Quote · On his deathbed, 21 AH
Turn me around and look at me from the front and back: you will not find two fingers on my body except that there is a scar, a mark, and a bruise. Yet here I am, dying on my bed.
~21 AH · 21 AH
Strength of the report
Reported without a named chain in the sources the lecture draws on.
Khalid ibn al-Walid RA led the Muslim army's withdrawal at Mu'tah and went on to command the later conquests. He spent his whole life fighting and hoping to die as a martyr. Yet he died in his own bed, in 21 AH. It is reported that as he lay dying, he wept. He told a visitor to turn him over and look at him from the front and the back. The visitor would not find two fingers' width of his body without a scar, mark or bruise from battle. And yet here he was, dying in his bed.
Ibn Kathir and later scholars saw a sign in the fact that Khalid died of natural causes after a lifetime of seeking martyrdom in battle. The Prophet ﷺ had named him Sayf Allah, the Sword of Allah. So no one on a battlefield could be allowed to break that sword. Only the One who drew it could put it back in its sheath.
Turn me around and look at me from the front and back: you will not find two fingers on my body except that there is a scar, a mark, and a bruise. Yet here I am, dying on my bed.