Khalid's Error at Banu Jadhimah

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

The greatness of the Conquest was marred by one companion's mistake. Khālid ibn al-Walīd, a Muslim of only weeks, was sent to invite the tribe of Banū Jadhīmah to Islam, a tribe that had killed his uncle in the days of ignorance. Seeing him arrive with an army, some drew swords; Khālid attacked, and though other men of the tribe announced their submission, they did not say "we have become Muslim" but صَبَأْنَا صَبَأْنَا, "we have become Ṣābiʾ" (as the Arabs called converts to Islam). The senior Companions understood and held back, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf refused Khālid's order to attack, for a commander is obeyed only in what is lawful, but Khālid, already angered, took no account of it and killed men who should not have been killed.

When the news reached the Prophet ﷺ he stood, faced the Kaʿbah, raised his hands and said, اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَبْرَأُ إِلَيْكَ مِمَّا فَعَلَ خَالِد, "O Allāh, I am innocent before You of what Khālid has done." He sent ʿAlī with wealth to pay the blood-money in full and apologize to every family. And when ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf complained of Khālid's cursing him, the Prophet ﷺ gave the famous words, spoken to Khālid, لَا تَسُبُّوا أَصْحَابِي, "Do not revile my Companions; were one of you to spend Uḥud's weight in gold, it would not equal a handful, or half a handful, of theirs." That this was said to Khālid, himself a Companion, only deepens the honour of the earliest among them.