The plot of Amir ibn al-Tufayl and Arbad ibn Qays

Amir ibn al-Tufayl and Arbad ibn Qays conspired to strike down the Prophet inside the Banu Amir delegation in 9 AH; God held Arbad's hand back from his sword, as the sira relates ¹.

In the Banu Amir ibn Sa'sa'a delegation were Amir ibn al-Tufayl, Arbad ibn Qays — Labid's brother through their mother — Khalid ibn Ja'far and Jabbar ibn Aslam, the chiefs of the people ¹. It was Amir who had betrayed the men of Bi'r Ma'una; and when the delegation was about to approach Medina, Amir and Arbad conspired to strike down the Prophet ¹. Amir engaged the Prophet in talk while Arbad circled behind him and drew his sword a handspan — then God held his hand so he could not draw it out, and God protected His Prophet, as the sira tells it ¹. The Prophet prayed against them both; on their way back God sent a thunderbolt that burned Arbad and his camel, and Amir was stricken with a swelling on his neck and died saying: a swelling like a camel's swelling, and death in the house of the Salul woman ¹. In Sahih al-Bukhari, the Prophet offered Amir a choice of three: that the Prophet should have the people of the plains and Amir the people of the towns; or that he be his successor after him; or that he would raid him with Ghatafan of a thousand chestnut and a thousand black horses — and he died on his horse ².