The Treachery at Raji'

# The Raji Incident (al-Raji')

The Request for Teachers

In approximately Safar 4 AH, a delegation came to the Prophet ﷺ from the tribes of Adhal and Qara claiming that Islam had spread among their people and requesting that he send teachers to instruct them in the Quran and the religion. The Prophet ﷺ responded by sending a small group — the narrations say six, some say ten — of companions who were among the Quran's most accomplished reciters and teachers.

The request was a deception. Adhal and Qara had no genuine interest in Islamic instruction. They had been hired or persuaded by the Banu Lihyan, a Hijazi tribe with a grievance against the Muslim community — specifically, the killing of Asim ibn Thabit's group had avenged an earlier incident. The companions who accompanied the Adhal and Qara delegation were led into the tribal territory, and then treachery was revealed: Banu Lihyan fighters emerged in large numbers.

The Betrayal at al-Raji'

When the six (or ten) companions realized the ambush, some took defensive positions and others the high ground. The Banu Lihyan called out that they meant no harm — they only wanted the companions as prisoners to sell to the Quraysh, swearing by Allah they would not kill them. Several companions descended on the strength of this oath. Three of them were immediately killed as they came down. The other three — Khubayb ibn Adi, Zayd ibn al-Dathina, and another — were taken captive and marched to Mecca, where they were sold to Qurayshi families seeking revenge for those killed at Badr.

The two primary narrations — those of Khubayb ibn Adi and Zayd ibn al-Dathina — are among the most detailed accounts of individual martyrdom in the seerah literature.

Khubayb ibn Adi

Khubayb was held captive in Mecca, in the house of a woman named Umm Ubays from the family of al-Harith ibn Amir, for the months during which the Quraysh prepared his execution. The narrations describe him during captivity asking for a razor to shave his hair before death — a request that was granted by a small child who unknowingly carried it to him. His captor later said she had never seen anyone superior to Khubayb in captivity.

When the day of execution came, Khubayb asked permission to pray two raka'at before death. He prayed them with complete composure and then said: "By Allah, if I were not afraid you would think I was prolonging my time, I would pray more." His two-raka'at prayer before execution became the model for what later came to be called Salat al-Shahid — the martyr's prayer — a practice that Khubayb himself established at al-Raji'.

Khubayb was crucified. As the Quraysh gathered around him, he asked for permission to speak. He called out: "O Allah, count them and kill them one by one. Leave none of them remaining." And then: "I do not care, when I am killed as a Muslim, in what manner I die — for the sake of Allah, and if He wills, He will bless the severed limbs." He was killed while reciting. The Quran addressed the Raji' incident and the treachery of those who swore oaths falsely to betray the Muslims.

Zayd ibn al-Dathina

Zayd ibn al-Dathina was sold to Safwan ibn Umayyah, whose father Umayya ibn Khalaf had been killed at Badr. He was brought out of Mecca to be executed. Abu Sufyan, still a polytheist at this point, asked him: "Would you not prefer that Muhammad were in your place being killed, and that you were safe at home with your family?" Zayd said: "By Allah, I would not prefer that Muhammad were in the place where he is now struck by a thorn even if that spared me from what I am in." Abu Sufyan said afterward: "I have never seen a man so loved by his companions as Muhammad is loved by his companions."

The Lesson and the Quran

The Raji' incident is one of two simultaneous disasters in Safar 4 AH — the other being the Bi'r Ma'una massacre, which occurred at approximately the same time. Together they represent the worst human cost of trusting delegations who came as seekers of instruction: the most trusted resource the Muslim community had — its teachers of Quran — was weaponized against it by tribal deception.

The Quran's treatment of faithlessness and the violation of oaths, the hadith literature's commendation of Khubayb and Zayd, and the narrations of Abu Sufyan's testimony about the love the companions bore for the Prophet ﷺ — all emerge from this incident. Khubayb's two-raka'at prayer before death became an institution; Abu Sufyan's observation became one of the seerah's most cited testimonies to the community's internal bonds.

The Prophet's Response

The Prophet ﷺ is described in the narrations as making the qunut (supplication) in the Fajr prayer against the tribes responsible for the Raji' and Bi'r Ma'una massacres for a period of approximately a month — calling upon Allah against those who had betrayed his teachers. The qunut al-nazila — the supplications recited during times of calamity and oppression — traces its practice in part to these two incidents. The Prophet ﷺ expressed grief openly: the companions who had been killed at Raji' and Bi'r Ma'una were among the best teachers of Quran in the community, and their deaths left a gap in the community's educational infrastructure that was felt. Anas ibn Malik, who narrated many of these events, said the Prophet ﷺ said special prayers for them for a month. The grief was not only strategic but personal — these were companions he had known and trusted, sent at the request of people who had betrayed his trust. The Raji' incident also reinforced a practical lesson about security protocols for Muslim messengers: subsequent expeditions were sent with more careful verification of those requesting teachers, and the principle that verbal oaths from communities with demonstrated hostility did not provide sufficient guarantee became part of the community's learned caution.

**Sources:** Sahih al-Bukhari (Kitab al-Maghazi, Kitab al-Jihad); Sahih Muslim; Ibn Hisham, *al-Sira al-Nabawiyya*; Ibn Kathir, *al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah*; Ibn Sa'd, *al-Tabaqat al-Kubra*