Narrators of histories have recorded that when the calamity of A’assum B. Thâbet and Habyb B. A’dy, with their companions, took place, as has been related above, his lordship the apostle became grieved and oppressed in spirit, and was waiting for an opportunity to wreak vengeance on the Bani Ttayân, who had committed such treachery. Therefore he proceeded in the sixth year after the Flight with two hundred Mohâjer and Anssâr cavaliers towards them, and reached during the march a place where Musalmâns had been made prisoners and slain. In that locality his lordship addressed propitiatory devotions to the Courts of Unity for A’assum B. Thâbet and his companions. Meanwhile the Bani Ttayân, having become aware of the approach of the apostle of God, fled to the summits of the mountains, where they fortified themselves, and thus saved their lives from destruction. The prophet—u. w. b.— halted one day in the above-mentioned locality, and sent out forays into the surrounding region. When he arrived in a place called Ghasfân he despatched, according to one tradition, Abu Bakr, and according to another Sa’d B. A’bâdah, with a detachment towards the enemy. When the Qoraish heard that the army of Islâm was coming they fled, so that on the arrival of the said detachment at A’mym no enemy could be found; accordingly, it returned from that place, and again joined the apostle of God.
Borydah says: ‘In that Ghazwah I attended on his lordship, who looked on his arrival at Ghasfân to the right and to the left, and having found his mother’s tomb he performed his religious ablution and went to the grave, on which he engaged in devotions with two prayer-flexions and wept, whereon all of us wept likewise. He then rose, and again made two flexions with prayers; he wept and we also. When he returned from the tomb he looked at his companions, and asked them: “What was the reason for your crying?” They replied: “We did as thou didst.” He continued: “What did you think?” They said: “We thought that our people would suffer an unbearable calamity.” He replied: “Such is not the case; but when I reached the grave of my mother I recited orisons with two prayer-flexions, and requested the Lord of Unity to be allowed to ask pardon for her; but I was reproved,* and therefore I wept. Accordingly, I again prayed with two flexions, and asked permission to intercede for her, but was reproved again.”’
In the Seir Kâzrâni it is related that, when the apostle of God had terminated his conversation, he asked for his camel, mounted it, and after that the blessed verse, ‘It is not [allowed] unto the prophet, nor those who are true believers, that they pray for idolaters,’ etc.,* was revealed. Then the lord of apostles said to his companions: ‘Be ye witnesses that I am innocent of this, in the same way as Ebrâhim was innocent of [the sin of having prayed for] his father.’
It is related that during this year his holy and prophetic lordship sent O’mar B. Alkhattâb to the Bani Qorârah, who stood fast while O’mar shot arrows at them with the right and the left hand. Ballâl B. Alhâreth Almazany was sent to the tribe Mâlek B. [name omitted], but they all fled, so that the Musalmâns found nothing in their place except one horse. On that occasion also Bashyr B. Sowyd Ajjahanny was sent against the Hârethah Kunânah, but the idolaters, being on their guard, fled into a thicket, which, however, Bashyr set on fire and burnt them all. When his lordship heard of this, he said: ‘You have done an evil deed.’