cording to certain reports, Mâlik said to Khâlid, "By Allah, I did not apostatize!" And abu-Ḳatâdah-l-Anṣâri gave witness that the banu-Ḥanẓalah had laid down their arms and made the public call to prayer. Hearing this, ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb said to abu-Bakr, "Thou hast sent a man who kills Moslems and tortures by fire!"
It is reported that Mutammam ibn-Nuwairah once came to ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb who asked him, "How far did thy sorrow over they brother, Mâlik, carry thee?" "I wept over him for one year," said Mutammam, "until my sound eye envied the one that had gone; and never did I see fire without feeling as if my grief was strong enough to kill me, because he always left his fire burning till the morning, lest a guest should come and fail to locate his place." ʿUmar then asked for a description of him, and Muttamam said, "He used to ride a restive steed and lead a slow-paced camel, while he would be between two water bags exuding water in the chilly night, wrapped up in a loose garment, and armed with a long lance. Thus would he go through the night until the morn. His face was a fragment of a moon."[1] "Sing me," said ʿUmar, "some of what thou hast composed regarding him." And Mutammam repeated the elegy in which he said:
"For a long time we were boon companions like the two fellow-drinkers of Jadhîmah,
that people said, 'They will never be separated!'"[2]
"If I could write good poetry" remarked ʿUmar, "I would have written an elegy on my brother, Zaid." "It is not a parallel case, 'Commander of the Believers'", answered Mutammam, "had my brother met the same death that thy brother has met, I would not have mourned over him."
