108 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD""'He is Muhammad, son of 'Abd All&, of Quraysh," they replied.
"'"And what do you have to do with him?" he asked.
"'"He claims to be the Messenger of God and he has asked us to protect him
until he fulfils his Lord's mission," they replied.
"'"And how did you respond?" he enquired.
""'We made him very welcome," they told him. "We said we would take him
to our own territory and protect him as we do ourselves."
"'Bayhara commented, "I know of no one at this fair going back home with
anything worse than you are. You have begun a policy that will alienate people;
the Arabs will attack you in unison. His people know him very well; if they had
perceived good in him, they would have been most delighted with him. Will you
support a man cast out and denied by his own people and give him shelter and
aid? Your policy is dreadful."
"'He then approached the Messenger of God (SAAS), and told him, "Get up
and join your people. I swear if you weren't here among my kin, I would strike
you down!"
"'And so the Messenger of God (SAAS) got up and mounted his camel. That
evil man Bayhara then prodded the mount in its flank and it darted away with
the Messenger of God (SAAS), and threw him.
"'With the Bann 'Amir on that day was Dahzk, daughter of 'Amir b. Qary; she
was one of the women who had accepted Islam with the Messenger of God
(SAAS) in Mecca. She had come on a visit to the Bana 'Amir. She spoke out,
"0 people of 'Amir, you're not 'Zmzr (i.e. civilized, cultured) to me! Could this
really happen to the Messenger of God, right here among you without any one
of you protecting him?"
"'Three of her relatives then attacked Bayhara, while two assisted him. Each
man fought with another, her supporters beating the others to the ground, sit-
ting on their chests and slapping their faces.
"'The Messenger of God (SAAS) then spoke, "May God bless these men and
damn the others!"
"'The three who had aided him later embraced Islam and died as martyrs in
battle. These were Ghatif and Ghatfm, two sons of Sahl and Wrwa - or 'Udhra
- b. 'Ahd Allah b. Salama. God be pleased with them."'
The ha& Sa'id b. Yahya b. Sa'id al-Umawi related this hadah from his father
in its entirety in his book of the maghazi, the military campaigns.
The other men all perished. These were Bayhara b. Firs, Hazn b. 'Abd Allzh
b. Salama b. Qushayr and Mu%wiya b. 'Abbada, one of the Banii Wqayl, may
God damn them utterly.
This is a curious tale; we give it here for its strangeness. But God knows best.
Abii Nu'aym related a similar account, from a hadith of Ka'b b. Malik, God bless
him, relating to the story of 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a and the rudeness of their reply to
him.