Yazid b. Hurmuz told that Najda al-Haruri wrote to Ibn ‘Abbas asking whether a slave and a woman should be allotted a portion when they are present at the division of the spoil, and he told Yazid to write telling him they are not entitled to a portion, but may have a small amount given them. A version says that Ibn ‘Abbas wrote to him, “You have written asking me whether God’s Messenger took women on military expeditions and whether he allotted them a portion. He used to take them on military expeditions to tend the sick, and they would be given a little of the spoil, but so far as a portion is concerned he allotted them none.’’
God’s Messenger sent his riding-beasts with his servant Rabah and I went along with him. In the morning ‘Abd ar-Rahman al-Fazari raided God’s Messenger’s riding-beasts, so I went up on a mound and shouted three times facing Medina, “A morning raid!” I then went after the people shooting arrows at them and composing words in the rajaz metre saying, “I am the son of al-Akwa‘; today is the day of the ignoble ones.”* I kept on shooting at them and killing their beasts so that they had to go on foot till there was no riding beast of God’s Messenger created by God which I had not gone ahead of. Then I followed them shooting at them till they threw away more than thirty cloaks and thirty lances to lighten themselves, and they threw nothing away without my putting stones on it to mark it for God’s Messenger and his companions to notice them. This went on till I saw God’s Messenger’s horsemen. Aba Qatada, God's Messenger's horseman, caught up on 'Abd ar-Rahman and killed him, and God's Messenger said, “Our best horseman today is Abu Qatada and our best footman Salama.” He then gave me two portions a horseman’s and a footman’s, and after giving me them both he took me up behind him on al-‘Adba’ on our way back to Medina.
*The line, which is evidently an example of the dimeter of the rajaz metre, has something missing at the beginning. It goes: انا ابن الاکوع والیوم الرضع
The full form of the rajaz has the foot mustaf'ilun six times; the dimeter has it four times. In the line above two extra syallables are required at the beginning.
We went out with God’s Messenger in the year of Hunain, and when the armies met, the Muslims suffered a reverse. I saw one of the polytheists getting the better of one of the Muslims, so I struck him with my sword from behind on his shoulder-blade and cut his coat of mail. He came at me and closed with me, so that I felt death was near, but he was overtaken by death and let me go. I then caught up on ‘Umar b. al-Khattab and asked him what was the matter with the people, to which he replied that it was what God had commanded.1 Then they returned and the Prophet sat down and said, "If anyone kills a man and can prove it he will get his spoil.” I said, "Who will testify for me?” and then sat down. The Prophet said the same again and I said, "Who will testify for me?”2 and then sat down. Again the Prophet said the same and I stood up He asked, "What is the matter with you, Qatada?” and when I informed him a man said, "He has spoken the truth. I have his spoil, so make him agreeable to take something in exchange.” Abu Bakr said, “In that case I swear by God that he did not do so. One of God’s heroes3 does not fight for God and His Messenger and then give you his spoil.” The Prophet said he had spoken the truth and told the man to hand it over to me. He did so, and I bought a garden among the B. Salima. This was the first property I acquired in the Islamic period.
1. He wondered why the Muslims had fled from the enemy, and 'Umar replied that it was what God had decreed.
2. There is doubt as to whether Abu Qatada spoke aloud the first two times, or inwardly. In the translation I have kept strictly to the wording in the Arabic.
