…your companion? O Ḍirār, strike his neck!” His neck was struck, and Khalid ordered that the head be placed between two stones and that a pot be set over the three; he ate from it that night in order to strike fear into the Bedouins, both the apostates and others.

It is said that the fire kept burning Mālik’s hair until the meat in the cauldron was done, yet the hair, because of its abundance, was still not fully consumed. Abū Qatādah spoke with Khalid about what he had done, and they argued until Abū Qatādah left and complained about him to al-Ṣiddīq. ʿUmar also spoke with Abū Qatādah about Khalid, and he said to al-Ṣiddīq, “Remove him, for there is recklessness in his sword.” (1)

Abū Bakr replied, “I will not sheath (2) a sword that Allah has unsheathed against the disbelievers.” Mutammim ibn Nuwairah then came, voicing his grievance against Khalid before al-Ṣiddīq; ʿUmar supported him and recited to al-Ṣiddīq the elegies he had composed for his brother, whereupon al-Ṣiddīq paid (3) the blood-money himself.

Among Mutammim’s verses:

We were like Jadīmah’s two boon-companions for a stretch of time,
till people said: “They will never be torn apart.”
We lived in well-being as long as we lived, yet before us
death had wiped away the peoples of Kisrā and of Tubbaʿ.
But once we were parted, it was as though—despite our long togetherness—
Mālik and I had never spent a single night side by side.

He also said:

My friend rebuked me at al-Qaʿūr for my weeping,
for the torrents of tears I shed,
And said, “Do you weep at every grave you see—
at a grave that lies amid the dunes and rugged ground?” (4)
I answered, “Grief begets further grief; so leave me,
for all of this is Mālik’s grave.” (5)

In short, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) kept urging al-Ṣiddīq and spurring him (6) to dismiss Khalid from command, saying, “There is recklessness in his sword,” until al-Ṣiddīq sent for Khalid ibn al-Walid. Khalid arrived in Madinah wearing his iron coat of mail—now rusted from the profusion of blood—and with arrows soaked in blood stuck into his turban. When he entered the mosque, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb rose, snatched the arrows from Khalid’s turban, and smashed them, saying, “Braggart! You killed a Muslim man and then leapt upon his wife. By Allah, I will stone you with rocks!” Khalid gave him no reply, assuming that al-Ṣiddīq held the same view of him.