Khubaib picked up the little boy and set him on his thigh. He had earlier borrowed a razor from the household so he could shave his private hair. The child had wandered off to play while his mother was distracted; when she suddenly noticed him, he was sitting on Khubaib’s lap, and Khubaib was still holding the razor. She thought this was Khubaib’s opportunity—what might he do? Slit the child’s throat? The razor was in his hand, the boy was small, and they were alone. Yet Khubaib, may Allah be pleased with him, was trustworthy, a noble Companion. Sensing the mother’s alarm, he said, “By Allah, I would never kill him.”

She later said, “By Allah, I have never seen a captive better than Khubaib. One day I saw a cluster of grapes in his hand that he was eating, although Mecca had no fruit at all. I knew it was from Allah.” Allah, exalted is He, had provided that bunch of grapes for him while he was a prisoner who possessed nothing and could not go to the market for food, completely at the mercy of his captors. Yet Allah facilitated that cluster of grapes for him; he sat in Mecca eating grapes, and I knew it came from Allah.

This recalls the story of Mary, peace be upon her: “Whenever Zachariah entered her sanctuary, he found provisions with her. He said, ‘Mary, how did you come by this?’ She answered, ‘It is from Allah; truly Allah provides for whom He wills without reckoning.’” Such was one of the honors that Allah bestowed upon Khubaib, may Allah be pleased with him: a table spread with grapes descended for him while he was a prisoner in Mecca.

He remained captive until the people whose father Khubaib had killed unanimously resolved to put him to death. Out of respect for the Sacred Precinct, however, they said, “We will kill him outside the Haram, for if someone kills another outside the Sanctuary and then seeks refuge within it, he may not be killed there.”