Thabit ibn Abi al-Aflah al-Ansari. Abu Hurayrah said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, sent ten scouts and appointed Asim ibn Thabit al-Ansari as their leader. They travelled until they camped in the valley of al-Rajiʿ, between Mecca and Medina. They had Ajwa dates with them, and after they ate, an old woman passed by and saw the date pits. She returned to her people in Mecca and said, “Some people of Yathrib, among Muhammad’s companions, have passed along this road.” So seventy men of them, armed with spears, set out until they surrounded them.

Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Their presence was reported to a clan of Hudhayl called Banu Lihyan, and nearly one hundred archers set out in pursuit. They followed their tracks until they found the dates they had eaten at a place where they had camped. They said, “These are dates from Yathrib,” and followed their trail. When Asim and his companions became aware of them, they took refuge on a high, rugged piece of ground (1). The people surrounded them and killed Marthad, Khalid, and Abd Allah ibn Tariq. Asim ibn Thabit emptied his quiver, which contained seven arrows, and with each arrow he killed one of the leading polytheists. Then he said, “O Allah, I defended Your religion at the beginning of the day, so protect my flesh at the end of the day.”

Then the polytheists closed in around him and killed him. Once they had killed him, they wanted to sever his head in order to sell it to Sulafah bint Saʿd ibn Shuhayb. She had vowed, after he had killed her son at Uhud, that if she gained possession of Asim’s head, she would drink wine from his skull. But Allah sent a swarm of wasps (2)—for dabr are wasps—which protected Asim, and they were unable to reach him. Thus, he came to be called “the one protected by wasps.” They said, “Leave him until evening, when they will depart from him, and then we will take him.” Then a black cloud came and poured down rain like the mouths of water-skins (3). Allah caused a torrent to surge through the valley, which carried Asim away to Paradise and swept fifty of the polytheists away to the Fire. Asim had made a covenant with Allah Most High that no polytheist would ever touch him, nor would he touch a polytheist.

When Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, learned that the wasps had kept them from him, he would say: “How remarkable is Allah’s protection of the believing servant! Asim had vowed that no polytheist would ever touch him, nor would he touch a polytheist; so Allah protected him after his death, just as Asim had kept himself apart during his lifetime.”

The polytheists captured Khubayb ibn Adi al-Ansari and Zayd ibn al-Dathinnah, and took them to Mecca. As for Khubayb, the Banu al-Harith ibn Amir ibn Nawfal ibn Abd Manaf bought him in order to kill him in retaliation for their father, al-Harith, whom Khubayb had killed at Badr. Khubayb remained their prisoner until they resolved to kill him. He asked one of al-Harith’s daughters to lend him a razor so that he could shave himself, and she lent it to him. While she was unaware, her little son crawled over to him. Nothing alarmed the woman more than seeing Khubayb with the child seated on his thigh and the razor in his hand. The woman cried out, and Khubayb said, “Do you fear that I would kill him? I would never do such a thing; betrayal is not our way.”

Afterward, the woman said: “By Allah, I have never seen a better prisoner than Khubayb. By Allah, one day I found him eating a cluster of grapes held in his hand, even though he was bound in iron, and there was no fruit in Mecca. It was nothing but provision that Allah had granted Khubayb.” Then they took him outside the Sacred Precinct to kill him in non-sacred territory, intending to crucify him. Khubayb said to them, “Let me perform two units of prayer.” So they left him, and Khubayb was the first to establish the practice of prayer for every Muslim executed in captivity (4). He performed two units of prayer, then said, “Were it not that they would think I was afraid, I would have prayed longer. O Allah, count them…”