(O ye who believe! Choose not My enemy and your enemy for allies…) [60:1]. A group of Qur'anic exegetes said: “This verse was revealed about Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah. It happened that Sarah, the client of Abu 'Amr ibn Sayfi ibn Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf travelled from Mecca to Medina to see the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, and found him getting ready to conquer Mecca. He asked her: 'Have you come as a Muslim?' When she answered in the negative, he asked: 'What has brought you here, then?' She said: 'You were my family, my clan and my patrons; I am in desperate need and have come so that you give me and clothe me'. He said: 'What happened to all the youths of Mecca', he asked her this because she was a singer. She said: 'No one has ever requested anything from me after the Battle of Badr!' The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, encouraged the Banu 'Abd al-Muttalib and the Banu'l-Muttalib to be generous to her. They clothed her, gave her money and provided her with a mount. Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah then got in touch with her, gave her ten pieces of gold and gave her a letter to hand over to the people of Mecca. He wrote in this letter: 'From Hatib to the people of Mecca: The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, is about to attack you, so take precautions'. Sarah left and Gabriel, peace be upon him, came down and informed the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, of what Hatib had done. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, sent 'Ali, 'Ammar, al-Zubayr, Talhah, al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad and Abu Marthad - who were all horsemen - saying to them: 'Proceed to the meadow of Khakh. You will find there a woman on a camel-borne sedan chair. This woman has a letter from Hatib to the idolaters. Take that letter from her and let her go. But if she refuses to hand over the letter to you, behead her'. They proceeded to that location and found the woman there. They asked her: 'Where is the letter?' She swore by Allah that she did not have any letter with her.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
