Fath al-Rabbani

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent a group of ten men to spy on the people of Makkah and appointed Sayyiduna Asim bin Thabit bin Aqlaḥ Al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), the maternal grandfather of Asim bin Umar bin Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), as their leader. These people set out, and when they reached the place of Haddah between ‘Usfan and Makkah Mukarramah, a tribe of Banu Hudhail, Banu Lihyan, became aware of them. They set out towards them as a group of about one hundred archers, following their footprints until they reached a place where these people had stayed. Seeing the remains of their food, they said, “These are the pits of dates from Yathrib.” They continued to follow their traces and signs. When Asim and his companions learned about these disbelievers, they climbed a high hill. The disbelievers surrounded them and said, “Come down and surrender yourselves to us. We promise you that we will not kill any of you.” The leader of the group, Sayyiduna Asim bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him), said, “By Allah! I will never seek protection from any disbeliever. O Allah! Inform Your Prophet of our situation.” The disbelievers showered arrows upon the Muslims and martyred seven of them, including Sayyiduna Asim (may Allah be pleased with him), and the remaining three—Sayyiduna Khubaib Al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Zayd bin Dathinah (may Allah be pleased with him), and a third person—fell for their promise and agreement. When the disbelievers had full control over them, they untied the strings of their bows and tied up the three of them. The third man among them said, “This is your first act of treachery. By Allah! I will not go with you at all,” and pointing to the slain, i.e., the martyred companions, he said, “These people are the best example for me.” The disbelievers dragged him and tried their best, but he refused to go with them. Eventually, the disbelievers killed him as well, and they took Sayyiduna Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Zayd bin Dathinah (may Allah be pleased with him) and sold them in Makkah. This entire incident took place after Badr. The descendants of Harith bin Nawfal bin Abd Manaf bought Sayyiduna Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him), because Sayyiduna Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) had killed Harith bin Amir bin Nawfal on the day of Badr, so he remained with them as a captive until they planned to kill him. Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) asked a daughter of Harith for a razor so that he could remove unnecessary hair before being killed. She brought him the razor. Her small son came towards Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) without her noticing. When she came looking for him, she saw that Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) had the child sitting on his thigh and the razor in his hand. The woman narrates, “When I saw this scene, I became frightened. Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) sensed my anxiety and said, ‘Do you fear that I will kill him? I would never do such a thing.’ She says, ‘I have never seen a better captive than Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him). By Allah! One day I saw him with a bunch of grapes in his hand, eating from it, even though he was bound in chains and there was no fruit available in Makkah at that time.’ She used to say, ‘That was sustenance which Allah Almighty had granted to Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him).’ When they took Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) out of the Haram to kill him, Sayyiduna Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) said to them, ‘Let me perform two rak‘ahs of prayer.’ They allowed him, so he performed two rak‘ahs of prayer. Then he said, ‘By Allah! If you did not think that I was afraid of death, I would have prayed even more. O Allah! Count their number, destroy them one by one, and do not leave any of them.’ Then he said, ‘As I am being killed in the state of Islam, I do not care on which side I fall in the way of Allah. This treatment is happening to me in the way of Allah, that is, as a result of believing in Allah. If Allah wills, He will bless even my scattered limbs.’ After this, Abu Sarwah ‘Uqbah bin Harith got up and martyred him. Sayyiduna Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) established this practice for every Muslim that when he is being unjustly killed, he should perform prayer before being killed. Allah Almighty accepted the supplication of Asim bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) on the day of his martyrdom, and on the same day, Allah informed His Messenger and his companions of their incident. When the Quraysh learned of the killing of Sayyiduna Asim bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him), they sent people for further confirmation so that they could bring back some part of his body. Sayyiduna Asim (may Allah be pleased with him) had killed a great chief among the leaders of Quraysh on the day of Badr. When those people arrived, Allah Almighty sent a swarm of bees there, which covered the body of Asim (may Allah be pleased with him) like a cloud and protected his body from those Qurayshi representatives, so they could not cut any part of his body.