إذا مات بكر قام بكر مكانه 1 فتلك وبيت الله قاصمة الظهر يدب ويغشاه العشار 2 كأنما يجاهد جما 3 أو يقوم على قبري فلو قام بالأمر الوصي عليهم 4 أقمنا ولو كان القيام على الجمر قال الراوي : فلما توطأ الأمر لأبي بكر ، بعث خالد بن الوليد في جيش وقال له : وقد علمت ما قال ابن نويرة في المسجد على رؤس الأشهاد وما أنشد من شعره ، ولسنا نأمن أن ينفتق علينا منه فتق لا يلتأم ، والرأي أنك تخدعه وتقتله وتقتل من كان يبارزك دونه ، وتسبي حريمهم فإنهم قد ارتدوا ومنعوا الزكاة .

— that when Bakr dies a Bakr should stand in his place? [1] — That, by the House of God, is the breaking of the back. — He creeps about, and the ten-month camels crowd upon him, [2] as though — he were striving with hornless sheep, [3] or standing over my grave. — Had the legatee risen with the affair over them, [4] — we would have risen, though the standing were upon live coals. The narrator said: When the affair was settled for Abu Bakr, he sent Khalid b. al-Walid at the head of an army and said to him: You know what Ibn Nuwayra said in the mosque before all the witnesses, and what he recited of his verse; and we are not safe from a rent opening upon us from him that will not be mended. The right course is that you deceive him and kill him, and kill whoever would fight you in his defence, and take their women captive — for they have apostatized and withheld the alms.

فسار خالد إليهم ، فلما رأى مالك بن نويرة الجيش قد أقبل نحوه لبس لامة حربه واستوى على متن جواده ، وكان مالك شجاعا من شجعان العرب يعد بمأة فارس ، فلما رآه خالد قد برز ، خاف منه وهابه وأعطاه العهود والمواثيق على الأمان ، فلم يركن إليه ، فحلف له بالأيمان المغلظة أنه لا يغدر به ، فرجع مالك ونزع لامة حربه وأضافهم تلك الليلة .

So Khalid marched against them. When Malik b. Nuwayra saw the army coming towards him, he put on his coat of mail and sat straight upon the back of his horse; and Malik was a brave man among the brave of the Arabs, reckoned the equal of a hundred horsemen. When Khalid saw that he had come out, he feared him and stood in awe of him, and gave him covenants and compacts of safe-conduct; but he did not rely upon him. So he swore to him with the most binding oaths that he would not betray him. So Malik turned back and took off his coat of mail and received them as guests that night.

فلما نام القوم دخل خالد بمن معه على مالك في بيته وقتله غدرا ودخل بامرأته في ليلته ، وأخذ رأسه فوضع في قدر فيه لحم جزور لوليمة العرس ، وأمر أصحابه بأكله ، ثم سباهم وسماهم أهل الردة افتراء على الله وعلى رسوله 5 .

Then when the people slept, Khalid entered with those who were with him upon Malik in his house and killed him treacherously, and went in to his wife that same night; and he took his head and set it in a pot in which was the flesh of a slaughtered camel for the wedding feast, and commanded his companions to eat of it. Then he took them captive and called them the people of apostasy — a fabrication against God and against His Messenger. [5]