The chief of Yamamah is captured

Thumama bin Uthal was the chieftain of Yamama. His hatred of Islam and the Prophet impelled him to make an attack on the Prophet’s life. Egged on by Musaylimah the Liar, who pretended to be a prophet and had his own reasons for wanting the Prophet dead, Thumama set out in disguise in Muharram, 6 A.H. His objective was to assasinate the Prophet , but he was captured by a party of Muslim horsemen returning from a punitive expedition against Banu Bakr bin Kilab.

The Muslims under Muhammad bin Muslimah took Thumama back with them to Madinah, where they left him bound to a pillar in the Prophet’s mosque. The Prophet saw the captive and asked him, “What do you expect, Thumama?” “I expect good, for if you kill me, you will kill one whose blood will be avenged. If you show me favour, you will show it to one who is gracious; if you want property, you will be given as much as you wish.”

The Prophet left him there. The following day the same question was asked with the same answer being given. The third day at the end of the same conversation, the Prophet ordered Thumama released. Thumama it seems, had spent three days in contemplation of issues more profound than the matter of his release, for upon being freed he bathed and asked to be admitted into Islam. Later, he said to the Prophet , “I swear to Allah, O Muhammad, no face on the face of the earth was more abhorrant to me than yours, but now your face is the dearest of all to me. I also swear to Allah that no religion was more hateful to me than yours in the entire world, but now it is the dearest of all to me.”

Thumama left Madinah to perform Umrah in Makkah, where the Quraysh heaped vituperation on him for his change of heart. Thumama’s answer was swift, “By Allah, not a grain of wheat will reach you from Yamamah until the Prophet permits.” Thumama spoke in earnest, and the Quraysh were left in despair, for not a single caravan was allowed to carry wheat to the Quraysh. A letter was sent to the Prophet asking for the embargo to be lifted, and only when he recommemded selling grain to the Makkans did Thumama resume trade with them.