Abū Bakr's Expedition to Fazārah

Some sarāyā, some dispatches, occurred after Khaybar. One of them was led by Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him). All of the Companions would participate in jihād in the way of Allah and in going out in the sarāyā, and there was a lot of activity of this sort going out throughout the year. If one looks into it, the amount of activity that was occurring is really impressive. It is amazing to see how busy the Companions were, and how much barakah Allah (swt) put into their efforts. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself participated in about nineteen battles — there is a difference of opinion among the scholars: some of them say twenty-one, some say nineteen, some say seventeen — and then there are about fifty-five sarāyā, special operations or smaller dispatches. And all of this within a period of ten years. So there was a lot of activity going on.

This sariyyah was led by Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, and they were sent to Banū Fazārah. This is narrated in Muslim (1755) and in Aḥmad. They attacked them; they ambushed them. And Salamah is the one who narrates it. He said: I saw them running away from us; I saw a neck of people^*, among them women and children. Were all of them women and children, or was it a mixture of men, women and children? Anyway, he said: they were running away from us, and they were rushing towards a mountain; they wanted to seek refuge on this mountain. And I was pursuing them, and I was worried that they would reach the mountain before me. So I took an arrow and shot it between them and the mountain.

So this arrow dropped between them and the mountain. Salamah did not want to hit them; he did not want to kill them; he wanted to take them as captives. So he shot an arrow between them and the mountain to let them know that they were within range, and that if they did not stop he would continue firing at them, and would hit them next time. So when they saw this arrow fly in front of their eyes, they stopped; they froze in their tracks. And Salamah brought them back — he brought all of them back to Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq. He said: there was a woman, a Bedouin woman, wearing worn-out leather clothes, and with her was a girl who was extremely attractive. Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq gave me that girl.

He said: I met the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) when we went back to Madīnah; I met him in the marketplace, and he told me: O Salamah, hand me over the woman. I told the Messenger of Allah: she attracts me. Salamah liked her; she was very attractive. So he said: she attracts me, O Messenger of Allah. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) left him. And then the next day they met again in the marketplace, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told Salamah again: O Salamah, hand me over the woman. Salamah told him: O Messenger of Allah, she attracts me, but I will give her to you. And he handed her over to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

What did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) do with her? He sent her to Makkah in exchange for some Muslim prisoners who were in Makkah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was concerned about Muslim prisoners. He says in a hadith in al-Bukhārī (3046): fukkū al-ʿānī — free the prisoner. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), as has been discussed before, took hostages from the kuffār in order to exchange them for Muslim prisoners. In this situation, he sent this slave woman, who was very beautiful and was going to fetch a very high price, to Makkah, so that they would send him back some Muslims who had been taken as prisoners. And the fuqahāʾ say that it is a duty — it is wājib, mandatory — on the Muslims to free their brethren from prison. The fuqahāʾ say: if a Muslim is taken prisoner by the disbelievers in the east, then it becomes obligatory on the Muslims, even in the west, to spend their money to ransom him or to free him. So it is a duty on the Muslims.