13.1
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, who said: the son of Kaʿb ibn Mālik reported to me from his father, who said:
13.2
With the exception of the Battle of Badr, I never failed to accompany the Prophet on an expedition that he undertook until the Tabūk expedition. The Prophet had not censured anyone who failed to accompany him at Badr because he set out only to find the caravan. When the Quraysh set out to come to the rescue of the caravan, they met in battle without having planned to do so previously, as God decreed.181 By my life, though Badr be the most esteemed of the Prophet’s battles in the people’s eyes, I would never wish to have witnessed it in exchange for my oath of fealty the night of al-ʿAqabah when we pledged our faith in Islam. After that, I never once failed to accompany the Prophet in an expedition undertaken by him until the Tabūk expedition—and that was the last expedition he would ever undertake.
13.3
The Prophet had given the people permission to set out for battle, for he wanted them to equip themselves for the expedition. This was at the time of year when the shade had become pleasant and the fruit had ripened. Seldom would the Prophet set out for an expedition without concealing the news. As he used to say, “War is guile.” The Prophet wanted the people to equip themselves for battle. At that time I had become wealthier than I had ever been before, and I even owned two mounts. I was easily capable of participating in the jihad and was free of cares, so I went to rest in the shade under the ripened fruit. I remained thus until the Prophet set out early in the morning—that was on a Thursday, for he preferred to set out on a Thursday, waking up to head out early in the morning. I said, “I’ll leave for the market tomorrow and buy my supplies, then I’ll catch up with them.” I left for the market the next day, but I encountered some difficulties and went back. “Tomorrow I’ll return, God willing,” I said, and I remained in this mindset until sin ensnared me and I failed to accompany the Messenger of God. I took to walking through the markets and strolling about Medina, and it pained me that the only man I saw who had remained behind was one despised as a hypocrite. There wasn’t a single man who remained behind who did not imagine that he could conceal it from the Prophet, for the people were numerous, and he did not enroll them in a military register.182 Those who failed to accompany the Prophet numbered over eighty men. The Prophet didn’t remember me until he had reached Tabūk, but once he arrived at Tabūk, he asked, “What is Kaʿb ibn Mālik up to?” A man from my tribe answered, “O Messenger of God, he’s probably fallen behind tending to his clothes and preening himself!” “That’s a horrible thing to say,” Muʿādh ibn Jabal interjected. “O Prophet of God, by God, we know only good things of him.” While this was going on, they caught a glimpse of a man obscured by the desert mirage. “It’s Abū Khaythamah,” declared the Prophet, and indeed it was he.
13.4
When the Prophet had completed the Tabūk expedition and his caravan came near Medina, I began to ponder how I might escape the displeasure of the Prophet, and I sought the aid of some men of wise counsel from my people. Eventually word spread that the Prophet would be arriving early the next morning. All falsehood then left me, and I realized that I would only find salvation by speaking the truth.
The Prophet entered Medina the following day and prayed two prostrations in the mosque, as was his custom upon returning from a journey. After entering the mosque and praying the two prostrations, he sat to hold audience. All those who had remained behind went to him swearing oaths and making excuses before him. He sought divine forgiveness on their behalf and accepted their public confessions, leaving the truth of their affairs to God. I entered the mosque, and there he was sitting in audience.
When he saw me, he smiled the smile of an angry man. I came to him, and when I sat before him, he said, “Did you not purchase your mount?”
“Dear Prophet of God, indeed I did,” I answered.
“Then what caused you to remain behind?” he asked.
“By God,” I answered, “if I sat before any other man, then I would have attempted to escape his displeasure by offering an excuse—indeed, I am an excellent disputant—but I know, O Prophet of God, that if I tell you something that is true but that makes you angry with me, then I might still hold out hope for God’s mercy. Were I to tell you a story merely to placate you, though it be a lie, it is all but certain that God would reveal it to you. I swear by God, O Prophet of God, that I have never been wealthier or more lightly burdened by life than when I failed to accompany you.”
“As for what you’ve said,” he replied, “your speech is true, but stand up and leave now until God gives his judgment concerning you.”
I stood up, and several people from my tribe rose and followed, reproaching me. They said, “By God, we’ve never known you to commit such a sin before this! Why couldn’t you offer an excuse acceptable to God’s Prophet, so that the Messenger of God would seek forgiveness on your behalf despite your sin? Why have you put yourself in a position in which you have no idea what judgment might be issued against you?”
They continued their reproaches until I pondered returning and renouncing what I had said, but instead I asked, “Did anyone else say what I said?”
“Yes,” they answered, “Hilāl ibn Umayyah and Murārah ibn Rabīʿah said the same.” They named two upright men who had witnessed Badr; two exemplary men whose conduct I could follow.
“No,” I said to myself, “I will not go back to the Prophet to speak of the matter again, nor will I renounce what I’ve said.”
13.5
The Prophet then forbade the people to speak to us, all three of us. I set out for the market, and not a soul spoke to me. As the people spurned us they became strangers to us—even the orchards and earth spurned us and became foreign to us. Now, I was the strongest of three and would go about the market and enter the mosque. Approaching the Prophet, I would offer greetings of peace, wondering, “Did his lips just murmur ‘Peace’?” When I stood to undertake my prayers next to a column of the mosque, I faced in the direction of my prayer; the Prophet watched me from the corner of his eye, but I if I looked toward him, he turned away from me.
13.6
My two companions had been plunged deep into misery; weeping night and day, they never raised their heads. While I was making rounds in the market, there arrived a Christian man who had come to sell some food, saying, “Who will show me the way to Kaʿb ibn Mālik?” Straightaway the people pointed him in my direction. When he had come to me, he brought with him a scroll from the King of Ghassān, which read,
Now, word has reached me that your master has dealt harshly with you and repudiated you. You need not take your shelter in a house of loss or ignominy. Come, join us and we will meet your every need.
I thought, “This evil is yet another trial visited upon me.” I then stoked a hearth and burnt the scroll therein.
13.7
Forty nights had passed when a messenger from the Prophet came to me and said, “Withdraw from your wife.”
“Shall I divorce her?” I asked.
“No,” he answered, “but do not approach her.”
The wife of Hilāl ibn Umayyah came before the Prophet and said, “O Prophet of God! Verily, Hilāl ibn Umayyah is a feeble old man. Will you permit me to serve him?”
“Yes,” the Prophet consented, “but he shall not approach you.”
“Prophet of God,” she replied, “I swear by God that he can hardly move. Since this affair has begun, he’s been curled up in a ball, weeping night and day!”
13.8
Kaʿb said: When my tribulations became too much to bear, I scaled the wall of my cousin, Abū Qatādah. I greeted him with peace, but he did not reply. I said, “I abjure you by God, Abū Qatādah! Don’t you know that I love God and His Messenger?” He remained quiet, so I said again, “I abjure you by God, Abū Qatādah! Don’t you know that I love God and His Messenger?” Still he remained quiet, so I said again, “I abjure you by God, Abū Qatādah! Don’t you know that I love God and His Messenger?” He replied, “God and His Messenger know best.” I couldn’t hold back my tears, so I scaled his wall to leave. When fifty nights had passed since the Prophet had forbade everyone from speaking to us, I prayed the dawn prayer on the roof of our house. I was sitting in the state that God has described, «when the earth, for all its spaciousness, closed in around them, and when their very souls closed in around them»,183 when I heard a cry from atop Salʿ mountain: “Good tidings, Kaʿb ibn Mālik!” I fell down prostrate, knowing that God had granted us respite. Soon thereafter, a man came riding on a steed to bring me the good tidings—the man’s voice was swifter than his steed. I gave him my two garments as a reward for the good tidings, and donned two others.
13.9
God revealed to the Prophet that He had accepted our repentence in the final third of the night,184 and Umm Salamah said, “Dear Prophet of God, shall you not convey the tidings to Kaʿb ibn Mālik?” He replied, “Then the people will crowd in on all of you and prevent you from sleeping for the rest of the night.” Umm Salamah had been kindly toward me and greatly saddened over my affair.
I then set off to see the Prophet—there, sitting in the mosque surrounded by the Muslims, he shone as brightly as the shining moon, as he did whenever something had delighted him. I drew closer and sat before him. He said, “Good tidings, Kaʿb ibn Mālik! You’ve seen no better day since the day your mother gave you birth!”
“Dear Prophet of God,” I replied, “is such a decree from God, or from you?”
“From God,” he answered, and then he recited to them:
«God has turned to the Prophet, and the Emigrants and the Allies who followed him in the hour of adversity when hearts almost wavered: He has turned to them; He is most kind and merciful to them. And to the three men who stayed behind: when the earth, for all its spaciousness, closed in around them, when their very souls closed in around them, when they realized that the only refuge from God was with Him, He turned to them in mercy in order for them to return. God is the Ever Relenting, the Most Merciful.»185
God also revealed concerning us: «Be mindful of God: stand with those who are true.»186
Then I said, “O Prophet of God, with my repentance I swear that I won’t utter a word lest it be true and that I surrender my wealth in its entirety as alms over to God and His Messenger.”
“Hold on to a portion of wealth for yourself,” he replied, “for it is better for you.”
“Then I will keep my lot in Khaybar,” I answered.
13.10
Not since I had embraced Islam had God shown my soul such magnificient grace as when I spoke to God’s Messenger, both I and my comrades; otherwise, we would have deceived him and fallen into perdition as did those who had been damned.187 Verily, it is my hope that God never again try a soul in regard to speaking the truth as He had tried me then. Never again was I inclined to lie, and I hope that God shall preserve me thus for the rest of my days.
Al-Zuhrī said: Here ends as much of the story of Kaʿb ibn Mālik as has reached us.