Wikipedia's first sentence called it “one of the sahaba”. Today it says “one of the companions of the prophet”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah ( ) was one of the sahaba , and was sent by Muhammad with a letter to Muqawqis , an Egyptian Coptic Christian official. He returned with gifts, including two slaves, Maria al-Qibtiyya and her sister Sirin . Muhammad took Maria as a right hands possession . A veteran of the Battle of Badr , it was discovered that he had sent a secret letter to the Quraish detailing Muhammad's movements. When confronted, he begged for understanding explaining that he had only hoped the Quraysh tribe would help protect his family who were residing in Mecca in return, because unlike other Sahabi his family did not have security as he did not have any blood ties with the Quraysh. While Umar ibn Khattab sought the Muhammad's permission to kill Balta'ah, Muhammad said that it was unnecessary, as God may have forgiven all veterans of Badr, and knew the sincerity of his heart. Hatib was then saved from being punished.1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1168936923.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah was one of the sahaba , and was sent by Muhammad with a letter to Muqawqis , an Egyptian Coptic Christian official. He returned with gifts, including two slaves, Maria al-Qibtiyya and her sister Sirin . Muhammad took Maria as his wife. A veteran of the Battle of Badr , it was discovered that he had sent a secret letter to the Quraish detailing Muhammad's movements. When confronted, he begged for understanding explaining that he had only hoped the Quraysh tribe would help protect his family who were residing in Makkah in return. While Umar ibn Khattab sought the Prophet's permission to kill Balta'ah, Muhammad said that it was unnecessary, as God may have forgiven all veterans of Badr, and knew the sincerity of his heart.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 358607174.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah was one of the sahaba , and was sent by Muhammad with a letter to Muqawqis , an Egyptian Coptic Christian official. He returned with gifts, including two slaves, Maria al-Qibtiyya and her sister Sirin . Muhammad took Maria as his wife. A veteran of the Battle of Badr , it was discovered that he had sent a secret letter to the Quraish detailing Muhammad's movements. When confronted, he begged for understanding explaining that he had only hoped the Quraysh tribe would help protect his family who were residing in Mecca in return, because unlike other Sahabi his family did not have security as he did not have any blood ties with the Quraysh. While Umar ibn Khattab sought the Prophet's permission to kill Balta'ah, Muhammad said that it was unnecessary, as God may have forgiven all veterans of Badr, and knew the sincerity of his heart.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 648088582.
The opening as it stood in 2025 7 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Companion (Sahabi) of Muhammad Hatib Bin Abi Balta'ah ( Arabic : حاطب بن أبي بلتعة ) was one of the Companions of the Prophet .He was a veteran of the Battle of Badr and had participated in all the battles with Muhammad ."ص43 - كتاب سير أعلام النبلاء ط الرسالة - حاطب بن أبي بلتعة عمرو بن عمير بن سلمة اللخمي - المكتبة الشاملة" . shamela.ws .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1273268543. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “one of the sahaba”. Today it says “one of the companions of the prophet”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
one of the sahaba
Now
one of the companions of the prophet
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
