who said: I heard Musa ibn Ibrahim say: I heard Talhah ibn Khirash say: I heard Jabir ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, say: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, met me and said, “O Jabir, why do I see you so downcast?” I said, “O Messenger of Allah, my father was martyred, leaving behind dependents and a debt.” He said, “Shall I not give you glad tidings of what Allah has done for your father?” I said, “Indeed, O Messenger of Allah.” He said: ⦗73/A⦘ “Allah Most High has never spoken to anyone except from behind a veil; but He brought your father to life and spoke to him directly. He said, ‘My servant, wish from Me, and I shall grant you.’ He said, ‘My Lord, bring me back to life so that I may be killed in Your cause a second time.’ The Lord, mighty and majestic is He, said, ‘It has already been decreed by Me that they shall not return.’ Thus, this was revealed concerning them: ‘Do not think those who have been killed in Allah’s cause to be dead.’” (1)
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Khiraqi informed us; Abu al-Hasan al-Taysafuni informed us; Abdullah ibn Umar al-Jawhari informed us; Ahmad ibn Ali al-Kushmihanī informed us; Ali ibn Hujr informed us; Ismail ibn Jafar informed us; Humayd informed us from Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “There is no servant who dies while enjoying goodness with Allah who would wish to return to this world, even if he were given the world and all that it contains—except the martyr. Because of the excellence he sees in martyrdom, he wishes to return to this world and be killed once again.” (2)
Some said that this verse was revealed concerning the martyrs of Bi'r Ma'unah. (3) The reason for this, according to what Muhammad ibn Ishaq narrated from his father Ishaq ibn Yasar, from al-Mughirah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham and Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Hazm, and from Humayd al-Tawil, from Anas ibn Malik and other scholars, was as follows:
Abu Bara Amir ibn Malik ibn Jafar—known as the Player of Spears, and the chief of Banu Amir ibn Sasaa—came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in Medina and presented him with a gift. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, declined to accept it and said, “I do not accept the gift of a polytheist. Accept Islam, if you wish me to accept your gift.” He then presented Islam to him, informed him of what it entailed, of what Allah has prepared for the believers, and recited the Quran to him. Yet he did not accept Islam, though he was not altogether averse to it. He said, “O Muhammad, what you call people to is good and beautiful. If you were to send some of your Companions to the people of Najd, to call them to your message, I hope that they would respond to you.”
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “I fear for them from the people of Najd.”
Abu al-Bara said, “I will guarantee their protection, so send them to call the people to your message.”
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then sent al-Mundhir ibn Amr, of Banu Sa'idah, along with seventy of the finest Muslims, among them