The Killing of Al-Nadr ibn al-Harith and Uqbah ibn Abi Muayt: A Hadith-Critical and Comparative Response

[!scholar] Al-Wāqidī — Maghāzī, Part One
Khālid bin al-Haytham, a client of Banū Hāshim, told me, on the authority of Yaḥyā bin Abī Kathīr, who said: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “None of you should take advantage of his brother’s prisoner and kill him.” And when the prisoners were brought, Saad bin Muādh disliked that, so the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “O Abu Amr, it seems that it is difficult for you to know where the prisoners are being taken captive.” He said: “Yes, O Messenger of Allah. It was the first battle in which we met the polytheists, and I wanted Allah to humiliate them and to inflict heavy casualties on them.” Al-Miqdad had taken al-Nadr ibn al-Harith captive on that day. When the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, left Badr — and he was in al-Uthayl — the prisoners were shown to him, and he looked at al-Nadr ibn al-Harith, and al-Nadr said to a man next to him: “Muhammad, by God, kill me — he looked at me with eyes in which there is death!” Then he said to a man next to him: “By God, this from you is nothing but terror.” So al-Nadr said to Muṣʿab bin ʿUmayr: “O Muṣʿab, you are the closest of those here to me in kinship. Speak to your companion to treat me like one of my companions. By Allah, he will kill me if you do not do so.” Muṣʿab said: “You used to say such and such about Allah’s Book, and you used to say such and such about His Prophet.”

[!admission] Al-Mizzī — Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, Part 26
Zakariyyā bin Yaḥyā al-Sājī said: Muḥammad bin ʿUmar bin Wāqid al-Aslamī, the judge of Baghdad, is accused. Aḥmad bin Muḥammad told me: I heard Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal say: We did not stop defending al-Wāqidī’s matter until he narrated on the authority of Muʿammar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Nabhān, on the authority of Umm Salamah, on the authority of the Prophet: “Are you both blind?” Then he came up with something that could not be done. The ḥadīth is the ḥadīth of Yūnus, and no one else narrated it. Abu Jaʿfar al-ʿUqaylī said: Aḥmad said: I have no doubt that al-Wāqidī used to change them — meaning the ḥadīths. Al-Bukhārī said: Al-Wāqidī was from Medina and lived in Baghdad. His ḥadīth is rejected. Aḥmad, Ibn Numayr, Ibn al-Mubārak, and Ismāʿīl bin Zakariyyā abandoned him. Aḥmad called him a liar. Muʿāwiyah bin Ṣāliḥ said: Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal told me: He is a liar. Muʿāwiyah also said about Yaḥyā bin Maʿīn: Weak. He said in another place: He is nothing. He said in another place: He is not trustworthy. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb bin al-Furāt al-Hamadānī said: I asked Yaḥyā bin Maʿīn about al-Wāqidī, and he said: He is not trustworthy. Al-Mughīrah bin Muḥammad al-Mahlabī said: I heard ʿAlī bin al-Madīnī say: al-Haytham bin ʿAdī is more trustworthy in my opinion than al-Wāqidī, and I do not accept him in ḥadīth, genealogy, or anything. Abu Dāwūd said: I was told by someone who heard ʿAlī bin al-Madīnī say: al-Wāqidī narrated thirty thousand strange ḥadīths. Muslim said: His ḥadīth is rejected. Al-Nasāʾī said: He is not trustworthy. Al-Ḥākim Abu Aḥmad said: His ḥadīth is lost.

[!scholar] Al-Ṭabarī — Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī, Sūrat al-Anfāl
15979 — Muḥammad bin Bashshār narrated to us, Muḥammad bin Jaʿfar narrated to us, Shuʿbah narrated to us, on the authority of Abu Bishr, on the authority of Saʿīd bin Jubayr, he said: The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, killed on the day of Badr, patiently, three men from Quraysh: al-Muṭʿim bin ʿAdī, al-Nadr bin al-Ḥārith, and ʿUqbah bin Abī Muʿayṭ. He said: When he ordered the killing of al-Nadr, al-Miqdād bin al-Aswad said: “My prisoner, O Messenger of Allah!” He said: “He used to say about the Book of Allah and about His Messenger what he used to say!” He said: He said that two or three times, and the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “O Allah, enrich al-Miqdād from Your bounty!” And al-Miqdād had taken al-Nadr prisoner.

[!scholar] Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī — Al-Kāfiyah, Chapter on the Mursal Ḥadīth
Abu Nuʿaym al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us, Muḥammad bin Aḥmad bin al-Ḥasan told us, Muḥammad bin ʿUthmān bin Abī Shaybah told us, ʿAlī bin ʿAbdullāh bin al-Madīnī told us, he said: Yaḥyā bin Saʿīd said: “The mursals of Mujāhid are much more beloved to me than the mursals of ʿAṭāʾ — ʿAṭāʾ used to take from every type.” And Yaḥyā said: “The mursal ḥadīths of Saʿīd bin Jubayr are more beloved to me than the mursal of ʿAṭāʾ.” Then Yaḥyā said: “There is no one among the people with a more authentic ḥadīth than Mālik.” Al-Khaṭīb said: What we choose from this sentence is that the obligation to act upon mursal ḥadīths is invalid, and that mursal ḥadīths are not acceptable. What indicates this is that mursal ḥadīths lead to ignorance of the identity of their narrator, and it is impossible to know his integrity with ignorance of it in particular. And we have previously explained that it is not permissible to accept the report except from someone whose justice is known — so it is necessary for that reason that it is not acceptable.

[!scholar] Al-Shawkānī — Fatḥ al-Qadīr, Part Two, Sūrat al-Anfāl
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Mardawayh narrated on the authority of Saʿīd bin Jubayr, who said: The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, killed on the day of Badr, with patience, ʿUqbah bin Abī Muʿayṭ, Tuʿaymah bin ʿAdī, and al-Nadr bin al-Ḥārith. Al-Miqdād had taken al-Nadr prisoner, and when he was ordered to kill him, al-Miqdād said: “O Messenger of God, release me.” So the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “He used to say about the Book of God what he said.” And in it this verse was revealed: “And when Our verses are recited to them…” — and this is a mursal.

[!scholar] Ibn Hishām — Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, Part One
Ibn Isḥāq said: Until when the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, was in al-Ṣafrāʾ, al-Nadr ibn al-Ḥārith was killed. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib killed him, as some of the people of knowledge from the people of Mecca informed me.

[!scholar] Al-Bayhaqī — Sunan al-Bayhaqī, Book of Sīrah, hadith 18025
Abu ʿAbdullāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us, Abu al-ʿAbbās Muḥammad bin Yaʿqūb informed us, al-Rabīʿ bin Sulaymān informed us, al-Shāfiʿī informed us, a number of the people of knowledge from Quraysh and others of the people of knowledge of the battles informed us, that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, took al-Nadr ibn al-Ḥārith al-ʿAbdī prisoner on the day of Badr, and killed him patiently in the desert or al-Athīl, and he captured ʿUqbah bin Abī Muʿayṭ and killed him patiently.

[!scholar] Al-Albānī — Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl, Part Five, hadith 1214
Ḥadīth: “That he, may God bless him and grant him peace, killed al-Nadr bin al-Ḥārith and ʿUqbah bin Abī Muʿayṭ, with patience, on the day of Badr.” — Weak. Al-Bayhaqī narrated it (9/64) on the authority of al-Shāfiʿī: a number of scholars from Quraysh and others from the scholars of the battles reported that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, captured al-Nadr bin al-Ḥārith al-ʿAbdī on the day of Badr, and killed him in the desert or al-Athīl with patience, and he captured ʿUqbah bin Abī Muʿayṭ and killed him with patience. I said: This is problematic, as you see. Ibn Isḥāq said in the context of the story of Badr: “Then the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, returned to Medina, with the prisoners from the polytheists, among them ʿUqbah bin Abī Muʿayṭ and al-Nadr bin al-Ḥārith… until when the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, was in al-Ṣafrāʾ, ʿAlī bin Abī Ṭālib killed him, as some scholars from the people of Mecca informed me. Then he went out, until he was in the vein of the gazelle, he killed ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ, so ʿUqbah said when the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered his killing: ‘Who will take care of the children, O Muḥammad?’ He said: ‘Hellfire.’ So he was killed by ʿĀṣim ibn Thābit ibn Abī al-Aqlah al-Anṣārī, as Abu ʿUbaydah ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir told me.” Ibn Hishām mentioned him in al-Sīrah (2/297–298) then said: “And it is said that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib killed him, according to what Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī and other scholars told me.” In al-Bidāyah by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr (3/305–306): Ḥammād bin Salamah said on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ bin al-Sāʾib on the authority of al-Shaʿbī who said: “When the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, ordered the killing of ʿUqbah, he said: ‘Will you kill me, O Muḥammad, from among the Quraysh?’ He said: ‘Yes. Do you know what this man did to me? He came while I was prostrating behind the Maqām, and he put his foot on my neck and nudged it, and he did not raise it until I thought my eyes would fall out. And he came another time with a sheep’s placenta and threw it on my head while I was prostrating, and Fāṭimah came and washed it off my head.’” I said: This is mursal. ==In short, I did not find a chain of transmission for this story that would support the proof, despite its fame in the books of the Sīrah. Not everything mentioned in them and presented as a given is in accordance with the approach of the people of ḥadīth from the established matters.==

[!scholar] Ibn Sallām — Ṭabaqāt Fuḥūl al-Shuʿarāʾ, Part One
I am Abu Khalīfah — Ibn Sallām told us, he said: Abān bin ʿUthmān told me — and it is the saying of Ibn Isḥāq — that Abu ʿAzzah was taken prisoner on the day of Uḥud, so he said: “O Messenger of God, who is ʿAlī?” So the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “A believer is not stung from the same hole twice.” And Abān said: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “Do not wipe your cheekbones in Mecca” — meaning: you deceived Muḥammad twice and he killed you. So I mentioned that to Ibn Jaʿdabah, and he said: He was not taken prisoner on the day of Uḥud, nor was anyone else, and the Muslims were on that day busy with not being captured, and his killing was not denied. He used to deny the killing of al-Nadr bin al-Ḥārith on the day of Badr, and he said: He was wounded and he mourned it, and he was a strong enemy, so he said: “I will not eat food or drink as long as I am in their hands.” So he died.

ʿAlī bin al-Ḥusayn al-Ruqī narrated to us, ʿAbdullāh bin Jaʿfar al-Ruqī narrated to me, ʿUbaydullāh bin ʿAmr narrated to me, on the authority of Zayd bin Abī Unaysah, on the authority of ʿAmr bin Murrah, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, who said: Al-Ḍaḥḥāk bin Qays wanted to employ Masrūq, so ʿUmārah bin ʿUqbah said to him: “Are you employing a man from the remnants of the killers of ʿUthmān?” So Masrūq said to him: “ʿAbdullāh bin Masʿūd narrated to us — and he was in our hearts a reliable ḥadīth — that when the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, wanted to kill your father, he said: ‘Who will take care of the children?’ He said: ‘The Fire.’ So I am pleased for you with what the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, was pleased for you.”

[!scholar] Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ — Takhrīj Sunan Abī Dāwūd, on ḥadīth 2686
Its chain of transmission is authentic. Ibrāhīm: he is the son of Yazīd al-Nakhaʿī, and Masrūq: he is the son of al-Ajdaʿ. It was narrated by Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in al-Āḥād wa al-Mathānī (565), al-Ṭaḥāwī in Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār (4514), al-Shāshī in his Musnad (409), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsaṭ (2949), al-Ḥākim 2/124, and al-Bayhaqī 9/65 on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr al-Rāqī with this chain of transmission. Al-Ḥākim authenticated it and al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

Grade: Ṣaḥīḥ · Bukhārī

Grade: Authenticated by Imam al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ wa Ḍaʿīf Sunan Ibn Mājah

Article 101: If the death penalty is pronounced on a prisoner of war, the sentence shall not be executed before the expiration of a period of at least six months from the date when the Protecting Power receives, at an address indicated, the detailed communication provided for in Article 107.

Source: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciii-1949/article-101

“Then Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, and they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. (19) Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, and they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and they cried, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!’ (20) And they stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all the host ran and cried out and fled. (21) And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord set the sword of every man against his neighbor, and against all the host. And the host fled to Beth-shittah, to Zererah, to the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. (22) Then the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites. (23) And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, ‘Go down against the Midianites and take the waters from them as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.’ Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and took the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. (24) And they seized the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. And they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from beyond the Jordan.” (25)

“And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. (11) And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. (12) And Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. (13) And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. (14) And he came to the men of Succoth and said, ‘Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?”’ (15) And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth a lesson. (16) And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. (17) Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, ‘Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?’ They answered, ‘As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.’ (18) And he said, ‘They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.’ (19) So he said to Jether his firstborn, ‘Rise and kill them.’ But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. (20) Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, ‘Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.’ And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.” (21)

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets — (32) who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, (33) quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” (34)

The narrations about the killing of al-Nadr ibn al-Ḥārith in a state of patience are all weak — due to al-Wāqidī’s established lies, unknown narrators, unconnected chains, and mursal transmissions — and Imam al-Albānī explicitly declared the story unproven. Some ancient scholars denied the killing entirely, saying al-Nadr died of his own refusal to eat in captivity. As for ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ, his killing is established through an authenticated chain — and he was a man who choked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with his own cloak while he was in prayer, and who led the torture of the earliest Muslims in Mecca. Those who cite the Geneva Conventions against Islamic rulings should know that those same conventions permit the execution of prisoners of war. And those who cite the killing of a war criminal against Islam should explain the Bible’s praised accounts of Gideon capturing two kings and executing them in person, and the heads of two princes being brought to him as trophies — all presented by the New Testament as acts of faith deserving of honour.