Ghalib at al-Kadid: Mirdas, the old man’s arrows and the flood of Qoudayd

The Messenger of Allah then sent Ghalib ibn Abdallah with a group of the great companions, among them Ousama ibn Zayd, Abou Mas’oud the Badri and Ka’b ibn Ujra. The Waqidi and Ibn Ishaq mention the killing of Mirdas ibn Nahik, ally of the Banu Murra, by Ousama. Imam Ahmad reports through Mohamed ibn Ousama, from his father, from his grandfather: "I overtook him, I and a man of the Ansar; and when we raised our weapons against him, he said: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah. We did not leave him until we had killed him.

When we came to the Messenger of Allah and informed him, he said: O Ousama, what will protect you from: there is no deity but Allah? I said: O Messenger of Allah, he said it only to shield himself from killing. He said: what will protect you, O Ousama, from: there is no deity but Allah? By Him who sent him with the truth, he did not cease repeating it to me until I wished that my past Islam had never been, and that I had become a Muslim that day without killing him.

I said: I covenant with Allah never to kill a man who says: there is no deity but Allah. He said: after me, O Ousama? I said: after you." The Boukhari and Mouslim report the version of al-Hurqa of Jouhayna through Houchaym, similar in meaning.

Ibn Ishaq reports through Ya’qoub ibn Outba, from Mouslim ibn Ziyad al-Jouhani, from Jondab ibn Abdallah, the story of Ghalib’s expedition against the Banu al-Mouwahhid at al-Kadid: "We met al-Harith ibn Malik ibn al-Barsa’ al-Laythi and seized him. He said: I have come only to embrace Islam. Ghalib said: if you have come only to embrace Islam, it does not trouble you to be bound a day and a night; and if you are upon other than that, you betray us. He bound him and left behind him Rouwayjila, a black man who was with us, saying: stay with him until we pass you, and if he resists you, strike off his head.

We marched to the belly of al-Kadid and camped in the evening after the asr. My companions sent me ahead: I betook myself to a mound overlooking the plain and lay stretched upon it before sunset. A man of them came out, saw me lying on the mound and said to his wife: I see a black mass upon that mound that I did not see at daybreak; look whether the dogs have not dragged away something of your vessels. She looked and said: by Allah, nothing of mine is missing.

He said: give me my bow and two of my arrows. She gave them, and he shot an arrow at my forehead, or he said: at my side; I drew it out and laid it down without stirring.

Then he shot the other at my collarbone; I drew it out and laid it down without stirring. He said to his wife: by Allah, my two arrows have struck him; were he of flesh, he would have moved. When you rise in the morning, look for my two arrows and take them, lest the dogs gnaw them upon me. We waited until their smells had gone and they had milked and perfumed and rested, and part of the night had passed, then we launched the raid, killed, gathered the camels and set out in caravan driving them.

The cry of the people reached their folk close behind us; we fled at full speed along the road of al-Harith ibn Malik, and nothing lay between us and them but the belly of the valley of Qoudayd, when Allah sent water from whence He willed such as we had never seen, rain or flood, coming with what none could withstand. I saw them standing, looking at us, none of them able to face it, while we struck it with our lances. We fled at full speed, climbed the pass and descended it, until we had rendered the people powerless with what was in our hands." Abou Dawoud reports this account from Ibn Ishaq with the variant "Abdallah ibn Ghalib": the correct is Ghalib ibn Abdallah.

The Waqidi says he had a hundred and thirty companions.

The Bayhaqi also mentions, through the Waqidi, the expedition of Bachir toward the environs of Khaybar: they met a gathering of Arabs and took much booty in camels. That sending took place upon the indication of Abou Bakr and Oumar, and he had with him three hundred Muslims; his guide was Houssayl ibn Nouwayra, the very guide of the Prophet to Khaybar.