Stories from Early Islam — Page 107
107 The woman was so impressed by what she heard, that she used to say afterwards, ‘I have never seen a prisoner like Khubaib’. Khubaib remained in captivity for many days. At last the day came when they decided to kill him. Hundreds of people gathered round him, when he was being led to his execution. They asked him his last wish. He requested them to allow him to say a short Prayer. They agreed to this. He said his Prayer quickly. When he finished, he said that he had wanted to pro- long his supplication but did not do so, lest they should think he was afraid of death. Very confidently he began to recite: ‘So long as I die a Muslim, I care not whether my headless body drops to the right or to the left. And why should I? My death is in the cause of God; if He wills, He can bless every part of my body’. He had hardly finished, when the sword fell on his neck and his head fell. Zaid, the other prisoner was also taken out to be executed. Just before he was killed, the chief of Makkah approached him and said, ‘Would you not wish that Muhammad should be in your place today and you should be sitting secure among your family?’ Zaid, replied, ‘God is my witness, I would rather die than that the Prophet saw should feel as much as the pricking sensa- tion of a thorn in his foot in Madinah’. Thus he also laid down his life for the cause of Islam.