A group of hypocrites mock the army, then excuse themselves

A band of the "hypocrites" — Wadi'a ibn Thabit and Makhshan ibn Humayr al-Ashja'i among them — came toward the Prophet as he set out for Tabuk, saying that fighting the Byzantines was not like fighting Arabs and that the Muslims would be bound in ropes the next day. The Prophet sent Ammar ibn Yasir to question them; they excused themselves that they had only been talking idly and jesting, and God sent down a verse of Sura al-Tawba about them. ¹

A band of the hypocrites, in Ibn Ishaq's account — among them Wadi'a ibn Thabit, brother of Banu Amr ibn Awf, and Makhshan ibn Humayr al-Ashja'i, ally of Banu Salama — came toward the Prophet as he set out for Tabuk. ²

They said to one another: do you think battling the Byzantines is like Arabs fighting one another? By God, it is as if we see you tomorrow trussed in ropes — which, Ibn Ishaq says, they said as agitation to frighten the believers. ²

Makhshan ibn Humayr said he wished each man of them could be lashed a hundred lashes rather than that Qur'an should come down about them for this saying of theirs. ²

The Prophet, in what reached Ibn Ishaq, said to Ammar ibn Yasir: catch up with the men, for they have been scorched; ask them what they said, and if they deny it, say: rather, you said such and such. ²

Ammar went to them and said that to them; they came to the Prophet making excuses, Wadi'a ibn Thabit holding the girth of his she-camel saying: Messenger of God, we were only talking idly and jesting — and verse 65 of Sura al-Tawba came down, in Ibn Ishaq's account. ¹

Makhshan ibn Humayr said: Messenger of God, my name and my father's name have held me back. He was the one pardoned in that verse, in Ibn Ishaq's account; he took the name Abd al-Rahman and asked God to let him be killed as a martyr whose place would be unknown — and he was killed on the day of al-Yamama, no trace of him found. ³

• Qur'an 9:65: revealed about the band who said "we were only talking idly and jesting", in Ibn Ishaq's account (p. 169).

• Ibn Hisham said: "and it is said Makhshi" in place of "Makhshan" in Makhshan ibn Humayr's name (p. 168).
• Ibn Ishaq said "in what reached me" for the sending of Ammar (p. 168); judging them hypocrites is Ibn Ishaq's wording, and the museum reaches no verdict.
• Ibn Ishaq tied Makhshan's pardon to the verse; the museum attributes this interpretation to him, not to the verse's text.