The Captives Arrive

Now, the prisoners were placed in a certain location, and Sawdah, the wife of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), saw one of them with his hands tied to his neck — and this was one of the noble men of Quraysh, Suhayl ibn ʿAmr. She said: a-falā muttum kirāman — why didn't you die as noble men? Why did you allow yourselves to be humiliated and to be in this state? Why didn't you die as noble men? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) overlooked that statement and said: a-ʿalā Allāhi wa rasūlihi tuḥarriḍīn — are you asking them to fight Allah and His Messenger? Because in effect, what he was saying is: why don't you fight, rather than be held captive the way you are? And when she is saying "why didn't you fight" — who would he fight against? He would be fighting against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So Sawdah apologised to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, when I saw him in that state, I couldn't but say such a statement. Her emotions overwhelmed her when she saw Suhayl in that state. So it tells you that the leaders of Quraysh were humiliated because of their disbelief and kufr and the way they dealt with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Most of them were killed, and then you have men like Suhayl ibn ʿAmr tied in ropes.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stopped along the way to receive congratulations from all of the people who were coming to visit him, and when the people were coming to congratulate him, one of the Anṣār said: what are you congratulating us for? We have only met old, bald men — like camels awaiting slaughter, and we slaughtered them. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: my cousin, don't say that — these are the chiefs. This Anṣārī was saying it was so easy: those people whom we faced are old men who don't know how to fight. It was Allah who helped them through the angels — otherwise they couldn't have defeated such an army. So these were strong men; it was a strong opponent, but Allah, Mighty and Majestic, assisted them and helped them.