Ashja'

Before the Conquest of Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ sent a small expedition (sariyya) against a tribe that was threatening the Muslims. The lecture does not name the tribe. On the way, the Muslims passed Amir ibn al-Adbat al-Ashja'i. He was secretly a Muslim, although his tribe had not accepted Islam. He was happy to see them and greeted them with the Islamic greeting of peace, "Assalamu alaykum". One of the Muslims, Muhallim ibn Juthama, had a personal feud with Amir from the days before Islam. The rest of the group accepted Amir's greeting and welcomed him. Muhallim refused, saying Amir was only pretending to be a Muslim. He attacked and killed Amir on his own, and took his belongings as spoils of war. When the news reached the Prophet ﷺ, Allah revealed verse 94 of Surah al-Nisa. It rebukes believers who reject someone's greeting of peace because they want worldly gain. A bitter dispute followed between the tribe of Muhallim and the tribe of Amir. Both tribes later accepted Islam. After the Battle of Hunayn, their chieftains came angrily to the Prophet ﷺ and demanded that the killing be settled. The Prophet ﷺ calmed them down. As the leader who had sent Muhallim, he paid 100 camels in blood money himself. Muhallim's tribe then asked him to pray for Allah to forgive Muhallim. The Prophet ﷺ refused, one of the very few times in his life that he did so, because of Muhallim's character and what was in his heart. Ibn Ishaq reports that Muhallim died a few days later. His tribe buried him, but the next morning they found his body lying face down on top of the ground. They buried him again, and the same thing happened, and then a third time. In the end they laid his body in a valley and covered it with stones. The Prophet ﷺ then said, "Verily, the earth covers up people worse than him, but Allah wanted to warn you through him by showing you the sanctity of life between you."