and Abū Bakr, a reward equal to the blood money for each of them, payable to anyone who killed or captured him. While I was sitting at a gathering of my people, Banū Mudlij, one of them approached and stood before us as we sat.
He said, “Surāqah, I have just seen some figures (1) along the coast. I think they are Muhammad and his companions.”
Surāqah said: I knew that it was indeed them, but I said [to him] (2), “Those are not the men you mean. You saw so-and-so and so-and-so; they set out before our very eyes (3).”
I remained at the gathering for a while, then got up and told my slave girl to take my horse out behind a hill and hold it there for me. I took my spear and went out through the back of the house, lowering its metal butt to the ground and keeping its upper end low (4), until I reached my horse and mounted it. I urged it forward, and it carried me at a brisk pace (5) until I drew near them. Then my horse stumbled, and I fell off. I got up, reached into my quiver, and took out the divining arrows. I sought a decision through them (6): “Should I harm them
(1) Ibn Hajar said: “Aswida means figures.”
(2) Lahu (‘to him’) is omitted in (ن), (م), and (س).
(3) ن, م, س: ‘aynan. The adopted reading is from (ب) and al-Bukhārī. Ibn Hajar said: “That is, they departed before our very eyes, seeking something they had lost.”
(4) م: wa-hafiztu ilayhi (‘and I kept watch toward it’); س: wa-hafiztu ‘alayhi (‘and I watched over it’). The adopted reading appears in (ن), (ب), and al-Bukhārī. Ibn Hajar said: “Fa-khatattu (‘I traced a line’) has the dotted letter kh; al-Kashmayhanī and al-Usaylī have the undotted h, meaning that he set its lower end firmly in place. As for bi-zujja (‘with the metal butt’): zujj—with a u-vowel on the z, followed by j—is the iron fitting at the lower end of a spear. … His words wa-khafadtu (‘and I lowered’) mean that he held it in his hand and dragged its metal butt along the ground, tracing a line with it, so that its gleam would not be visible to anyone at a distance. He did not want any of them to follow him and share the reward.”
(5) ن: nafarat bī (‘it bolted with me’). Ibn Hajar said: “Taqrīb is a pace slower than a gallop but faster than the usual pace.”
(6) Ibn Hajar said: “Azlām are aqdāh (divining arrows), arrows without feathers or arrowheads.” Lisān al-‘Arab states: “Istaqsamū bi-l-aqdāh (‘they apportioned by means of arrows’): they divided the slaughtered camel according to their allotted shares in it.”