English translation
4086. Narrated Abū Hurairah رضي الله عنه: The Prophet ﷺ sent a Sariya of spies and appointed 'Ašim bin Thābit, the grandfather of 'Ašim bin 'Umar bin Al-Khaṭṭāb as their leader. So, they set out, and when they reached (a place) between 'Usfān and Makkah, they were mentioned to one of the branch tribes of Banī Hudhail called Lihyān. So, about one hundred archers followed their traces till they (i.e., the archers) came to a journey station where they (i.e., 'Āsim and his companions) had encamped and found stones of dates they had brought as journey-food from Al-Madīna. The archers said, "These are the dates of Al-Madīna," and followed their traces till they took them over. When 'Āsim and his companions were not able to go ahead, they went up a high place, and their pursuers encircled them and said, "You have a covenant and a promise that if you come down to us, we will not kill anyone of you." 'Āsim said, "As for me, I will never come down on the security of an infidel. O Allāh! Inform Your Prophet (ﷺ) about us." So they fought with them till they killed 'Āsim along with seven of his companions with arrows, and there remained Khubaib, Zaid and another man to whom they gave a promise and a covenant. So, when the infidels gave them the covenant and promise, they came down. When they captured them, they opened the strings of their arrow bows and tied them with it. The third man who was with them said, "This is the first breach in the covenant," and refused to accompany them. They dragged him and tried to make him accompany them, but he refused, and they killed him. Then they proceeded on taking Khubaib and Zaid till they sold them in Makkah. The sons of Al-Hārīth bin 'Amr bin Naufal bought Khubaib. It was Khubaib who had killed Al-Hārīth bin 'Amr on the day (of the battle) of Badr. Khubaib stayed with them for a while as a captive till they decided unanimously to kill him. (At that time) Khubaib borrowed a razor from one of the daughters of Al-Hārith to shave his pubic hair. She gave it to him. She said later on, "I was heedless of a little baby of mine, who moved towards Khubaib, and when it reached him, he put it on his thigh. When I saw it, I got scared so much that Khubaib noticed my distress while he was carrying the razor in his hand. He said, 'Are you afraid that I will kill it? If Allāh will, I will never do that.'" Later on she used to say, "I have never seen a captive better than Khubaib. Once I saw him eating from a bunch of grapes, although at that time no fruits were available at Makkah, and he was fettered with iron chains, and in fact, it was nothing but food bestowed upon him by Allāh." So, they took him out of the sanctuary (of Makkah) to kill him. He said, "Allow me to offer two Rak'a prayer." Then he went to them and said, "Had I not been afraid that you would think I was afraid of death, I would have offered prayer for a longer time." So it was Khubaib who first set the tradition of offering two Rak'a prayer before being executed. He then said, "O Allāh! Count them one by one," and added, "When I am being martyred as a Muslim, I do not care in what way I receive my death for Allāh's sake, because this death is in Allāh's Cause. If He wishes, He will bless the cut limbs." Then 'Uqba bin Al-Hārith got up and martyred him. The narrator added: The Quraish (infidels) sent some people to 'Āsim in order to bring a part of his body so that his death might be known for certain, for 'Āsim had killed one of their chiefs on the day (of the battle) of Badr. But Allāh sent a cloud of wasps which protected his body from their messengers who could not harm his body consequently.