…with an army to fight the apostates. Abu Bakr therefore outfitted him with troops, but once al-Fujāʾah set out he would pass by neither Muslim nor apostate without killing him and seizing his property. When al-Ṣiddīq heard of this he dispatched a force after him and brought him back. Once he had him in his power, he sent him to al-Baqīʿ: his hands were tied behind his back, he was thrown into the fire, and he was burned alive while tightly bound.
The Story of Sajah and the Banū Tamīm (1)
During the days of apostasy the Banū Tamīm were divided in their views. Some of them apostasised and withheld the zakāh, some forwarded the alms-tax to al-Ṣiddīq, and others held back, waiting to see what would happen. While they were in that state, Sajah bint al-Ḥārith ibn Suwayd ibn ʿUqfān al-Taghlibiyyah arrived from al-Jazīrah. She was one of the Christian Arabs and had claimed prophethood. With her were troops from her own tribe and from those who had rallied around her, and they had resolved to attack Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq. When she passed through the territory of the Banū Tamīm she invited them to her cause, and the great majority of them responded. Among those who answered her were Mālik ibn Nuwaira al-Tamīmī, ʿUṭārid ibn Ḥājib, and a group of leading chieftains of Banū Tamīm, while others held back. They agreed that there would be no fighting among themselves. Yet after Mālik ibn Nuwaira paid court to her, he dissuaded her from turning back and incited her against the Banū Tamīm. In the end they all concurred on fighting the people in general.
They said, “With whom shall we begin?”
She answered in the rhymed prose she liked to employ:
“Prepare the mounts, make ready for plunder; then raid al-Rabāb, for nothing shields them from you.”
They thereupon pledged to support her, and one of them recited:
—from the wāfir metre— (2)
Taghlib’s sister has come to us, escorted by men—
strangers drawn from the nobles of our own kin.
She planted among us a foolish summons,
a doctrine imported from clans that trail behind us.
We were never ones to wrong them for a trifle,
Nor would she have yielded had we appeared.
How witless and astray your minds became
on the evening you mustered your hosts for her!
ʿUṭārid ibn Ḥājib also said (3):
—from the basīṭ metre—
Our prophet has become a woman round whom we hover,
while all the prophets of mankind have been men!
Sajah then marched with her forces toward al-Yamāmah, intending to wrest it from Musaylimah ibn Ḥabīb the Liar. Her people were overawed and said, “His power has grown great and formidable.” She replied in her rhymed prose:
“Head for al-Yamāmah; flutter like a dove in your advance; it will be a decisive raid, and none shall blame you after it.” (4)
So they set out to wage war on Musaylimah. When he heard of her approach he feared for his land, for he was already occupied with fighting Thumāmah ibn Uthāl, whom ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl was reinforcing with troops.