two units of prayer.” They let him be, and he prayed two rakʿahs. When he finished he declared, “By Allah, were it not that you would think my delay sprang from dread, I would have prayed even longer. O Allah, count them one by one, destroy them in groups, and leave not a single one of them alive.”

He then recited:

“I care not when I am slain a Muslim—
Whatever side for God my death may fall.
All this is for the sake of the Almighty; and if He wills,
He will bless the severed limbs of a riven corpse.”

Khubayb thus established the sunnah for every Muslim who faces execution with steadfast patience: he should pray first. The Prophet ﷺ was informed of their fate that very day.

When the people of Quraysh learned that ʿĀṣim ibn Thābit had been killed—he had slain one of their chiefs—they sent men to bring back some recognizable part of his body. Allah then sent over ʿĀṣim a cloud-like canopy of bees that shielded him from their emissaries, so they were unable to take anything from him. This report is related by al-Bukhārī.

Explanation of terms: al-Hadā is a locality; a ẓillah is a cloud; dabr means bees.

As for the phrase “kill them budadan,” the initial bāʾ may be read with kasrah or fatḥah. With kasrah it is the plural of budah, “a share,” meaning: kill them in allotted portions, each receiving his share. With fatḥah it means: kill them scattered, one after another, derived from tabdīd (dispersal).

There are many other authentic reports in this chapter that have appeared earlier in this book: the ḥadīth of the boy who used to visit the monk and the sorcerer; the ḥadīth of Jurayj; the ḥadīth of the three men trapped in the cave when a rock closed its mouth; and the ḥadīth of the man who heard a voice in the clouds saying, “Water the garden of so-and-so.”