Kaʿb Tells the Truth: The Smile of an Angry Man

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

When Kaʿb heard the Prophet ﷺ was returning, his mind raced through every excuse, until, knowing the Prophet ﷺ had truly come back, "all the false excuses vanished, and I knew nothing could save me but the truth," and he resolved to confess. This is the reality of īmān: the believer may slip, but does not stay fallen, the difference between Ādam, who said "forgive me," and Iblīs, who persisted. Nothing saves from a sin but sincerity; and النَّدَمُ تَوْبَة, "regret is repentance."

❧The excuse-makers, and the Prophet's ﷺ chastened pardon

On returning, the Prophet ﷺ prayed two rakʿāt in the masjid and sat to receive people (a neglected Sunnah, to pray two rakʿāt on returning to one's town). The stragglers came in a line, some eighty-odd men, swearing false excuses; he accepted them outwardly and left their secrets to Allāh, over which Allāh mildly reproached him: عَفَا اللَّهُ عَنكَ لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُم, "may Allāh pardon you, why did you grant them leave" before the truthful were made clear (9:43), a proof that the Prophet ﷺ exercised his own ijtihād.

❧The smile of an angry man

Then came Kaʿb's turn, and the Prophet ﷺ "smiled the smile of an angry man", for his displeasure with Kaʿb was itself a sign of the high standard he held him to. He asked, "What kept you back? Did you not buy a mount?" Kaʿb answered: "By Allāh, before any man of this world I could have talked my way out, I am given eloquence, but if I lied to please you today, Allāh would soon expose me and turn you against me; and if I told you the truth, though you be angry today, I can hope Allāh will forgive me. By Allāh, I have no excuse, I was never stronger or wealthier than then." This is pure tawḥīd: it is Allāh's pleasure that must be sought, above even pleasing the Messenger ﷺ, against the ghuluww of those who make the Prophet ﷺ the master of Heaven and Hell; he is the greatest of creation, but not divine. The Prophet ﷺ said, أَمَّا هَٰذَا فَقَدْ صَدَق, "as for this one, he has told the truth", knowing the others had lied, "so rise, until Allāh decides your affair."

❧Two men of Badr

His tribesmen followed him home pressing him to go back and invent an excuse as the others had, and nearly wore him down, until he asked whether anyone else had also told the truth. They named two: Murārah ibn al-Rabīʿ al-ʿAmrī and Hilāl ibn Umayya al-Wāqifī, "two men of īmān and taqwā, both of whom had fought at Badr." Their company was a blessing to him, and he held to them. Truth is judged by quality, not numbers: those two Badrīs outweighed all eighty excuse-makers, and this is the worth of righteous companionship.