The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 1 of 4

96 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
He continued: "Umayya went off to Syria and the Messenger of God
(SAAS) left for Medina. Then, following the deaths of the people at the battle of
Badr, Umayya returned from Syria and stayed at Badr. He travelled on to see
the Messenger of God (SAAS). Someone asked Umayya: '0 Abn al-Salt, what
do you want?' 'I want Muhammad,' he replied. 'What will you do?' he was
asked. He replied, 'I believe in him and I will throw him the keys of this affair.'
Someone asked him: 'Do you know who is in the burial pit?' 'No,' he answered.
He was told: 'In it are Wtba b. Rabica and Shayba b. Rabi'a, your maternal
uncle's sons, along with his mother Rabi'a, daughter of 'Abd Shams.' "
He went on: "So Umayya mutilated the ears of his riding camel and cut off its
tai1,'O then stood over the pit and spoke the verses:
'What is in Badr - Mt. 'Aqanqai but chiefs and noble lords . . .'
(up to the end of the ode, which we will give in full in relating the history of the
battle of Badr, if God wills it.)
"He then returned to Mecca and Tx'if and left Islam."
The source then related the story of the two birds and that of his death as we
have given. At his death he spoke the verses:
"Each life, though it may last very long, is moving on but once till when it ceases.
Would that I were before what appeared to me, shepherding goats in the mountain
heights,
So keep death before your vision and beware the destruction of fate, for fate has its
evil demons
Their claws attaining lions, wild bulls, and the young child with red eyes4' at a
lighthouse,
And the mountain vultures, the fleeing gazelles, and the young ostrich, mixed in
flock, thin."
He means in these verses that wild animals in the deserts do not escape death,
nor do vultures living on mountain tops; death does not leave alone the young
for their youth, nor the old for their age. Al-Khapbi and others have spoken of
the rarity of these accounts.
Al-Suhayli mentioned in his book a[-TaCrif ma al-Iclam (Identzhing and
Infommng) that Umayya b. Abn al-Salt was the hst who said, "bismika
Allahumma", i.e. "in your name, 0 God". And concerning that he told a strange
tale, as follows. He says that they were among a group of Qnraysh who went
away on a journey. They included Harh b. Umayya, the father of Abii Sufym.
On their way they came across a snake and killed it. But that evening a spirit
woman came to them and berated them for killing that snake. With her she had a
40. Presumably actions denoting his mourning for his relatives
41. Presumably from weeping.