The Expeditions. Maʿmar ibn Rāshid
فلمّا سمع ذلك، عرف أنّه سيردّه إليهم فخرج حتّى أتى سِيْف البحر. قال: وينفلت منهم أبو جندل بن سهيل فلحق بأبي بصير حتّى اجتمعت منهم عصابة.
١ بخ، ط؛ مم: يعدُ.
٢ بخ، ط؛ مم: لها.
Later, the Prophet returned to Medina, where Abū Baṣīr, a Qurashī man who became Muslim, came to him. The Meccans sent two men in his pursuit, and they demanded, “Honor the agreement that you made with us.” So the Prophet handed Abū Baṣīr over to the two men. The two men departed, and in time they brought Abū Baṣīr to Dhū l-Ḥulayfah, where they made their camp and ate some dates they had with them.
Abū Baṣīr said to one of the two men, “By God, I see this sword of yours is quite fine!”
The other unsheathed it and said, “Yes, by God, it is indeed quite fine. I’ve wielded it in battle many times over.”
“Do you think,” asked Abū Baṣīr, “that I could have a look at it?”
The man handed it to him, and Abū Baṣīr struck him down, leaving him stone-cold dead. The other man fled and eventually reached Medina. He sprinted into the mosque, and when the Messenger of God saw him, he said, “This man has seen something terrifying!” When he reached the Prophet, he said, “My companion, by God, he’s been killed! And I’m as good as dead!”
Abū Baṣīr arrived and said, “O Prophet of God, God has honored your end of the bargain. You returned me to them, but God delivered me from them.”
The Prophet said, “Woe to your mother! He would set the fires of war ablaze if he had supporters!”
When Abū Baṣīr heard those words, he knew that the Prophet would return him to the Quraysh, so he left Medina and made for the coast. Abū Jandal ibn Suhayl also escaped from the Quraysh; they joined forces and formed a band of marauders.69
2.3.11
قال: فوالله ما يسمعون بعيرٍ خرجت لقريش إلى الشام إلّا اعترضوا لهم،١ فقتلوهم وأخذوا أموالهم. فأرسلت قريش إلى النبيّ صلّى الله عليه وسلّم تناشده بالله والرحم إلّا أرسل إليهم فمن أتاه، فهو آمن. فأرسل النبيّ صلّى الله عليه وسلّم إليهم. فأنزل الله هُوَ الّذي كَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنْكُمْ وأَيْدِيَكُمْ عَنْهُمْ حتّى بلغ حَمِيَّةَ الجَاهِلِيَّة. وكانت حميّتهم أنّهم لم يقرّوا أنّه نبيّ الله ولم يقرّوا بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وحالوا بينه وبين البيت.
١ مم؛ بخ، ط: لها.
By God, whenever these men heard that a Qurashī caravan was on its way to Syria, they would attack it, kill the men, and take their possessions. The Quraysh sent a message to the Prophet, invoking God and their bonds of kinship, stating that, if the Prophet were to send a message to those men, then whoever would come to him would be safe. So the Prophet sent a message to them, and God revealed:
«In the valley of Mecca it was He who held their hands back from you and your hands back from them after He gave you the advantage over them—God sees all that you do. They were the ones who disbelieved, who barred you from the Sacred Mosque, and who prevented the offering from reaching its place of sacrifice. If there had not been among them, unknown to you, believing men and women whom you would have trampled underfoot, inadvertently incurring guilt on their account—God brings whoever he will into his mercy—if the believers had been clearly separated, We would have inflicted a painful punishment on the disbelievers. While the disbelievers had fury in their hearts—the fury of ignorance . . .»70
Their “fury” means that they neither affirmed that he was the Prophet of God nor used the words In the name of God, the Merciful and the Compassionate, and that they stood between him and the Sacred House.
2.4
عبد الرزّاق عن عكرمة بن عمّار قال: أخبرنا أبو زميل سماك الحنفِي أنّه سمع ابن عبّاس يقول:
كاتب الكتاب يوم الحديبية عليّ بن أبي طالب.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, who said: Abū Zamīl Simāk al-Ḥanafī informed us that he heard Ibn ʿAbbās say:
The scribe who wrote down the pact on the day of Ḥudaybiyah was ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.
2.5
عبد الرزّاق قال:١ أخبرنا معمر، قال:
سألت عنه الزهريّ فضحك وقال: هو عليّ بن أبي طالب. ولو سألت عنه هؤلاء لقالوا: عثمان، يعني بني أميّة.
١ كذا في مم.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: Maʿmar reported to us:
I asked al-Zuhrī about this, and he laughed and said, “The scribe was ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, but were you to ask them”—by whom he meant the Umayyads—“they would say it was ʿUthmān.” 71
2.6
عبد الرزّاق عن معمر عن الزهريّ، قال:
كان هرقل حزّاءً ينظر في النجوم. فأصبح يومًا وقد أنكر أهل مجلسه هيئته. فقالوا: ما شأنك؟
فقال: نظرت في النجوم الليلة فرأيتُ ملك الختان قد ظهر.
قالوا: فلا يشقّ ذلك عليك، فإنما يختتن اليهود. فابعث إلى مدائنك، فاقتل كلّ يهوديّ.
قال الزهريّ: وكتب إلى نظير له حزّاء أيضًا نظر في النجوم. فكتب إليه بمثل قوله. قال: ورفع إليه مَلِك بصرى رجلًا من العرب يخبره عن النبيّ صلّى الله عليه وسلّم. فقال: انظروا أمختتن هو؟ قالوا: فنظروا، فإذا هو مختتن. فقالوا: هذا ملك الختان قد ظهر.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī who said: 72
Heraclius was a seer73 who would look into the stars. One morning when he awoke, the people of his court saw something amiss in his appearance. So they asked him, “What troubles you?”
“I looked into the stars last night,”