Thabit ibn Qays Repays an Old Debt to Zubayr ibn Bata

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Years earlier, during the pre-Islamic Wars of Buʿāth between the Aws and Khazraj, Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās owed his life to al-Zubayr ibn Bāṭā of Banū Qurayẓah, who had spared him on the battlefield. When Banū Qurayẓah's men were brought forward for judgment, Thābit found al-Zubayr, by now an elderly, white-haired man, among the captives and reminded him of the old debt, asking if he wished it repaid; al-Zubayr answered that generosity from a generous man is always welcome.

Thābit went to the Prophet ﷺ and asked that al-Zubayr's life be spared; the Prophet ﷺ granted it. Returning with the news, al-Zubayr asked what use life would be without his family, so Thābit went back and secured his wife and children as well. Al-Zubayr then asked after his property, and Thābit secured that too. Finally, al-Zubayr began asking after specific individuals by name, each answer coming back that the man had already been executed or was about to be, until he realized he would be left as one of the very last of his people remaining. At that point he told Thābit that life held no purpose without his companions and his tribe, and chose to be executed alongside them rather than live on alone, declining the mercy Thābit had worked to secure for him. Dr. Qadhi notes this episode, along with one or two similar cases of individual intercession, as evidence that Companions with a genuine personal debt to specific members of Banū Qurayẓah were permitted to repay it even at the height of the tribe's collective judgment.