Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

434
The Life of Muhammad
me is most excellent). If you were to send some of your companions to
the people of Najd and they invited them to your affair I have good hopes
that they ,vQuld give you a favourable answer.' The apostle said that he
feared that the people of Najd would kill them; to which Abu Bari;' replied
that he would go surety for them, so let him send them and invite men to
his religion. So the apostle sent al-Mundhir b. 'Amr, brother of B. Sa'ida,
'The Quick to seek Death', with forty of his companions from the best of
the Muslims. Among them were al-J:Iarith b. al-!?imma; J:Iaram b. Mil\>an,
brother of B. 'Adiy b. aI-Najjar; 'Urwa b. Asma' b. al-!?aIt al-Sulami;
Nafi' b. Budayl b. Warqa' aI-Khuza'i; 'Amir b. Fuhayra, freedman of Abu
Bakr, of those who were named of the best Muslims. (To J:Iumayd aI­
Tawil from Anas b. Malik who said that the apostle sent al-Mundhir b.
'Amr with seventy riders.)I They went on until they halted at Bi'r Ma'una
which is between the land of B. 'Amir and the izarra of B. Sulaym, near to
both districts but nearer to the J;arra.
When they alighted at it they sent J:Iaram b. MiI\>an with the apostle's
letter to the enemy of God 'Amir b. Tufayl. When he came to him he
rushed at the man and killed him before he even looked at the letter. Then
he tried to call out the B. 'A.mir against them, but they refused to do what
he wanted, saying that they would not violate the promise of seeurity which
Abu Bara' had given these men. Then he appealed to the tribes of B.
Sulaym of 'U~ayya, Ri(l, and Dhakwan, and they agreed and came out
against them and surrounded them as they were with their camels. Seeing
them they drew their swords and fought to the last man. All were killed
but Kab b. Zayd, brother of B. Dinar b. ai-Najjar; him they left while
breath was in him. He was picked up from among the slain and lived until
the battle of the Trench when he was killed as a martyr.
'Amr b. Umayya al-Ilamri and an An~ari of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf were with
the camels out at pasture (675). They did not know of the death of their
companions until they saw vultures circling round the camp. They knew
that this must mean that something serious had happened, so they went
to investigate and there were the men lying in their blood and the horsemen
who had ~illed them standing near. tAmr's opinion was that they
should rejoin the apostle and tell him the news, but the An9ari said that he
could not bring himself to leave the spot where al-Mundhir had been slain,
nor could he bear that people should say that he had done such a thing, so
he fought the party until he was killed. They took 'Amr prisoner, and
when he told them that he was of Mu