Ibn Ishaq, through Yahya b. ʿAbbād b. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr, relates that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf said: Umayya b. Khalaf was my friend in Mecca. My name was ʿAbd ʿAmr. When I became Muslim, I took the name ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. We were in Mecca. While I was in Mecca, he would encounter me and say:
– O ʿAbd ʿAmr, have you turned away from the name your father gave you?
I would reply: Yes. He would then say to me:
– I do not know al-Raḥmān. Place something between us by which I may call you. As for you, you do not answer me by your former name. As for me, I cannot call you by something I do not know!
When he called me “O ʿAbd ʿAmr,” I would not answer him. I said to him:
– O Abū ʿAlī, do as you wish. He said:
– You are ʿAbd al-Ilāh.
I said: Yes. When I met him and he called me “O ʿAbd al-Ilāh,” I would answer him and converse with him. Eventually, on the day of Badr, I encountered him. He was standing with his son ʿAlī b. Umayya, holding his hand. I had with me some suits of armor that I had taken as spoils in battle. I was carrying them. When he saw me, he said:
– O ʿAbd ʿAmr!
I did not answer him. Then he addressed me:
– O ʿAbd al-Ilāh!
– Yes…
– Do you not owe me something? Am I not better than those suits of armor you have?
– Yes, by Allah, it is so, I said. I threw down the armor I was carrying. I took hold of his and his son’s hands. At that moment, he was saying:
– Never have I seen anything like today. Do you not need milk? (According to Ibn Hisham, by this he meant: “I will ransom myself to my captor with camels that give abundant milk.”) Then I set out to walk with them.
Ibn Ishaq relates that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf said: “While I was standing between him and his son, holding their hands, Umayya b. Khalaf said to me:
– O ʿAbd al-Ilāh! Who is this man of yours, marked on his chest with an ostrich feather?
– This is Ḥamza b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.
– He is the one who brought these matters upon us. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf said:
– By Allah, I was leading them on ahead when Bilāl saw him with me. He was the one who had tortured Bilāl in Mecca to make him abandon Islam, laying him on the burning sands of Mecca when angered, then ordering a large stone to be brought and placed on his chest, and saying: ‘Either you remain like this or you leave Muḥammad’s religion.’ In response to his torture, Bilāl would say, ‘Allah is One.’ When Bilāl saw him, he said:
– Here is the chief of kufr (disbelief), Umayya b. Khalaf! If he escapes, I will die! I said:
– O Bilāl, do you mean my captive?
– If he escapes, I will die! (Then he cried out at the top of his voice:) O Helpers of Allah (Anṣār)! Here is the chief of kufr, Umayya b. Khalaf! If he escapes, I will die!
Upon his saying this, the Companions (ṣaḥāba) surrounded us. They encircled us. I was protecting and defending him. Suddenly, a man drew his sword and struck the feet of Umayya and his son. His son fell to the ground. Umayya let out a scream such as I had never heard before. I said:
– Save yourself; there is no escape for you. By Allah, I can do nothing for you.
Thereupon, they killed them with their swords. May Allah have mercy on Bilāl. My armor was lost. My captive was lost as well.”
Al-Bukhārī, in his Ṣaḥīḥ, relates a similar narration using similar expressions, and in the chapter on agency (wakāla), he says: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz relates that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf said: In Mecca, I made a pact with Umayya b. Khalaf that he would protect my relatives to whom he was inclined, and I would protect his relatives to whom I was inclined in Medina. When I was about to sign, I wrote my name as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, but he said:
– I do not know al-Raḥmān. Write your name as it was in the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya). So I wrote my name as ʿAbd ʿAmr. On the day of Badr, when people had fallen asleep, I went up the mountain to protect him. But Bilāl saw him. He went out and stood by the gathering of the Helpers (Anṣār), and said: “If Umayya b. Khalaf escapes, I will die!” A group of the Anṣār set out with him to pursue us. When I saw that they would catch up to us, I left his son behind to occupy them. But they came and killed him. Then they caught up to us. Umayya was a slow-moving man. When the Anṣār reached us, I said to Umayya: Lie down! So he lay down. I covered him to protect him. But while he was beneath me, they stabbed him with their swords and killed him. So much so that one of the Anṣār’s swords struck my foot.” ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf showed us the scar on his foot from the sword.