, and perhaps her ransom will be great.” When the Messenger of God ﷺ returned the captives for six shares, ʿUyaynah refused to give her back. Zuhayr ibn Ṣurd said to him, “Relinquish her! By God, her mouth is not sweet, her breasts are not youthful, her belly carries no child, her husband owns no wealth, and her udder gives no milk.” So ʿUyaynah returned her for six shares.

They also claim that ʿUyaynah later met al-Aqraʿ and complained to him. Al-Aqraʿ replied, “By God, you did not take her as a fair, young maiden, nor as a plump, softly-reared girl.”