3 of 3 · 2 AH · after Badr · Badr and Madinah
Al-Mut'im ibn 'Adi
"I Would Have Released Them for Him"
Al-Mut'im died in Makkah a short time before the Battle of Badr, still a non-Muslim. Ibn Hisham records an elegy for him by Hassan ibn Thabit that remembers his part in breaking the boycott.
After Badr, about seventy men of Quraysh were held captive in the hands of the Muslims. Speaking of them, the Prophet ﷺ said: "If al-Mut'im ibn 'Adi were alive and spoke to me about these captives, I would have released them for him" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3139). His son Jubayr, who narrated this, came to Madinah about those same captives.
The scholars explain that the Prophet ﷺ was repaying a debt: al-Mut'im's protection after Ta'if, or his part in ending the boycott. Years after his death, a good deed done by a man who never believed was still remembered and honoured by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ repaid good with good and never forgot a favour. We honour the deed truthfully and leave the doer's final account to Allah.
Is there a favour done for you long ago that you have never repaid or acknowledged?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3139 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Ibn Hajar, Fath al-BariHistorical report
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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