It is narrated from Thabit, who says: We were in the service of Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him). He sat among his family and wrote a letter, and said: O group of reciters! Come forth. Thabit says: I did not like this word much, so I said: O Abu Hamzah! It would have been better if you had called these people by their names. Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: There is no harm in my calling you reciters. Shall I not tell you about those brothers of yours whom we used to call reciters in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? Then he narrated that they were seventy individuals. Their condition was such that when night fell, they would go to their teacher in Madinah and spend the whole night until morning learning the Qur’an. And when morning came, whoever was able would bring sweet water (and sell it), and someone would bring firewood and sell it, and whoever was able, they would together buy a goat, prepare it well, slaughter it, and hang it near the chambers of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). When Sayyiduna Khubaib (may Allah be pleased with him) was martyred, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent these reciters on an expedition. They went to a tribe of Banu Sulaym, and with them was my maternal uncle, Sayyiduna Haram bin Milhan (may Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Haram (may Allah be pleased with him) requested his leader to allow him to go and inform those people that we have not come to fight them, so that they would not block our way. So Sayyiduna Haram (may Allah be pleased with him) went and said to them: We have not come to fight you, so do not block our way. A man came forward with a spear and struck Sayyiduna Haram (may Allah be pleased with him) with it, and the spear passed through his body. When he felt the blow of the spear on his stomach, he cried out loudly: Allahu Akbar! By the Lord of the Ka’bah, I have succeeded! Then those people turned towards the rest of the caravan and not one of them was left alive. Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I never saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) as grieved on any occasion as he was by this incident. I saw that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would raise his hands in the Fajr prayer and supplicate against those oppressors. Sayyiduna Abu Talhah Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say to me: Shall I tell you about the killer of your uncle, Sayyiduna Haram (may Allah be pleased with him)? I said: Allah has done with him what He willed. He said: He has accepted Islam. In the narration of ‘Affan, it is mentioned that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) raised both his hands and supplicated against them. And Abu al-Nadr said that he raised both his hands.