when they came to you asking that you provide mounts for them, you said, “I can find nothing on which to mount you.” They turned away, their eyes overflowing with tears, grieving that they could not find anything to spend. (92)
Blame attaches only to those who ask your leave while they are wealthy; they are content to stay behind with the womenfolk, and Allah has sealed their hearts, so they do not understand. (93)
[al-Tawbah, 9:86–93]
We have already treated the commentary on all of this at length in the Tafsīr (1), and that discussion is sufficient—praise and gratitude belong to Allah for His favour.
Our purpose here is to mention the “weepers”: the men who came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ asking him to carry them so that they might accompany him on this expedition. Finding no mounts available with him, they returned in tears, sorrowing over the chance they had missed to strive in the path of Allah and to spend in that cause.
Ibn Isḥāq (2) said: They were seven men from the Anṣār and others: from Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf—Sālim ibn ʿUmayr; ʿUlbah ibn Zayd, the brother of Banū Ḥārithah; Abū Laylā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kaʿb, the brother of Banū Māzin ibn al-Najjār; ʿAmr ibn al-Humām ibn al-Jamūḥ, the brother of Banū Salamah; ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughafal al-Muzanī—though some say it was ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr al-Muzanī; Huraymī ibn ʿAbd Allāh, a brother of Banū Wāqif; and ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah al-Fazārī.
Ibn Isḥāq (3) said: I have been informed that Ibn Yāmīn ibn ʿUmayr ibn Kudab al-Naḍrī met Abū Laylā and ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughafal while they were both weeping. He asked, “What makes you weep?” They replied, “We came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ so that he might carry us, but we found nothing with him on which he could mount us, and we ourselves possess nothing that would enable us to go out with him.” He therefore gave them one of his riding camels, which they mounted, and supplied them with some dates; thus they set out with the Prophet ﷺ.
Yūnus ibn Bukayr added, on Ibn Isḥāq’s authority: As for ʿUlbah ibn Zayd, he rose in the night and prayed for as long as Allah willed. Then he wept and said, “O Allah, You have commanded jihad and encouraged it, yet You have not provided me with the means to strengthen myself, nor have You placed in the hand of Your Messenger ﷺ anything on which to carry me. I therefore give in charity to every Muslim against whom I have committed any wrong—whether in wealth, body, or honour.” In the morning he went out with the people, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Where is the man who gave charity last night?” No one stood up. He repeated, “Where is the giver of charity? Let him rise.” So he stood and told him what he had done. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Rejoice! By the One in whose hand is my soul, it has been recorded for you among the accepted charities.”
Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī (4) also cites here the ḥadīth of Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us, Abū al-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb reported to us, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Ḥārithī related to us, Abū Usāmah told us, from Burayd, from Abū Burdah, from Abū Mūsā, who said:
“My companions sent me to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to ask him to provide mounts for them, for they were with him in the Army of Hardship during the expedition to Tabūk. I said, ‘O Prophet of Allah, my companions have sent me to you that you might carry them.’ He replied, ‘By Allah, I will not mount you upon anything.’ I agreed with him while he was angry and I did not realise it, and I returned saddened by his refusal.”