He was also present at Badr on the side of the idolaters, and on that day he actually saw the angels between heaven and earth. He attended al-Hudaybiyyah and worked hard for the truce; then, during ʿUmrat al-Qaḍāʾ (the ʿUmrah of Compensation), he and Suhayl were the very two who told the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to depart from Makkah. The Prophet therefore instructed Bilāl that the sun must not set while any of his Companions was still in the city.

He (Huwayṭib) said: “In every one of those situations I resolved to embrace Islam, but Allah decreed otherwise. When the time of the Conquest arrived I was seized by great fear and fled. Abū Dharr—who had been an intimate friend of mine in the pre-Islamic days—caught up with me and asked, ‘O Huwayṭib, what is the matter with you?’ I replied, ‘I am afraid.’ He said, ‘Do not fear; he is the most trustworthy and the most dutiful of people. I grant you my protection, so come back with me.’ I returned with him, and he brought me before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who was then in al-Baṭḥāʾ accompanied by Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. Abū Dharr had taught me to say, ‘Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.’ When I uttered that greeting, the Prophet replied, ‘Huwayṭib?’ I answered, ‘Yes. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that you are the Messenger of Allah.’ He said, ‘Praise be to Allah who has guided you,’ and he was delighted. He then asked me for a loan, so I lent him forty thousand.

“I later accompanied him at Ḥunayn and al-Ṭāʾif, and he allotted me one hundred camels from the spoils of Ḥunayn.

“Afterwards I came to Madinah and took up residence there, for I owned a house in the city. When Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam became its governor, I, together with Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām and Makhramah ibn Nawfal, visited him, exchanged greetings, talked for a while, and then dispersed. On another day I met Marwān again; he asked me my age, and when I told him he remarked, ‘Your Islam came late, old man, so that the youngsters outstripped you.’ I replied, ‘Allah is the One whose help is sought. By Allah, I intended to accept Islam more than once, but your father always held me back, saying, “Will you throw away your honour, abandon the religion of your forefathers for a new faith, and become merely a follower?”’ Marwān fell silent, felt ashamed, and regretted what he had said to me. I then added, ‘Did ʿUthmān never tell you what he had endured from your father when he became Muslim?’ Marwān’s distress only deepened.

“I was among those who witnessed ʿUthmān’s burial.

“Muʿāwiyah bought my house in Makkah from me for forty thousand dinars. People thought the price excessive, but I said, ‘What is that to a man with five dependants?!’ ”

Al-Shāfiʿī said: “Huwayṭib’s Islam was praiseworthy, and among Quraysh in Makkah he enjoyed the largest pre-Islamic income.”

Al-Wāqidī stated: “Huwayṭib lived sixty years in the Time of Ignorance and sixty years in Islam. He died in this very year in Madinah at the age of one hundred and twenty.” Others said he died in Syria.

He transmitted a single ḥadīth, recorded by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and al-Nasāʾī ⦗1⦘ through the narration of al-Sāʾib ibn Yazīd from him, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn