Those Not Granted Amnesty

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Before entering, the Prophet ﷺ named a handful, the books give six to nine, who were not covered by the amnesty: "kill them wherever you find them." From a city of some two thousand, this was fewer than a dozen; and the beauty of it is that most were forgiven in the end. Of the full list of nine, only four were actually killed.

❧Those killed

ʿAbdullāh ibn Khaṭal, an apostate who had murdered a Companion and set two singing slave-girls to slander the Prophet ﷺ, fled to the Kaʿbah and clung to its cloth; the Prophet ﷺ ordered, اقْتُلُوهُ, and he was executed there. Miqyas ibn Ṣubābah, who had feigned Islam only to take a revenge killing, was executed. Al-Ḥuwayrith ibn al-Nuqaydh, who had assaulted the Prophet's ﷺ emigrating daughters, was executed by ʿAlī. Of the two singing-girls, Fartana was killed while Sāra was spared.

❧Those spared

ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl fled and returned a believer (his own story). ʿAbdullāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ, the apostate scribe, was hidden by his foster-brother ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and pardoned after the Prophet's ﷺ long silence, who then explained it does not befit a prophet to kill by a signal of the eye; his Islam became excellent and he later governed Egypt. Habbār ibn al-Aswad, who had caused Zaynab's miscarriage, repented and was forgiven. And Waḥshī, the killer of Ḥamzah, fled to Ṭāʾif and came only later with its delegation; the Prophet ﷺ wept as Waḥshī told his tale, forgave him, and said, "but do not let me see your face." So even the exceptions proved, in the end, to be exceptions.