The Spoils of Hunayn and Shayma the Foster Sister

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Because the tribes had brought their families and herds, the young Mālik's folly against Durayd's counsel, Ḥunayn yielded the largest spoils in Islam's history: some six thousand captives, twenty-four thousand camels, forty thousand goats, gathered in the valley of Jiʿrānah under an armed guard.

❧Shayma

As the captives were led in, a woman cried out that she was the Prophet's ﷺ own sister. Brought to him, she said, "I am Shaymāʾ", his foster sister, and when he asked for proof, for he had not seen her in some fifty-six years, she said, "the mark where you bit me as a child, while I carried you." He laughed, knew her, and offered her a choice: to stay with him honoured and beloved, or to take gifts and return to her people. She chose to return. It is also related, on a weaker chain, that she brought his foster mother Ḥalīmah; the Prophet ﷺ stood for her, took off his own cloak and spread it on the ground for her to sit, the highest honour, and gave her many gifts. (Only four fell at Ḥunayn, though many were wounded, the one battle in which all four future caliphs were wounded standing by him; and Ḥunayn is, with Badr, one of only two battles named in the Qurʾān, Badr a spiritual victory, Ḥunayn a material one.)