Hadith #104

Arabic Text

English Translation

Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim narrated to us, ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār narrated to us, he said: Iyās ibn Salamah ibn al-Akwaʿ narrated to us, from his father, who said: We arrived in Madīnah at the time of al-Ḥudaybiyyah with the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. I went out with Rabāḥ, the servant of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, with the riding animals of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. I also took out a horse belonging to Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydillāh, intending to graze it with the camels. At dawn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUyaynah raided the camels of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, killed their herdsman, and drove them away with men on horseback. I said: O Rabāḥ, get on this horse and deliver it to Ṭalḥah, and inform the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ that his livestock has been raided. I stood on a hill, faced Madīnah, and cried out three times: "O the morning raid!" Then I followed the raiders with my sword and arrows, shooting at them and hamstringing their mounts. Whenever a horseman turned back toward me, I sat at the base of a tree and shot him — every horseman who came at me, I hamstrung his mount. I kept shooting them, saying: "I am Ibn al-Akwaʿ, and today is the day of the sucklings!" I would catch up to one of them on his camel and shoot him, my arrow landing in the saddle until it pierced his shoulder. I said: "Take that! I am Ibn al-Akwaʿ, and today is the day of the sucklings!" When among trees, I burned them with arrows; when the passes narrowed, I climbed the mountain and pelted them with stones. This continued — I pursuing them and chanting rajaz — until I had rescued every last camel of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, placing them behind me. I kept shooting them until they dropped more than thirty spears and more than thirty cloaks to lighten their load. Everything they dropped, I piled stones on it and gathered it on the path of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. When mid-morning came, ʿUyaynah ibn Badr al-Fazārī came as reinforcement in a narrow pass. I climbed the mountain above them. ʿUyaynah said: What is this I see? They said: We have met severe trouble from this man — he has not left us since dawn until now, and he has taken everything from our hands and placed it behind him. ʿUyaynah said: Were it not that he thinks there is pursuit behind him, he would have left you. Let some of you go up to him. Four of them climbed the mountain. When I made them hear my voice, I said: Do you know me? They said: Who are you? I said: I am Ibn al-Akwaʿ. By the One who honored the face of Muḥammad ﷺ, no man among you can pursue me and catch me, nor can I pursue him and he escape me. One of them said: I think so too. I did not leave my position until I saw the horsemen of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ threading through the trees. The first of them was al-Akhram al-Asadī, and behind him Abū Qatādah, the horseman of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, and behind Abū Qatādah was al-Miqdād al-Kindī. The polytheists turned and fled. I came down from the mountain and intercepted al-Akhram, seizing his horse's reins. I said: O Akhram, beware of the enemy — I fear they will cut you off. Wait until the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and his companions catch up. He said: O Salamah, if you believe in Allāh and the Last Day, and you know that Paradise is real and the Fire is real, do not stand between me and martyrdom. So I released his horse's reins. He caught up with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUyaynah, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān turned on him. They exchanged two thrusts: al-Akhram hamstrung ʿAbd al-Raḥmān's mount, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān speared and killed him. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān switched to al-Akhram's horse. Then Abū Qatādah caught up with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān — they exchanged two thrusts: he hamstrung Abū Qatādah's mount, and Abū Qatādah killed him. Abū Qatādah switched to al-Akhram's horse. Then I went running after the enemy until I could no longer see the dust of the Prophet ﷺ's ﷺ companions. They turned before sunset toward a valley with water called Dhū Qarad. They wanted to drink, but they saw me running behind them, so they veered away and raced through the pass of Dhī Biʾr. The sun set. I caught up to a man among them and shot him, saying: "Take that! I am Ibn al-Akwaʿ, and today is the day of the sucklings!" He said: Woe to his mother — Akwaʿ so early? I said: Yes, O enemy of yourself! He was the one I had shot earlier. I followed up with another arrow — two arrows stuck in him. They left behind two horses, which I drove to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ at the water I had driven them from — Dhū Qarad. There was the Prophet ﷺ of Allāh ﷺ with five hundred men, and Bilāl had slaughtered a camel from those I had rescued and was roasting its liver and hump for the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. I came to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and said: O Messenger of Allāh, let me select a hundred of your companions and take the disbelievers by a night raid — I will not leave any of them alive to report it. He said: "Would you really do that, O Salamah?" I said: Yes, by the One who honored you. The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ laughed until I saw his molars in the firelight. Then he said: "They are being hosted now in the land of Ghaṭafān." A man from Ghaṭafān came and said: They stopped at so-and-so the Ghaṭafānī, and he slaughtered a camel for them. When they started skinning it, they saw a dust cloud, so they abandoned it and fled. The next morning, the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: "The best of our horsemen today is Abū Qatādah, and the best of our foot soldiers is Salamah." The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ gave me the share of both the foot soldier and the horseman combined. Then he seated me behind him on al-ʿAḍbāʾ [his she-camel] returning to Madīnah. When we were about a morning's journey away, there was a man from the Anṣār in the group who was never outrun. He kept calling: Is there a racer? Will no one race to Madīnah? He repeated this several times. I was behind the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ riding double. I said to him: Do you not honor a noble man or respect a distinguished one? He said: No — except the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. I said: O Messenger of Allāh, may my father and mother be your ransom — let me race the man. He said: "If you wish." I said: I'll come to you [at the finish]. He dismounted from his riding camel, and I tucked my legs and leapt off the she-camel. Then I paced myself for a rise or two — meaning I saved my energy — then I sprinted until I caught up with him and slapped him between the shoulders with my hand. I said: I beat you, by Allāh — or words to that effect. He laughed and said: I think so too. And we arrived in Madīnah.