(1) Anas ibn Malik relates—and Thabit narrates on his authority: “We were with Anas ibn Malik when he wrote a document concerning his household affairs and then said, ‘Witness this, O assembly of qurra (Quran-reciters)!’ Thabit continues: I seemed uneasy and said, ‘Abu Hamza, why not mention them by their personal names?’ He replied, ‘What harm is there in calling you “reciters”? Shall I not tell you about our brothers whom we used to call, in the time of the Messenger of Allah, the qurra?’ He then explained that they were seventy men. When night fell they would go to a teacher in Madinah and study until dawn. At daybreak those who were strong would fetch fresh water and gather firewood, and those who had means would join together, purchase a sheep, prepare it, and by morning the meat would be hanging in the apartments of the Messenger of Allah. When Khubayb was killed, the Messenger of Allah dispatched them. Passing by a clan of Banu Sulaym—among whom was my maternal uncle Haram—Haram said to their leader, ‘Let me speak to them so that they will know we do not mean to fight them and will allow us to proceed.’ He told them, ‘We seek no quarrel with you; let us pass.’ A man then thrust a spear clear through him; when he felt it in his belly he exclaimed, ‘Allahu akbar! By the Lord of the Kaaba, I have triumphed!’ The attackers then closed in until none of the seventy remained. Anas adds: ‘I never saw the Messenger of Allah grieve over anything as intensely as he grieved over them. I saw him during the dawn prayer raising his hands and supplicating against their killers’—another report says, ‘invoking curses upon them.’ Reported by Ahmad (3/137): Hisham and Affan—conveying the same meaning—said, ‘Sulayman narrated to us from Thabit’ with this chain. The isnad is sound; all the transmitters are trustworthy and belong to the narrators accepted by al-Bukhari, Muslim, and the four Sunan compilers.