Khālid ibn al-Walīd's Account

And what did Khālid ibn al-Walīd say? Khālid said: I attended all of these battles against Muḥammad, and in every situation I attended, I left with this feeling in my heart that I was putting my effort into something that was wasted, and that in the end Muḥammad would prevail. So he had this deep feeling in his heart that what he was doing was wrong — that there was something wrong with it — and that this man would be victorious and would prevail. He said: until al-Ḥudaybiyah came. He said: I led a contingent of the kuffār, two hundred men, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and the Muslims were praying Ṣalāt al-Ẓuhr. He said: I was face to face — I met Muḥammad face to face while they were praying — and that was my opportunity to attack them in their ṣalāh, but I was reluctant to do so.

Now this word coming from Khālid ibn al-Walīd is strange, because he was the furthest from being a reluctant person; he was a very decisive man. So for Khālid to say, I was reluctant to attack him — and that was good: Allah saved him. He was reluctant at that moment because Allah wanted something good for Khālid ibn al-Walīd. He said: so the ṣalāh finished, and I did not take that opportunity, so I decided that I was going to attack them at Ṣalāt al-ʿAṣr. He said: by the time they came to pray ʿAṣr, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was already praying Ṣalāt al-Khawf — the ṣalāh in which half of the army prays and half of them protect the rest. Fa-ʿalimtu anna al-rajula mamnūʿ — so I knew that this man was being protected.

Khālid ibn al-Walīd carries on with the narration and says that when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came the following year to perform ʿUmrat al-Qaḍāʾ, his brother al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd came looking for him. Now Khālid ibn al-Walīd was among the kuffār who vacated Makkah for the Muslims; they did not want to see them, so they just left. So al-Walīd came looking for his brother Khālid, and when he did not find him, he left him a letter. What did it say? Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm. Yā akhī, mā fātaka fa-qad fātaka mawāṭinu ṣāliḥah — O my brother, what you have missed, you have missed: good places. If he were to put his energy and bravery to work with the Muslims, it would be better for him; we would certainly give him precedence before others. Take note, brother, of what good things you are missing.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was asking about Khālid: where is Khālid? And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was sending Khālid a message through his brother, telling him that it is not appropriate for someone like him, as intelligent as he is, to stay away from Islam; and that if he becomes Muslim, we will put him ahead of many others. This is true daʿwah: the fact that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) asked about him and cared about him. Because Khālid said: the question of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), when he asked about me, affected me a lot. And this is what made Khālid decide to make his move and become Muslim: the fact that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had him on his mind — that he thought about him, gave him a thought; and that he admitted, even though Khālid was a kāfir, that he was an intelligent man: how could his mind not understand and recognise Islam?

And then also the fact that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: we will put him ahead of many others. Status in Islam is according to how early one becomes Muslim; that was the standing the Companions held: the earlier a Companion became Muslim, the higher he was held. And that is only reasonable, because al-sabq, being ahead, shows a state of heart in a person. But here the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is saying that even though Khālid may become Muslim late, we will put him ahead of many others. Why? Because of the consideration the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had for the standing of Khālid — his intelligence, his abilities. And this is an important thing for the leader and the dāʿiyah: to recognise the abilities of people. People are not the same; they are different. Some people have qualities that others do not possess; some people have specialities that others do not possess; some people are strong, some people are weak; some people are intelligent, some people are less intelligent. People are different: Allah (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) has divided this rizq among people, and everybody has a different capability. And leadership is the ability to put the right person in the right place.

Khālid ibn al-Walīd (may Allah be pleased with him) decided that he was going to leave and become Muslim. And he had a dream: he saw himself in a very narrow, constricted place, and he was walking out of this place into a very vast and beautiful area. When he asked for the interpretation of this dream later on, Abū Bakr told him: it means your leaving shirk and entering Islam.

He wanted to talk to his close friends, so he went to Ṣafwān — Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah being one of them. He went to Ṣafwān and told him: I want to become Muslim; would you like to join me? Ṣafwān said: if no one but me remains, I am not going to become Muslim. So Khālid ibn al-Walīd said: well, this is a man whose father and brother were killed by the Muslims. So then he went to ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl, and told him that our situation with the Muslims, with Muḥammad, is like a fox in a hole: drop a bucket of water over him and he will come out running. In other words: Muḥammad is surrounding us, and we are like a fox in a hole, and all that Muḥammad and the Muslims have to do is douse us with a bucket of water and we will come out running; we have nothing left. So what do you think about becoming Muslim? ʿIkrimah refused. So Khālid ibn al-Walīd told him: well, do not tell anybody about it.

And then Khālid met ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah, and said to himself: how about I talk to him? And then he said: no, I am not going to talk to him, because he lost his family at Uḥud — seven family members of ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah were killed under the banner of the mushrikūn. So he said: I am not going to speak to him. And then he said: well, what difference does it make? I am leaving anyway, so let me just talk to him. And he went to ʿUthmān and proposed the idea to him, and, subḥān Allāh, he found him to be very receptive, and he agreed to go immediately.

And this tells us that we should not have prejudgements about people. And again we come back to the issue of hidāyah: we do not know who is going to be guided and who will not, and we should not rule out anything, and we should never close the gates of hope for anyone. This was a man who Khālid thought in the beginning would not be receptive, and then, subḥān Allāh, he found him to be the most receptive of the three — even though he was the one who had lost seven of his family members in the Battle of Uḥud. So never give up on anyone. We spread the message; our responsibility is to give balāgh, and then it is Allah who guides. We are not responsible for the results. We have to do our part, and we do it as an ʿibādah for Allah (ʿazza wa jall); but it is Allah who controls the hearts of men.

Khālid told ʿUthmān: we will meet in this particular place; if you arrive before me, wait until I come, and if I arrive before you, I will wait for you until you come. They travelled, and then they met ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, as has already been told. And when they reached the outskirts of Madīnah, Khālid said: we stopped, and we changed our clothes, and we put on our best clothes. This is how they wanted to meet the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): dressed up in their best clothes, preparing themselves for the greatest moment of their lives. And when Khālid met the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), the Messenger of Allah told him: come here. After he gave his pledge, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: al-ḥamdu lillāh alladhī hadāk, qad kuntu arā laka ʿaqlan rajawtu an lā yuslimaka illā ilā khayr — praise be to Allah who guided you; I used to see that you had intelligence, and I hoped that your intelligence would only lead you towards good. Khālid ibn al-Walīd said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) put me ahead of many of his Companions and took a lot of care of me. And the manifestation of that will be seen in the rest of the sīrah.