Ibn Isḥāq relates: After ʿUrwah was killed the people of Thaqīf remained as they were for several months. Then they consulted among themselves, realizing that they had no strength to fight the surrounding Arab tribes, all of whom had already pledged allegiance and accepted Islam. Acting on the counsel of ʿAmr ibn Umayyah of Banū ʿIlāj, they agreed to dispatch an envoy. They therefore sent ʿAbd-Yālīl ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUmayr, accompanied by two men from the Aḥlāf and three from Banū Mālik—al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAmr ibn Wahb ibn Muʿattib, Shuraḥbīl ibn Ghīlān ibn Salamah ibn Muʿattib, ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, Aws ibn ʿAwf of Banū Sālim, and Numayr ibn Khurashah ibn Rabīʿah.

Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah adds that they were a dozen or so men; among them was Kinānah ibn ʿAbd-Yālīl, their leader, and ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, the youngest member of the delegation.

Ibn Isḥāq continues: When they neared Madinah and encamped at Qanāh, they encountered al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who was on duty pasturing the mounts of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Seeing them, he hurried off to bring the Prophet the good news of their arrival. Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq met him on the way; al-Mughīrah told him that riders from Thaqīf had come seeking to pledge allegiance and embrace Islam, provided the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would grant them certain conditions and record them in writing for their people. Abū Bakr said to al-Mughīrah, “I adjure you—do not reach the Messenger of Allah before me; let me be the one to inform him.” Al-Mughīrah agreed, so Abū Bakr went in first and announced their arrival to the Prophet ﷺ.

Al-Mughīrah then returned to his companions, unsaddled their mounts, and taught them how to greet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, but they persisted in using the pre-Islamic greeting. When they finally entered upon the Prophet, a pavilion was pitched for them inside the mosque. Khālid ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ acted as intermediary between them and the Messenger of Allah; whenever food was brought to them from the Prophet, they would not eat until Khālid ibn Saʿīd had eaten first. He was also the one who wrote out their agreement.

Among the conditions they presented to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was that their idol—the Tāghiyah, meaning al-Lāt—be left standing for three years. They kept reducing their request, year by year, and he kept refusing, until they asked that it remain for just one month after their return so they could appease their hot-headed youth. He would grant them no fixed term at all unless he sent Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb and al-Mughīrah to demolish it. They also asked that they not be obliged to perform the prayer and that they not have to smash their idols with their own hands.

He replied, “As for demolishing your idols with your own hands, we will spare you that; but as for the prayer—there is no good in a religion that contains no prayer.”

They said, “We shall perform it, even though we find it debasing.”

Imām Aḥmad reports: ʿAffān related to us, Ḥammād ibn Salamah related to us, from Ḥumayd, from al-Ḥasan, from ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, that the delegation of Thaqīf came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he lodged them in the mosque so that their hearts might be softened. They stipulated before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that they not be conscripted, not be subjected to the tithe, not be circumcised, and that no one outside their own tribe be placed in authority over them. He said—