Musnad Ahmad

Hazrat Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent ten men as a reconnaissance party and appointed Asim bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) as their leader. So, they set out as scouts. When they reached the place of Hadda, which is between Asfan and Makkah, the tribe of Hudhail, i.e., Banu Lihyan, came to know about them, and a hundred archers set out after them. When they reached the place where the scouts had sat and eaten dates—which they had brought from Madinah as provisions—they said, "These are dates from Madinah." Then, because of the traces of the dates, they followed them. When Hazrat Asim and his companions saw the disbelievers, they took refuge on a high place. The disbelievers surrounded them from all sides and said, "Come down and surrender yourselves to us. We promise that we will not kill anyone." The leader of the group, Hazrat Asim (may Allah be pleased with him), replied, "By Allah, today I will not come down into the protection of a disbeliever. O Allah, inform our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of our condition." When the disbelievers heard this, they shot their arrows at them and martyred seven men including Asim. The remaining three men—Khubaib Ansari, Zaid bin Dathinah, and another person—came down and surrendered to the disbelievers on the basis of their promise. When the disbelievers gained control over them, they untied the strings of their bows and tied them up tightly. The third man among them said, "This is the first breach of promise. By Allah, I will not go with you. I wish to follow the path of these martyrs." The disbelievers caught him and tried to drag him along, but he did not go, so finally they killed him. Khubaib and Ibn Dathinah were taken away and, after the incident of Badr, both were sold. Khubaib was bought by the descendants of Harith bin Amir. On the day of the Battle of Badr, Khubaib had killed Harith bin Amir. In any case, Khubaib remained imprisoned with them. The daughter of Harith narrates that when all the disbelievers gathered to kill Khubaib, he asked me for a razor to groom himself, and I gave it to him. Khubaib seated one of my sons on his thigh. I was not aware of this until I came to him and saw that my son was sitting on his thigh and the razor was in his hand, so I became anxious. Khubaib noticed the signs of fear on my face and said, "Do you fear that I will kill him? By Allah, I will not do so." The daughter of Harith says, "By Allah, I have never seen a better captive than Khubaib. By Allah, one day I saw him, though he was bound in chains, holding a bunch of grapes in his hand and eating from it, even though there was no fruit in Makkah at that time. In reality, it was a portion given by Allah, which Allah the Exalted had bestowed upon Khubaib." When the disbelievers took Khubaib out of the Haram to the area of Hill to kill him, before being killed, Khubaib said, "Let me go so that I may pray two rak‘ahs." The disbelievers let him go. Khubaib prayed two rak‘ahs and then said, "If I did not think that you would assume I was afraid of death, I would have prolonged my prayer." Then he said, "O Allah, destroy them all, do not leave any of them." After this, he recited these verses: "If I am killed in the state of Islam, then I do not care on which side I fall in Allah’s path. My being killed is for Allah’s cause, and if Allah wills, He will bless the severed limbs." After this, the son of Harith killed Khubaib. Hazrat Khubaib was the first Muslim who established the practice of praying two rak‘ahs for every Muslim who is captured and killed in the path of Allah. The supplication that Hazrat Asim (may Allah be pleased with him) made at the time of his martyrdom was accepted by Allah, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was informed of his martyrdom, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described the circumstances of the hardships of Asim and others to the companions (may Allah be pleased with them). Since Hazrat Asim (may Allah be pleased with him) had killed a great leader of the Quraysh disbelievers on the day of Badr, the disbelievers sent some people to bring back some sign from Asim so that he could be identified by it. But some bees (wasps) protected the body of Hazrat Asim (may Allah be pleased with him), and the disbelievers could not cut the flesh from his body.