their vulnerable positions.
Unlike envoys, however, they are not to be harmed, for they are messengers of peace and reconciliation—one of the many beauties of Islam.
Hadith Ten
Abd Allah ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched a detachment to Najd, and I went out with it. We captured camels and sheep, and our individual shares amounted to twelve camels each. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted us, as an extra reward, one camel apiece.”
Unfamiliar Terms
sariyyah: a detachment of the army, ranging—according to al-Qamus—from five to four hundred men.
sahamuna: plural of sahm, meaning “share” or “allotted portion.”
naffalana / nafal: an additional gift given to a combatant over and above his normal share.
Lessons Derived from the Hadith
- The ruler may send out small detachments to weaken the enemy and catch them unawares whenever he deems that beneficial.
- War booty is lawful for the Muslim fighters who seize it; this is a distinction unique to the Muhammadan community.
- When a detachment operates independently of the main army, the booty it captures belongs exclusively to that detachment.
- The leader may grant the fighters an extra reward above their regular shares when he considers that advisable. That bonus may be taken from the khums (the one-fifth set aside from the booty), though some scholars hold that it may also be taken from the principal booty itself.
Hadith Eleven
Abd Allah ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “When Allah gathers the first and the last on the Day of Resurrection, a banner will be raised for every treacherous person, and it will be said: ‘This is the betrayal of so-and-so, the son of so-and-so.’”
Overall Meaning
Whoever is entrusted with someone’s life, honor, secret, or wealth and then betrays that trust has committed treachery.
The gravest form of treachery is for the commander of an army to grant an enemy safety and then seize him suddenly while he is off his guard.
For this reason, the treacherous betrayer who kept his perfidy hidden is threatened with a severe punishment: he will be brought on the Day of Resurrection, his banner of treachery raised above him, and he will be called out—