Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 266
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 266 said afterwards that she had never come across any other prisoner who was so well behaved as Khobaib. She also added that on one occasion she had seen that Khobaib had a bunch of grapes in his hand, from which he picked and ate the grapes, though in those days no grapes were procurable in Mecca and Khobaib was secured in chains. She imagined that the bunch of grapes was a divine gift bestowed upon Khobaib. After a few days Khobaib was taken out for execution. He asked permission for performing two raka’a s of Prayer, and, permission being granted, he performed the Prayer in deep concentration and devotion, and when he finished he said, ‘I was in a mood to continue for some time, but then I apprehended lest you should think that I was prolonging my Prayer i n order to postpone the moment of my death. ’ He then bent forward, reciting the verses: ‘As I am being slain while I am a Muslim, I care not in which direction my body might fall; All this is in the cause of Allah, and if He so wills, He will be pleased to send down His blessings on my mutilated body. ’ He had just finished when Uqba bin Harith cut him down. Safwan bin Umayya took his prisoner, Zaid bin Dathnah, beyond the limits of the sanctuary, in the company of a number of leading personages of Quraish, and directed his slave, Nastas, to execute Zaid. Nastas advanced towards Zaid with his sword drawn and a t that moment Abu Sufyan, who was among the spectators, went up to Zaid and asked him, ‘Tell me truly, do you not wish that in your place Muhammad had been our prisoner