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"We were like the drinking-mates
of Jadhimah
For a time, till it was said we would never separate.
We spent the best days of our lives, but before us
Death had destroyed the nations of Kisra and Tubba'.
When we parted it was as though Malik and I,
Despite long association, were never together for even a night."
[Mutammim bin Nuwayrah, mourning the death of his brother
Malik.]1
When, after finishing with
Salma and her followers, Khalid gave orders for the march to Butah
against Malik bin Nuwaira, he had no suspicion that some of his
own men would oppose his plan. Preparations for the move were carried
out as ordered, but when the time to march came, a large group of
his soldiers refused to move.
These were the Ansars. Their elders came
to Khalid and said that they would not march to Butah. "What
you plan now", they asserted, "was not included
in the instructions of the Caliph. His instructions were to fight
at Buzakha and free this region of apostasy. Thereafter we were
to await his instructions."
Khalid was surprised at this statement.
He had no intention of letting this group, even if it was a highly
honoured group of Companions, deter him from conducting operations
as he saw fit. "That may be the Caliph's instructions to
you," he replied, "but his instructions to me were
to operate against the infidels. In any case I am the commander
of this force. I am better informed of the situation than you are.
If I see an opportunity for which I have received no instructions,
I shall certainly not let it slip by. Should we be faced with a
challenge for which there were no instructions from the Caliph,
would we not accept it? Malik bin Nuwaira is there, and I shall
go to fight him. Let the Emigrants and those who are willing follow
me. The others I shall not compel." 2
Khalid marched off without the Ansars.
Hardly an hour had passed when the Ansars
realised the seriousness of their error in refusing to march with
the rest of the corps. "If they meet with success, we shall
be left out of it", said one. Others added, "And
if they come to grief, nobody will ever talk to us again."
Their minds were soon made up. They sent a fast rider after Khalid
to say, "Wait! We are coming." Khalid waited until
they had joined him and then resumed the march to Butah.
During the first week of November 632 (mid-Shaban,
11 Hijri) Khalid arrived at Butah, all set for battle. But Butah
had no opposition to offer. There was not a single warrior in sight.
When Sajjah the impostress left Arabia for
Iraq, Malik bin Nuwaira began to have second thoughts about the
part that he had played in the conspiracy against Islam. He received
reports of how the Sword of Allah had destroyed the army of Tulaiha,
and also heard of the swift and severe punishment Khalid had meted
out to the murderers of Muslims. Malik was afraid. With the departure
of Sajjah he had lost a strong ally, and he felt abandoned, betrayed.
He began to realise the seriousness of his action in making a pact
with the impostress. His guilt of apostasy was clear and could not
be disputed. Then came reports that Khalid had defeated Salma and
was now marching in the direction of Butah. Malik was a brave man,
but he did not feel up to fighting Khalid.
1. Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah, Dar
Abi Hayyan, Cairo, 1st ed. 1416/1996, Vol. 6 P.394.
2. Tabari: Vol. 2, p. 501. From this exchange
it would appear that Khalid's decision to march to Butah was his
own and not part of the over-all plan of the Caliph, but again according
to Tabari (Vol. 2, pp. 480, 483) Abu Bakr's instructions to Khalid
definitely included Malik bin Nuwaira at Butah as the next objective
after Tulaiha had been dealt with. Perhaps Khalid's men did not
know that the Caliph had given this task to their commander.
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