Khalid then summoned me to furnish legal proof, and I produced it: Muhammad ibn Maslamah and Muhammad ibn Bashir al-Ansari served as my witnesses. He therefore delivered her to me. Her brother ʿAbd al-Masīḥ came down, seeking reconciliation, and said, “Sell her to me.”

I replied, “By Allah, I will not reduce her price below ten hundred dirhams.” He gave me one thousand dirhams, so I handed her over to him. People later remarked, “Had you asked for a hundred thousand, he would have paid it.” I answered, “I did not even know a number greater than ten hundred existed.”

The Delegation of Thaqīf Comes to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Ramadan of the Ninth Year

It has already been mentioned that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ departed from Thaqīf, he was asked to invoke a curse upon them, yet he prayed instead for their guidance. It has likewise been recorded that when Mālik ibn ʿAwf al-Naṣrī embraced Islam, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ honored him with gifts and appointed him commander over those of his people who had become Muslim. Mālik then raided the lands of Thaqīf and tightened the pressure upon them until they were compelled to enter Islam. In addition, Abū Dāwūd narrates from Ṣakhr ibn al-ʿIylah al-Aḥmasī that he persisted against Thaqīf until he brought them down from their fortress on the condition that they accept the judgment of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; with the Prophet’s permission he then led them to al-Madinah.

Ibn Isḥāq reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned to Madinah from Tabūk in Ramadan. During that same month the delegation of Thaqīf arrived. Their story is as follows: after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ left them, ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd followed in his tracks, overtook him before he reached Madinah, and accepted Islam. He then asked permission to go back and invite his people to the faith. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ—according to what ʿUrwah’s own people relate—told him, “They will kill you.” The Prophet ﷺ knew that they possessed a proud spirit of resistance because of what had happened earlier.

ʿUrwah replied, “O Messenger of Allah, I am dearer to them than their virgin daughters.” Indeed, he enjoyed great affection and obedience among them. He therefore set out to call his people to Islam, hoping that, because of his status, they would not oppose him. When he ascended the balcony of his house and openly proclaimed his Islam, they shot arrows at him from every direction; one arrow struck him and killed him.

The clan of Banū Mālik claim that the man who killed him was one of them, Aws ibn ʿAwf of Banū Sālim ibn Mālik. The confederate clans maintain that his killer was a man of theirs from Banū ʿAttāb, Wahb ibn Jābir.

While ʿUrwah lay dying he was asked, “What is your opinion regarding your blood?” He said, “It is an honor with which Allah has ennobled me and a martyrdom He has granted me. My case is no different from that of the martyrs who were slain alongside the Messenger of Allah ﷺ before he departed from you. Bury me with them.” They did so.

They also report that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said of him: “His example among his people is like that of the man of Yāsīn among his people.”

Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah likewise told the story of ʿUrwah, but claimed that it occurred after the Ḥajj of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq; Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī followed him in that. This, however, is unlikely. The sound view is that it took place before Abū Bakr’s Ḥajj, as Ibn Isḥāq has related—Allah knows best.