Ubayy ibn Khalaf

Ubayy ibn Khalaf ibn Wahb al-Jumaḥī was one of the most prominent and implacable enemies of the Prophet ﷺ from the Banū Jumaḥ clan of Quraysh. He was a close associate of Umayyah ibn Khalaf (his kinsman from the same clan), who was killed at Badr.

Ubayy was notorious for several acts of personal enmity. He would wave a bone at the Prophet ﷺ, crumbling it and saying: 'Do you claim that Allah will resurrect this?' Allah revealed Q 36:78-79 in direct response to this mockery: 'Who gives life to bones once they have decayed? Say: He who created them the first time will give them life.' Ubayy also personally swore that he would kill the Prophet ﷺ with his own hands.

When Sūrat ar-Rūm was revealed (approximately years 6-7 of the Da'wah, predicting that the Romans would defeat the Persians within a few years at a time when Rome was in sharp decline), Ubayy approached Abū Bakr and mocked the prophecy. He proposed a wager: if the Romans did not win within six years (Abū Bakr took the middle of the three-to-nine-year range for 'biḍʿi sinīn'), then Abū Bakr would owe him a set of camels. Abū Bakr agreed. Six years passed without Roman victory; Abū Bakr paid up. But the Romans then won approximately 8.5 years after the revelation, fully vindicating the prophecy.

Ubayy was killed at the Battle of Uḥud (3 AH / 625 CE), in one of the most singular moments of the entire Seerah, the Prophet ﷺ personally wounded him with a spear in a skirmish. Despite the wound being superficial, Ubayy died of it on the road back to Makkah, reportedly saying repeatedly: 'Muḥammad killed me.' The Prophet ﷺ is not known to have personally killed anyone else in battle. Ubayy had vowed to kill the Prophet; instead, the Prophet's spear took him.