The Exceptions

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) released them all, but there was a blacklist; there were exceptions. This blacklist included the names of ʿAbdullāh ibn Khaṭal, ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Sarḥ, Miqyas ibn Ṣubābah, al-Ḥuwayrith ibn Nuqaydh, and Sārah, Fartanā and Arnab. So there were four men and three women. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said about these: execute them even if you see them hanging on to the covering of the Kaʿbah.

Why were these excluded from the rest of the people of Makkah? ʿAbdullāh ibn Khaṭal became Muslim; he made hijrah; and then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent him to collect ṣadaqah, charity. He was sent with a man of the Anṣār, and he had a servant, a slave. On the way he became upset with his servant: it says in one narration that he ordered the servant to prepare lunch, and when it was time for lunch he said to him: where is the lunch? The servant told him: I forgot. So he killed him. Now he knew that he was going to be punished for this; the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not going to let him go. In Islam there is justice: whether you are a slave or a nobleman, the law of Allah will apply to you. ʿAbdullāh ibn Khaṭal knew this in advance, so he decided to run away to Makkah, and he committed apostasy. And he had two slave girls whom he would teach to sing against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So ʿAbdullāh ibn Khaṭal was excluded because of his riddah and because of his blasphemy against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); and his two singing slave girls, Fartanā and Arnab, were included on the list because of their blasphemy against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), cursing the Messenger of Allah.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Sarḥ became Muslim, and he would write down the Qur'an for the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had scribes: he would recite the ayah to them, and they would write it down. ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Sarḥ then ran away and became a murtadd, an apostate. And he went as far as telling the people of Quraysh: I used to change the Qur'an — when I wrote it down, I would change the meanings of the Qur'an.

Miqyas ibn Ṣubābah. Miqyas ibn Ṣubābah's brother was a Muslim, and in the battle of Banū al-Muṣṭaliq he was killed by mistake, by a man of the Anṣār. So Miqyas made hijrah and became Muslim just to collect the money — the blood money of his brother. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) paid him the money, and after he received the money, he ran away and became a murtadd.

Al-Ḥuwayrith ibn Nuqaydh: when al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib sent Fāṭimah and Zaynab, the daughters of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), to Madīnah, al-Ḥuwayrith provoked the camel that Zaynab and Fāṭimah were on, and that led to both of them falling, and Zaynab having a miscarriage^*. The daughter of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had a miscarriage because of the actions of this man, al-Ḥuwayrith. Sārah was a slave girl who belonged to someone in Makkah, and she used to sing against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

So one can see that everyone on this blacklist was excluded from the forgiveness of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) for one of two reasons: either because they had committed riddah, apostasy, or because of blasphemy. These are the two things that are unforgiven: riddah, and speaking in an insulting way against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). There is no forgiveness for either of these two crimes. And that is why Ibn Taymiyyah says that the rules concerning riddah, apostasy, are stricter than the rules concerning kufr. One example: with a kāfir who is a prisoner of war, the imām has the right to execute him, or to free him, or to ask for a ransom, or to exchange him for Muslim prisoners of war, or to enslave him; it is up to the imām to choose one of these options. However, with the murtadd, Ibn Taymiyyah says there is only one option, and that is execution. A murtadd prisoner of war cannot be freed, cannot be enslaved, cannot be exchanged; he can only be executed — or, if he becomes Muslim, then he is freed. But if he refuses, then there is only the option of execution. That is one example of how the rulings concerning apostasy differ from the rulings concerning kufr.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Khaṭal was seen hanging on to the covering of the Kaʿbah, and he was executed on the spot. Some narrations say that Fartanā was killed, while Arnab became Muslim and was forgiven. ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Sarḥ sought refuge with his brother through breastfeeding, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, his brother in raḍāʿah. ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān took ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Sarḥ to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Sarḥ said: I have come to give you al-bayʿah. The Messenger of Allah was quiet. He said: I have come to give you al-bayʿah. The Messenger of Allah did not respond. The third time he said: I have come to give you bayʿah, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) accepted his bayʿah.

And then, when he left, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told the men who were there: is there no wise man among you who could have got up and killed him, when you saw that I was remaining silent? So the Anṣār said: but, O Messenger of Allah, could you not have given us some signal? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: mā yanbaghī li-nabiyyin an yaqtula bi-al-ishārah — prophets do not kill by making signals (Abū Dāwūd 2683). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was saying: it is not appropriate for me, as a prophet, to give you a signal; you already knew my ḥukm, my ruling, concerning him, so you could have killed him. It says in one narration that one of the Anṣār already had his hand on his sword; he was ready to execute the man, but he was waiting for a signal from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Subḥān Allāh, it was the qadar of Allah to spare the life of ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Sarḥ, because he became a good Muslim after that. In fact, it says that he died in sujūd in Ṣalāt al-Fajr, and he held some very high positions of authority in the times of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and ʿUthmān.

Miqyas ibn Ṣubābah was killed by his cousin. Al-Ḥuwayrith ibn Nuqaydh was also killed. Sārah — some say she was forgiven. So one can see here the important ruling of the ḥukm of sabb al-Rasūl (peace be upon him): the ruling on committing blasphemy against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).