The Rescue of Ayyash and Hisham from Makkah's Dungeon

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, when he decided to make the Hijra to Madinah, chose two companions for the journey: ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah and Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ (the brother of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ). The plan was simple: meet at a specific valley outside Makkah on a specific day. When dawn broke, whoever was there would leave together; whoever was not had been stopped.

At the appointed time, Hishām did not appear. He had been captured by the Quraysh before he could reach the rendezvous. ʿUmar and ʿAyyāsh proceeded to Madinah without him.

Shortly after their arrival, Abū Jahl, ʿAyyāsh's half-brother, traveled from Makkah to Madinah with his brother. They came with a story: "O ʿAyyāsh! Your mother has made a terrible oath. She has sworn to sit in the sun and not eat until she sees you again. She has not tasted shade. She has not eaten. Her hair is full of lice. She is on the verge of death. Come back, just for her sake."

ʿUmar pulled ʿAyyāsh aside and said: "This is a trick. Do not go. They are using your mother against you. If she is hungry, she can eat. If she has lice, she can shave her head. And if you are worried about money, I will give you whatever you need from my own wealth, just don't go back with them." He even offered his own camel, which was stronger and faster than the other mounts, saying: "Take it. If you sense any treachery, ride immediately back to Madinah."

ʿAyyāsh's love for his mother overcame him. He went.

On the road, as the journey lightened and conversation turned casual, Abū Jahl said: "Oh, my camel seems tired. Why don't you let me ride yours? Just for a while." ʿAyyāsh, suspecting nothing, made his camel kneel. The moment he dismounted, Abū Jahl and his brother seized him, bound him, and marched him back to Makkah in chains.

Abū Jahl paraded him through the streets: "This is what happens to our fools."

ʿAyyāsh was thrown into a dungeon built specifically for these two prisoners. Hishām was already there.

In Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ began making Duʿāʾ Qunūt for them after standing from Rukūʿ in the daily prayers. He would say: "O Allāh, save ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah. O Allāh, save Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ. O Allāh, save Salamah ibn Hishām. O Allāh, save the mustaḍʿafīn (the oppressed). O Allāh, bring Your punishment upon the Quraysh."

He asked the Muslims repeatedly: "Who will volunteer to go to Makkah and rescue them?" Nobody stepped forward, it meant walking back into the city of the enemy, alone, finding a secret dungeon that was not public knowledge, and extracting two prisoners from the middle of the Quraysh.

Finally, al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd stood up. "I will do it, Yā Rasūlallāh."

Al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd is the older brother of Khālid ibn al-Walīd. The same blood. He traveled alone to Makkah, entered the city in darkness, found the dungeon, we do not know how, the accounts simply say Allah blessed him to locate it, and climbed its wall from outside rather than risk the guarded entrance. He cut the bonds of both men. And then somehow got them out of Makkah and back to Madinah.

We have very few details of how exactly he pulled it off. The accounts are brief: he went, he found it, he climbed in, he cut them free, he brought them back. The briefness itself speaks to what kind of feat this was, so extraordinary that the early narrators seemed to trust that no further detail was needed. Anyone who heard the bare facts could imagine the rest.

Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ, freed from his Makkī dungeon, went on to fight in the cause of Allah and was martyred in the Battle of Yarmouk against the Romans, dying in the defense of the faith he had once been imprisoned for embracing.