Ibn Hibban

Sayyiduna Abdur Rahman bin Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: On the occasion of the Battle of Badr, I was standing in the row when I looked to my right and left, and I was between two Ansari boys. While I was in this state, one of them nudged me and said, "O uncle! Do you recognize Abu Jahl bin Hisham?" I replied, "Yes! O my nephew, what do you want with him?" He said, "I have been told that he speaks ill of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if I see him, my body will not part from his body until one of us who is destined to die first has died." Sayyiduna Abdur Rahman bin Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I was impressed by his words, then the other nudged me and said the same thing. Meanwhile, I saw Abu Jahl moving among the people, so I said to both of them, "Here is the person about whom you both were asking me." Both of them rushed towards him, struck him with their swords, and killed him. Then both of them came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and informed him about what they had done. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked, "Which of you killed him?" Both of them said, "I killed him." The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked, "Have you both cleaned your swords?" We (i.e., both of them) replied, "No!" The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) examined both of their swords and then said, "Both of you have killed him." Then the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) decided that the equipment (i.e., weapons, etc.) of Abu Jahl be given to Mu'adh bin Amr bin Jamuh. (The narrator states) Those two boys were Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Amr bin Jamuh (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Afra' (may Allah be pleased with him). (Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says:) While narrating this tradition, a group of our Imams misunderstood that if two people participate in killing a disbeliever, the leader has the authority regarding the (equipment) of that disbeliever, to give it to either of the killers as he wishes. We used to give fatwa according to this for a long time. Then we reflected (and it became clear) that this incident is from the Battle of Badr, and at that time, the ruling was not established that the equipment of the slain would go to the killer. So, when this was the situation, the authority was with the leader at that time to give the equipment to whichever of the two killers he wished, just as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did regarding the equipment of Abu Jahl, that he gave it to Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Amr bin Jamuh (may Allah be pleased with him), even though he and Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Afra' (may Allah be pleased with him) were both the killers of Abu Jahl. As for the statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Whoever kills a (disbeliever), his (the disbeliever's) equipment will go to him," this statement is from the occasion of the Battle of Hunayn, and the Battle of Hunayn took place seven years after the Battle of Badr. On this basis, I say that when two (mujahids) participate in killing a (disbeliever), the (disbeliever's) equipment will go to both of them.