ʿĀmir and Arbad

He said: wa-llāhi la-qad kuntu ālaytu an lā antahiya ḥattā tattabiʿa al-ʿArabu ʿaqibī, fa-ana attabiʿu ʿaqiba hādhā al-fatā min Quraysh? He said: I took a vow that I would not come to an end — meaning my life would not end — until the Arabs followed at my heels; and now you want me to follow this young man of Quraysh? So one can see the poisoned minds of these men of the Jāhiliyyah, for whom the whole matter of life was seeking power, and greed, and authority over others. So his whole objective in life was to have the Arabs follow him, walk behind him; and he did not want to become Muslim, because that contradicted his goal in life. And people like this do not see the truth, and do not follow it, because their hearts are too far from the fiṭrah; their hearts are too attached to the false goals of the dunyā, which they chase like a mirage.

Anyway, they went to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). They wanted to strike a deal, because they saw that the Muslims were a force to be reckoned with, and if they wanted to have any authority in the Arabia of the day, they were going to have to strike a deal with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And they assumed that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was just like them, like their tribal leaders, so they wanted to go and negotiate something with him — not knowing that this was prophethood, this was nubuwwah; this was something different. So they went to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said: we want you to divide the affair between us and you. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) refused.

Fa-qāla lahu ʿĀmir, laʿanahu Allāh: ammā wa-llāhi la-amlaʾannahā ʿalayka khaylan jurdan wa rijālan murdā — by Allah, I am going to fill it — meaning Madīnah — against you with horses and men. And he belonged to a people who were numerous, and well known as horsemen and as good, strong fighters, so his threat was not empty: he could truly have done that and filled Madīnah with horses and men. But the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him: yaʾbā Allāhu ʿalayka dhālika wa abnāʾu Qaylah — Allah will refuse you that, and so will the sons of Qaylah. Who are the sons of Qaylah? Qaylah is the mother of the Anṣār, al-Aws and al-Khazraj. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was saying: Allah refuses that, and the sons of Qaylah. And this shows the confidence the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had in the Anṣār: he had tested them and lived with them for nine years by now, and he had seen their strength and their sacrifice and their willingness to stand with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

Now ʿĀmir and Arbad said: then let us kill him; he refused to negotiate with us, so let us kill him. ʿĀmir said: I will talk to him, and you come up behind him and strike him with your sword. So he would talk to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). One narration says that Arbad's hand got stuck to his sword, and he could not move it; while the other narration says that whenever he tried to strike the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), the Messenger of Allah would disappear, and he would only see ʿĀmir in front of him. Later on ʿĀmir said to him: what is wrong with you? By Allah, I used to fear no one as I used to fear you, and now I see you as nothing. Arbad said to him: what do you want me to do? Whenever I tried to strike him, he would disappear, and you were the one in front of me. Did you want me to kill you? And this is a miracle from Allah.

Anyway, they left empty-handed; and, subḥān Allāh, because of the threat they had made against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), Allah is the One who took care of them. In the case of ʿĀmir: on the way, he passed by a woman of his tribe, and he slept in her house, and by the time he woke up there was a big swelling in his neck — some kind of disease had afflicted him, and it was something that kills. So he did not want to die in the house of this woman: even though he was in extreme pain, he got on his horse and just kept on wandering until he died on horseback. And that was the end of him. And as for Arbad: on the way back he was struck by lightning, which killed him along with his camel. And they mention this as a fulfilment of the ayah in Sūrat al-Raʿd, where Allah (ʿazza wa jall) says:

He is the One who shows you lightning, fear and hope, and He creates the heavy clouds; and the thunder glorifies His praise, and the angels are afraid of Him; and He sends thunderbolts, and He strikes with them whom He wills; and they dispute about Allah, and He is severe in opposition. And that was the end of these two.