Anas reported God’s Messenger as saying at the battle of Badr, “Who will find out for us what has happened to Abu Jahl?” Ibn Mas'ud went and. found that the two sons of ‘Afra,’ had struck him till he was almost dead, so he seized him by his beard and said, “Are you Abu Jahl?” He replied, “Have you killed more than a man?” In a version he said, “I wish someone other than a tiller of the ground had killed me.”
When I stood in the rank at the battle of Badr I looked to my right and my left, and when I saw that I was between two young men of the Ansar I wished that I had been between men who were stronger than they. One of them pinched me and said, "Do you know Abu Jahl, uncle?" and I replied, "Yes, but what do you want with him, nephew?” He said, “I have been told that he reviles God's Messenger. By Him in whose hand my soul is, if I see him I shall not leave him till the one of us who is to die first dies.” I was astonished at that, and then the other pinched me and said the same to me. Before long I saw Abu Jahl going round among the people and I said, “Look, this is the man about whom you were asking.” They then hastened to him with their swords and struck him till they killed him, after which they went to God’s Messenger and informed him. He asked which of them had killed him and they both claimed to have done so. He then asked if they had wiped their swords, and when they replied that they had not he looked at the swords and said, “Both of you killed him.” God’s Messenger then decided that what was taken from him should go to Mu'adh b. ‘Amr b. al-Jamuh. The two men were Mu'adh b. ‘Amr b. al-Jamah and Mu'adh b. ‘Afra’.*
While I was sitting God’s Messenger gave a company something but omitted the one who was most attractive to me. I therefore got up and said, ‘Why have you omitted so and so? I swear by God that I consider him to be a believer.” God’s Messenger replied, “No, a Muslim.” Sa'd mentioned that three times and he gave him the same reply, then said, “I give a man something although I like someone else better, from fear he may be thrown face downwards in hell.”
(Bukhari and Muslim.) In a version by both of them Zuhri said be considered that Islam is the attestation of belief and faith is good action.
When God’s Messenger divided the portion of the relatives among the B. Hashim and the B. al-Muttalib, ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan and I came to him and said, "Messenger of God, these are our brethren of the B. Hashim whose superiority we do not deny because of the position in which God has placed you in relation to them, but tell us about our brethren of the B. al-Muttalib to whom you have given something while omitting us though our relationship is the same as theirs."* God’s Messenger replied, "The B. Hashim and the B. al- Muttalib are one body like this," and he intertwined his fingers.
* Cf. Chapter 8a
Shafi'i transmitted it, and there is something to the same effect in the version of Abu Dawud and Nasa'i. It says, "I and the B. al-Muttalib have not been separate in the pre-Islamic or in the Islamic period and they and we are one," intertwining his fingers.
