Explanation of the hadith of 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: (The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me and al-Zubayr ibn al-'Awwam, and we were all on horseback, and he said: Go until you reach a meadow such and such, and there is a woman with a letter from Hatib to the polytheists...)
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The Shaykh : Listen now to the story. He narrated with his chain of narration from Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, who said: I heard 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) say: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me and al-Zubayr ibn al-'Awwam, and we were all on horseback, and he said: انطلقوا حتى تبلغوا روضة كذا وكذا ، وبها امرأة معها كتاب من حاطب إلى المشركين ، فأتوني بها Go to such-and-such a meadow. There is a woman there who has a letter with her from Hatib to the idolaters. Bring her to me.Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 438. We caught up with her as she was riding on her camel, at the place the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had described to us. We said: "The letter with you." She said: "I have no letter with me." We searched her and her camel. My companion said: "I do not see it." I said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) does not lie. By Him in whose hand is my soul, I will strip you or you will produce it." She reached with her hand to her waist, and she was wearing a woolen garment, and she produced it. We came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and 'Umar said: "He has betrayed Allah, His Messenger, and the believers."
The point here is that 'Umar said this about Hatib, who was a man from the people of Badr, one of those who witnessed Badr, as you will hear in what follows. Despite this, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab said about him: "He has betrayed Allah, His Messenger, and the believers." However, he said this when he witnessed the ugly action, so the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not hold him accountable, nor did he apply the previous hadiths: مَن قال لأخيه المسلم : يا كافر ؛ فقد باءَ به أحدهما If a man says to his brother, O Kafir (disbeliever)!' Then surely one of them is such (i.e., a Kafir).Sahih al-Bukhari 6103. He did not apply this ruling because 'Umar said this word and accused Hatib of hypocrisy, relying on what appeared of his action, which is the action of hypocrites. He said: . Then 'Umar said: "He has betrayed Allah, His Messenger, and the believers. Let me strike off his neck." And he said: ما حملك ؟ What prompted you to do this?. He said: "I have nothing against me except that I am a believer in Allah, and I wanted to have a connection with the people." He said: صدق يا عمر ، أوليس قد شهد بدرًا ؟! لعل الله اطَّلع إليهم فقال : اعملوا ما شئتم ؛ فقد وجبت لكم الجنة He has spoken the truth, 'Umar. Was he not present at Badr? Perhaps Allah has looked on them and said, "Do whatever you like. The Garden is guaranteed for you."Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 438. 'Umar's eyes filled with tears, and he said: "Allah and His Messenger know best."
We return to the hadith and hear some of its words, then we comment on them with what pleases us. 'Ali said: بعثني النبي - صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم - والزبير بن العوام وكلانا فارس The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent for me and az-Zubayr ibn al-'Awwam while we were both on horsebackAl-Adab Al-Mufrad 438, meaning each one was riding on his horse. This was to catch up with the woman to whom al-Khattab had sent the letter to the polytheists. This woman was sent with a letter from Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah to the polytheists in Mecca, warning them that the Messenger (peace be upon him) intended to fight them and attack them. There is no doubt that such an action is extremely dangerous, because it alerts the polytheist enemies to prepare for the coming of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to fight them. This is undoubtedly the action of hypocrites. But Allah (Mighty and Majestic), to whom nothing is hidden on earth or in the sky, revealed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that a woman of such and such description was being sent with a letter to the polytheists, and she was at such and such a place. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) sent these two noble companions, 'Ali and al-Zubayr, both on horseback, eager for pursuit and speed to catch up with the woman before she escaped them. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to them: انطلقوا حتى تبلغوا روضة كذا وكذا Go to such-and-such a meadowAl-Adab Al-Mufrad 438. The narrator did not specify the name of the meadow here, which suggests to researchers that the name of the meadow was lost from the narrator's memory, because it is inconceivable that the Messenger (peace be upon him) would say to 'Ali and al-Zubayr, "Go until you reach a meadow such and such," without naming it specifically. How could the narrator say here "a meadow such and such"? It means that none of the narrators in this book preserved the name. However, Imam al-Bukhari himself in his Sahih, and likewise Imam Muslim, narrated this story more completely than here, with more benefits than here. Among those benefits is that the narration there revealed the name of the meadow, and he said to them: حتى تأتوا روضة خاخ until you come to Rawdat Khakh.Musnad Ahmad 1083. "Khakh" is the name of that place, with a thousand between the two words. The point is that the Messenger (peace be upon him) specified for them the place that the two horsemen, 'Ali and al-Zubayr, were to seek out to find the woman there. He said to them: انطلقوا حتى تبلغوا روضة كذا وكذا ، وبه امرأة معها كتاب من حاطب إلى المشركين ؛ فأتوني بها Go to such-and-such a meadow. There is a woman there who has a letter with her from Hatib to the idolaters. Bring her to me.Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 438. Here it says: "We caught up with her as she was riding on her camel." This statement contains an omission, meaning we set out and continued traveling until we found her riding on her camel, at the place the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had described to us, namely at the meadow of Khakh. We said: "The letter with you," meaning produce the letter with you. She said: "I have no letter with me." Naturally, a woman like this, who is paid to deliver the letter to the polytheists, would not rush to admit to the letter with her; rather, she would deny and disavow it. So we searched her and her camel, searching her to the extent that Islam permits, because a man can be searched more thoroughly than a woman. So they searched her in a formal manner, even searching the camel she was riding, and they did not find the letter. They had no choice but to threaten her. However, a type of discussion took place between the two companions, between 'Ali and al-Zubayr. 'Ali said about his companion al-Zubayr: ما أرى I do not see one., meaning I do not think the letter is with her. I said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) does not lie." Here is a linguistic benefit: 'Ali's statement "The Prophet does not lie" does not mean the word "lie" which is the opposite of truth, but rather it means error, because it is far from al-Zubayr's mind or thoughts that the Messenger (peace be upon him) is lying. This is the furthest thing from the mind of a Muslim, or even from the mind of a man from the ten promised Paradise. But what might occur to someone's mind is that the Messenger made a mistake, not that he intentionally lied, which is inconceivable. Therefore, 'Ali's response to al-Zubayr, when he said "I do not see the letter," was: ما كذب النبي The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not lie., meaning he did not err at all, and it is impossible that the matter is other than as he (peace be upon him) said; nothing contradicts him in any error whatsoever. This means that 'Ali was more precise in his observation and had more faith in the Messenger (peace be upon him) than his companion al-Zubayr. And these are, in any case, degrees. I said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) does not lie, and by Him in whose hand is my soul." Then he addressed the woman: "I will strip you or you will produce it," meaning after we searched you in the manner that Islam, honor, and jealousy permit, and we found nothing, and our Prophet is truthful regarding this polytheist woman and not a liar, either you produce the letter of your own will, or we strip you of your clothes, O my Lord, as You created me. At that point, when she saw her situation, she had to produce the letter, or she would be exposed to disgrace. The narrator said here: "She reached with her hand to her waist." The waist is below the ribs, the bone following the thigh, which is the place where the belt is tied, meaning where it does not fall or descend; that is the waist. She was wearing heavy clothes and had placed the letter there in her waist, hiding it. This narration says: "She reached with her hand to her waist, and she was wearing a woolen garment, and she produced it." But the narration in the "Sahihayn" (al-Bukhari and Muslim), which is undoubtedly more authentic than the narration in our book, says that she produced the letter from her hair, from her braid. The wording of the hadith there is: "She produced it from her hair tie." Meaning 'Ali produced the letter from her hair tie, and the hair tie is the string used to tie the ends of the excess or braided hair. You are, of course, more familiar with the strings used to tie braids and hair. There, she had wrapped the letter in a way that these clothes concealed it, and she produced the letter from there. This narration in the "Sahihayn" is more authentic than this one.
The point here is that 'Umar said this about Hatib, who was a man from the people of Badr, one of those who witnessed Badr, as you will hear in what follows. Despite this, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab said about him: "He has betrayed Allah, His Messenger, and the believers." However, he said this when he witnessed the ugly action, so the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not hold him accountable, nor did he apply the previous hadiths: مَن قال لأخيه المسلم : يا كافر ؛ فقد باءَ به أحدهما If a man says to his brother, O Kafir (disbeliever)!' Then surely one of them is such (i.e., a Kafir).Sahih al-Bukhari 6103. He did not apply this ruling because 'Umar said this word and accused Hatib of hypocrisy, relying on what appeared of his action, which is the action of hypocrites. He said: . Then 'Umar said: "He has betrayed Allah, His Messenger, and the believers. Let me strike off his neck." And he said: ما حملك ؟ What prompted you to do this?. He said: "I have nothing against me except that I am a believer in Allah, and I wanted to have a connection with the people." He said: صدق يا عمر ، أوليس قد شهد بدرًا ؟! لعل الله اطَّلع إليهم فقال : اعملوا ما شئتم ؛ فقد وجبت لكم الجنة He has spoken the truth, 'Umar. Was he not present at Badr? Perhaps Allah has looked on them and said, "Do whatever you like. The Garden is guaranteed for you."Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 438. 'Umar's eyes filled with tears, and he said: "Allah and His Messenger know best."
We return to the hadith and hear some of its words, then we comment on them with what pleases us. 'Ali said: بعثني النبي - صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم - والزبير بن العوام وكلانا فارس The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent for me and az-Zubayr ibn al-'Awwam while we were both on horsebackAl-Adab Al-Mufrad 438, meaning each one was riding on his horse. This was to catch up with the woman to whom al-Khattab had sent the letter to the polytheists. This woman was sent with a letter from Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah to the polytheists in Mecca, warning them that the Messenger (peace be upon him) intended to fight them and attack them. There is no doubt that such an action is extremely dangerous, because it alerts the polytheist enemies to prepare for the coming of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to fight them. This is undoubtedly the action of hypocrites. But Allah (Mighty and Majestic), to whom nothing is hidden on earth or in the sky, revealed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that a woman of such and such description was being sent with a letter to the polytheists, and she was at such and such a place. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) sent these two noble companions, 'Ali and al-Zubayr, both on horseback, eager for pursuit and speed to catch up with the woman before she escaped them. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to them: انطلقوا حتى تبلغوا روضة كذا وكذا Go to such-and-such a meadowAl-Adab Al-Mufrad 438. The narrator did not specify the name of the meadow here, which suggests to researchers that the name of the meadow was lost from the narrator's memory, because it is inconceivable that the Messenger (peace be upon him) would say to 'Ali and al-Zubayr, "Go until you reach a meadow such and such," without naming it specifically. How could the narrator say here "a meadow such and such"? It means that none of the narrators in this book preserved the name. However, Imam al-Bukhari himself in his Sahih, and likewise Imam Muslim, narrated this story more completely than here, with more benefits than here. Among those benefits is that the narration there revealed the name of the meadow, and he said to them: حتى تأتوا روضة خاخ until you come to Rawdat Khakh.Musnad Ahmad 1083. "Khakh" is the name of that place, with a thousand between the two words. The point is that the Messenger (peace be upon him) specified for them the place that the two horsemen, 'Ali and al-Zubayr, were to seek out to find the woman there. He said to them: انطلقوا حتى تبلغوا روضة كذا وكذا ، وبه امرأة معها كتاب من حاطب إلى المشركين ؛ فأتوني بها Go to such-and-such a meadow. There is a woman there who has a letter with her from Hatib to the idolaters. Bring her to me.Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 438. Here it says: "We caught up with her as she was riding on her camel." This statement contains an omission, meaning we set out and continued traveling until we found her riding on her camel, at the place the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had described to us, namely at the meadow of Khakh. We said: "The letter with you," meaning produce the letter with you. She said: "I have no letter with me." Naturally, a woman like this, who is paid to deliver the letter to the polytheists, would not rush to admit to the letter with her; rather, she would deny and disavow it. So we searched her and her camel, searching her to the extent that Islam permits, because a man can be searched more thoroughly than a woman. So they searched her in a formal manner, even searching the camel she was riding, and they did not find the letter. They had no choice but to threaten her. However, a type of discussion took place between the two companions, between 'Ali and al-Zubayr. 'Ali said about his companion al-Zubayr: ما أرى I do not see one., meaning I do not think the letter is with her. I said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) does not lie." Here is a linguistic benefit: 'Ali's statement "The Prophet does not lie" does not mean the word "lie" which is the opposite of truth, but rather it means error, because it is far from al-Zubayr's mind or thoughts that the Messenger (peace be upon him) is lying. This is the furthest thing from the mind of a Muslim, or even from the mind of a man from the ten promised Paradise. But what might occur to someone's mind is that the Messenger made a mistake, not that he intentionally lied, which is inconceivable. Therefore, 'Ali's response to al-Zubayr, when he said "I do not see the letter," was: ما كذب النبي The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not lie., meaning he did not err at all, and it is impossible that the matter is other than as he (peace be upon him) said; nothing contradicts him in any error whatsoever. This means that 'Ali was more precise in his observation and had more faith in the Messenger (peace be upon him) than his companion al-Zubayr. And these are, in any case, degrees. I said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) does not lie, and by Him in whose hand is my soul." Then he addressed the woman: "I will strip you or you will produce it," meaning after we searched you in the manner that Islam, honor, and jealousy permit, and we found nothing, and our Prophet is truthful regarding this polytheist woman and not a liar, either you produce the letter of your own will, or we strip you of your clothes, O my Lord, as You created me. At that point, when she saw her situation, she had to produce the letter, or she would be exposed to disgrace. The narrator said here: "She reached with her hand to her waist." The waist is below the ribs, the bone following the thigh, which is the place where the belt is tied, meaning where it does not fall or descend; that is the waist. She was wearing heavy clothes and had placed the letter there in her waist, hiding it. This narration says: "She reached with her hand to her waist, and she was wearing a woolen garment, and she produced it." But the narration in the "Sahihayn" (al-Bukhari and Muslim), which is undoubtedly more authentic than the narration in our book, says that she produced the letter from her hair, from her braid. The wording of the hadith there is: "She produced it from her hair tie." Meaning 'Ali produced the letter from her hair tie, and the hair tie is the string used to tie the ends of the excess or braided hair. You are, of course, more familiar with the strings used to tie braids and hair. There, she had wrapped the letter in a way that these clothes concealed it, and she produced the letter from there. This narration in the "Sahihayn" is more authentic than this one.
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