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Ubay ibn Khalaf [the Meccan] swore, when he paid his ransom
[after being captured at Badr]: "By Allâh! I have a
steed which I am feeding every day a portion of corn, and I shall
kill Muh.ammad riding it!" News of this reached the Messenger
of Allâh 
who said:
"Nay, I shall kill him if Allâh wills." [At Uh.ud]
Ubay came dressed in his armor on top of his horse, shouting,
"May I not survive if Muh.ammad survives!" He charged
the Messenger of Allâh ,
intent on killing him. Mûsâ ibn `Uqba said that
Sa`îd ibn al-Musayyab said that several men among the
Believers intercepted him. Then the Messenger of Allâh
ordered them to clear the way. • “ They said: 'Messenger
of Allâh! Shall one of us turn to face him?' He said:
'Leave him!' When he approached, the Prophet
took the spear from al-H.ârith ibn al-S.imma [al-Badrî].
One of the witnesses said - as was related to me [Ka`b ibn
Mâlik] - that the Prophet
jumped up with a motion that sent us scampering away from him
like gadflies off the back of a camel.”•
The Messenger of Allâh
sighted the clavicle (tarquwa) of Ubay ibn Khalaf showing through
a gap between the helmet and the breastplate. He speared him there.
Ubay fell off his horse but no blood came out of his wound. Sa`îd
said he broke a rib. Thereupon was revealed the verse { You threw not when you did throw, but Allâh threw }
(8:17). His friends came and found him drooping like a tired bull.
They said: "What is ailing you? It is only a scratch!"
But he reminded them of what the Messenger of Allâh
had said - "I shall kill Ubay" - crying, " • “By
Allâh! If he hit me only with his spittle he would kill
me! Did he not say 'I shall kill him'?”• By the One
in Whose Hand is my soul! If the wound I just received were in
the people of Dhûl-Majâz they would all die!"
He died on his way to Makka.
Narrated - except for the bracketed segments - from the Companion al-Musayyab ibn H.azn by al-H.âkim in the Mustadrak (2:327=1990 ed. 2:357) with a sound chain per al-Bukhârî's criterion; mursal from his son Sa`îd ibn al-Musayyab by Ibn Sa`d in the T.abaqât al-Kubrâ (2:46); and - in part - by al-Wâqidî in his Maghâzî (1:250); also, without mention of the broken rib and the verse, mursal from `Urwa ibn al-Zubayr by Abû Nu`aym in his Dalâ'il al-Nubuwwa (p. 483 #415). Cf. al-Suyût.î, al-Khas.â'is. al-Kubrâ (1:352-353), al-Qurt.ubî's (7:385) and Ibn Kathîr's Tafsîr (1:416), his Bidâya (4:32), Ibn al-Qayyim's Zâd al-Ma`âd (3:178, 188), and the Sîra H.alabiyya (2:511).
The first bracketed [• “ ... ”•] segment is narrated from Ka`b ibn Mâlik by al-Wâqidî in his Maghâzî (1:251-252), Ibn Ish.âq in his Maghâzî (#511), and through the latter Ibn Hishâm in his Sîra (4:33), Ibn Abî `As.im in al-Jihâd (2:601-602 #253), al-T.abarî in his Târîkh (2:67), and Abû Nu`aym in his Dalâ'il (p. 482 #414) cf. Ibn H.ibbân, al-Thiqât (1:229), al-Kilâ`î, al-Iktifâ' (2:77), and Ibn Kathîr, Tafsîr (1:416-417) and Bidâya (4:32).
The second bracketed segment [• “ ... ”•] is narrated mursal from Miqsam ibn Bujra the freedman of Ibn `Abbâs by `Abd al-Razzâq (5:355-357 #9731) through his Shaykh Ma`mar ibn Râshid cf. Khas.â'is. (1:353) and by Ibn Hishâm (4:33) through Ibn Ish.âq.
Dhûl-Majâz is an oasis of Hudhayl behind `Arafa where a market was held in
pre-Islamic times cf. Yâqût, Mu`jam al-Buldân (5:55 and 5:58). After this
encounter the Prophet bugled to head for
H.amrâ' al-Asad. Al-Dhahabî, Siyar (3:521).
Among those who stood their ground around the Prophet and intercepted Ubay ibn Khalaf as he was charging him were
Mus.`ab ibn `Umayr who got killed and UMM `UMARA NASIBA BINT KA`B
al-Ans.âriyya al-Khazrajiyya al-Najjâriyya al-Mâziniyya, together with her
husband Ghaziyya ibn `Amr and her two sons Khubayb ibn Zayd ibn `As.im -
whom Musaylima later cut to pieces - and `Abd Allâh ibn Zayd al-Mâzinî who
killed Musaylima at al-Yamâma and got killed at al-H.arra in 63. She got
gashed in her shoulder, among the twelve wounds she suffered in that battle.
The Prophet praised her during battle and
later. She nursed her shoulder-wound for a full year. In recounting the
battle, she referred to Ubay ibn Khalaf as Ibn Qami'a - "Son of Trash." She
also saw the battle of H.unayn and her hand got cut off at the bloodiest
battle of al-Yamâma. Her brother `Abd Allâh ibn Ka`b al-Mâzinî fought at
Badr. Al-Dhahabî documents all of this in the chapter devoted to her in his
Siyar A`lâm al-Nubalâ' ("Lives of the Standard-Bearers of the Nobility")
(3:520-523 #146).
vs.2.3