Khālid ibn Sufyān and the Gift of a Stick

Another event that happened within this period is the assassination of Khālid ibn Sufyān ibn Nubayḥ al-Hudhalī. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: I have been informed that Khālid is gathering a force of men to attack me; he is at ʿUranah; go to him and kill him. Khālid ibn Sufyān was an outstanding leader of his people. He was one of those charismatic figures who have the ability to mobilise men and to make something out of nothing; he was a successful leader. He belonged to the tribe of Hudhayl. Hudhayl are Bedouins in the Ḥijāz, famous for being very eloquent — they were the best poets of the Arabs — and they lived on the outskirts of Makkah.

Khālid ibn Sufyān was mobilising men to fight the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Here was a situation where the people were in need of a leader, and the leader was Khālid ibn Sufyān. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not see the need to fight his army, but to pre-emptively strike and get rid of Khālid ibn Sufyān, because by doing so he would avoid a lot of bloodshed. If Khālid ibn Sufyān was out of the arena, Hudhayl were not going to fight. It was unlike Quraysh: the fight with Quraysh did not depend on leadership. The people of Quraysh were going to fight regardless. When Abū Jahl was there they fought, and after he was killed they carried on the fight; in fact, the fight only became worse after Abū Jahl was killed. But here the situation was different. So we find that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) never targeted the leadership of Quraysh with special operations to assassinate them, but he did this with some of the leaders of the Yahūd, and he did it also with Khālid ibn Sufyān, because this was going to avoid the killing of other people. It was going to prevent a larger battle, the escalation, and more war happening.

So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: go and get rid of Khālid ibn Sufyān. ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays had never met Khālid ibn Sufyān al-Hudhalī in his life, so he said to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): how can I recognise him? Give me a sign. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, idhā raʾaytahu wajadta lahu qushaʿrīrah: when you see him, you will shiver. Now, Allah knows best whether this shiver was because Khālid ibn Sufyān had such a great presence, or whether it was going to be a special sign just then, for ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays to recognise him — Allah knows best. But regardless, Khālid ibn Sufyān was a special individual.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays moved out. He was alone, an army of his own. This is the courage that the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) had. He was going to travel deep into enemy territory, to ʿUranah near Makkah. He made it there, and he found the location of the army camp where Khālid ibn Sufyān was gathering the men. He saw him and he felt the shiver, the sign that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had mentioned. ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays said: I never shivered from anyone in my life. This was the first time he had ever felt such a shiver.

It was time for Ṣalāt al-ʿAṣr. ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays said: I feared that there might be a struggle between me and him that would keep me from the prayer — meaning that this struggle could take time and he would not be able to pray. So what did he do? He prayed while he was walking towards his target: I would make rukūʿ and sujūd by movements of my head. So he walked up to him and greeted him. Khālid ibn Sufyān said, man al-rajul? — who is the man? He said: I am a man from among the Arabs who heard about you and about your gathering a force against this man. Khālid said: that is what I am doing. He said: I came to follow you. Then he held a conversation with him to break the ice, and when Khālid ibn Sufyān was comfortable with ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays and the opportune moment arrived, ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays struck Khālid ibn Sufyān and killed him. He walked away, and he said: I left him with his women crouched over him.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) greeted ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays by saying, aflaḥa al-wajh: may this face succeed. ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays said: and yours too, aflaḥa al-wajh. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) took him into his house and gave him a stick. ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays walked out without saying a word. Now, what was the stick for? Why did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) give it to him? What was he going to do with it? ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays did not dare to ask. They were very shy in dealing with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), so he just walked out without saying a word.

This was the gift the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave him: a stick. So his people asked him: what is this stick? He said: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave it to me. Why did he give it to you? He said: I do not know. They said: go back and ask him. He went back to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, why did you give me this stick? He said: āyatun bayni wa baynaka yawm al-qiyāmah — a sign between me and you on the Day of Resurrection; there will be very few that day with something to lean upon. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave him the stick as a gift, so that on the Day of Judgement it would be a sign between him and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays coupled that stick with his sword; he kept it with his sword. And then in his will he asked that the stick be buried with him, so it was put inside his shroud with him — so that on the Day of Judgement, when he is resurrected, he will pick up that stick and go to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and it will be a sign between him and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) on that very difficult day when there will be very few people with something to lean upon. This narration is in the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad.