Firstly: The Cunning of Abou Sufyan that Could Eliminate Mountains:

1- Abou Sufyan was the military and political leader of Qorayish, and its leading tradesman in the trading caravans of summer and winter journeys, and it was natural that he felt enmity and animosity toward Islam that endangered the Qorayish trade. Yet, he never hesitated to declare his conversion to Islam shortly before the conquest of Mecca by Muhammad, as it seemed that his interests and those of Qorayish entails such a conversion in order to manipulate the burgeoning religion to serve his purposes just as he used to manipulate the Kaabah Mosque before and in order to retain his stature after the conquest of Mecca. The cunning of Abou Sufyan led him to plant spies and agents around Muhammad in Yathreb, and those spies and agents feigned being new converts to Islam who immigrated to Yathreb. Such agents were of various types that included desert-Arabs and Bedouins, who caused many troubles to Muhammad and early Muslims in Yathreb, and the Quran mentions some rules of how to deal with them. Once Abou Bakr became a ruler/caliph, Abou Sufyan masterminded the renegades' war against him, and he manipulated them to coerce Abou Bakr to appoint Yazeed Ibn Abou Sufyan as a leader of early Muslims shortly after he converted to Islam. The cunning of Abou Sufyan went further by convincing Abou Bakr to commit the crime of Arab conquests, a grave sin against the teachings and legislations of the Quran. Thus, Abou Sufyan no longer needed the summer and winter trade journeys, as the Levant was governed and controlled by his son, Mu'aweiya, but the big surprise to our readers here is the fact that the most prominent military leaders under Abou Bakr who led the Arab conquests were the spies and agents of Abou Sufyan: Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed and Amr Ibn Al-As.  

Secondly: Between Amr and Khaled:

1- It is noteworthy that Amr and Khaled converted suddenly and simultaneously to Islam after being its archenemies, and Qorayish tribesmen never expressed regret or sorrow when both men immigrated to Yathreb, despite the fact that their joining the enemy of Qorayish constituted an overtly great loss, if they both really were bent on annihilating Islam and Muslims and waging fierce wars against Muhammad. Hence, we conclude from the suspicious timing of both men converting to Islam at the time when Muslims achieved victory over Qorayish and the diminishing power, wealth, and authority of Qorayish that spies and agents were sent to get nearer to the threatening danger in Yathreb. Qorayish realized its need for manipulating Islam to restore its lost status and stature. Hence, Abou Sufyan saw to it that Muslims in Yathreb had to be controlled from inside the city-state of Islam by sending to it the most skillful military leader of Qorayish, Khaled, and the most shrewd and cunning of the youth of Qorayish, Amr, by making them feign conversion to Islam to immigrate to Yathreb under his pretext. Both men, thanks to the plotting of Abou Sufyan, became the leaders and planners of the Arab conquests that achieved the ambitions of Abou Sufyan and the Umayyads.   

2- Amr Ibn Al-As was the son of a famous Qorayish whore (or sex worker) named Al-Nabigha, and that is why his lineage and parentage remains a controversial issue to Arab historians. His mother chose to give him the name of Al-As, because he was her most lenient male friends who treated her other offspring with care and tenderness. Hence, Amr was named Amr Ibn Al-As Ibn Wael of the Sahm tribe, and hence, he was not an Umayyad. Abou Sufyan used to declare that he thought that Omar was the real biological father of Amr, and Mu'aweiya was the closest friend to Amr. Despite the doubts concerning his parentage, Amr was so clever and shrewd and with the help of his high IQ and the aid of Abou Sufyan, he became a prominent leader. Amr was the one sent by Qorayish to the king of Abyssinia to coax him to hand over Muslims (led by Jaffer Ibn Abou Talib) immigrated to his country to flee persecution, and the king refused, and Amr returned to Qorayish to be sent suddenly by Abou Sufyan to Yathreb, where he declared his conversion to Islam to Muhammad himself, 6 months before the non-aggressive conquest of Mecca. Amr was the most shred and artful of all Arabs at the time, and roles he played were made known later on within the Arab conquests and the major civil wars of Arabs in Arabia, as he turned out to be the major spy and agent of Umayyads, obedient especially to Mu'aweiya. 

3- Khaled differs from Amr in some respect; the father of Khaled was Al-Waleed Ibn Al-Mughira, the tyrant affluent leader of Qorayish, of the Bani Makhzoom faction, who follow Umayyads directly in high stature. Khaled was the greatest military leader in Qorayish, and historical accounts tell us that he had high stature and prestige before the advent of Islam, with adroit military and fighting skills and a large number of horses fit for fighting. Yet, Qorayish let him immigrate to Yathreb, in public and NOT secretively, to reside beside their foe Muhammad! This is strange enough! Shortly before Khaled declared himself a new convert to Islam, he was the military leader of the Qorayish polytheist troops that prevented by force Muhammad and early Muslims from entering Mecca to perform pilgrimage. Weeks later, Abou Sufyan sent Khaled as a spying agent to Yathreb, with another totally different mission.  

4- To recapitulate in brief: both Amr and Khaled converted to Islam suddenly and at the same time, after the violent acts and military aggressions of the latter and the political cunning plotting of the former against early Muslims.  Hence, anyway, both Amr and Khaled were agents in service of Qorayish and its most prominent leader Abou Sufyan.

5- The difference between both Amr and Khaled in terms of character traits was the main influential factor in their consecutive fates that were in store for both of them; Amr with his shrewdness and sharp acumen retained his unrelenting loyalty to Abou Sufyan and later on to his son, Mu'aweiya, and thus, Amr lived to be pointed twice as governor of Egypt and died there in bed, leaving to his progeny ill-gotten wealth of countless bars of gold. In contrast to Amr, Khaled, despite his military genius and high stature and prestige, he lacked shrewdness and cunning, making him a source of danger threatening to expose Abou Sufyan, who feared his ambitions, reputation, and fame, because he was a role-model adored by his soldiers. Hence, Khaled was dismissed from the post of a popular and powerful military leader, and he was humiliated in an ignoble manner. After being disgraced, he died suddenly during the caliphate of Omar!

Thirdly: Amr Ibn Al-'As:

 Historical accounts tell us that it was rumored that Muhammad sent Amr as a leader to a 300-soldier troop to call a certain tribe to Islam and gather them as recruits within the troops of Yathreb, and another troop was sent afterwards led by Obeidah Ibn Al-Jarah, with immigrants to Yathreb like Abou Bakr and Omar. But Amr insisted to be the supreme leader of all troops alone with no other leader, and all of the men present obeyed him, and later on, it was rumored that Muhammad appointed Amr as a governor of a far city to get him out of Yathreb, and Amr remained there until Abou Bakr became caliph. Amr became one of the prominent military leaders of the Arab conquests in the Levant, and he became the governor of Egypt that he conquered on behalf of the caliph, Omar, and remained in his position in Egypt until Omar was assassinated. The next caliph, Othman, appointed Amr once more as governor of Egypt for four years only, and Othman dismissed him by the end of them, and Amr went to Palestine, with occasional visits to Yathreb, where he preached rebellion against Othman. Once Othman was assassinated, Amr allied himself to Mu'aweiya and fought along with him in the Battle of Siffein, saving Mu'aweiya from defeat by the trick of making soldiers brandishing copies of the Quran in the battlefield. Amr helped Mu'aweiya to become the caliph by the ruse and the trick of arbitration between Mu'aweiya and Ali the caliph. Thus, Mu'aweiya rewarded Amr by appointing him once more as a governor of Egypt, as Amr regained his position there from Muhammad Ibn Abou Bakr, the governor of Egypt appointed formerly by Ali. Furthermore, Mu'aweiya granted Amr the taxes and tributes, all money and possessions of Egypt that he could loot during his lifetime as governor! Eventually, Amr died within the caliphate of Mu'aweiya in 43 A.H., leaving ill-gotten money to his progeny: tons of countless gold bars, but his progeny considered such treasures as ill-gotten money, and refused to take them, and urged Mu'aweiya to return the money to the rightful owners among the Egyptians, but eventually, Mu'aweiya confiscated all possessions and wealth of Amr to himself, saying that he did not care if such treasures were ill-gotten or not! (Reference: ''Al-Khetat'' by the historian Al-Makrizi 1/140, 564).

Fourthly: Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed Ibn Al-Mughira, and Historical Accounts about him linked to Muhammad:

1- A reminder: historical accounts that mention Muhammad the Prophet are NOT part of Islam, and might be true or false. Islam is the Quran alone. The criterion to judge historical accounts is when such accounts do not contradict the Quran. Historical facts are relative, while Quranic verses are absolute Truths. Hence, to believe or to deny historical accounts is not a stance within religious belief but rather within historical research circles. It is not a matter of faith at all. We quote here some stories related to Khaled. 

2- Al-Tabary, the historian, writes this unbelievable story (…Muhammad was in the city of Tabuk, and several non-Muslim men from several tribes came to him to pay tribute and sign peace treaties written by Muhammad himself with copies to each tribe. Later on, Muhammad sent Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed to the Christian leader of the tribe of Kendah, named Akidar Ibn Abdel-Malik. It is rumored that Muhammad told Khaled that he would know this leader by a sign: this leader loved to hunt wild cows of the desert. Once Khaled and his wife found wild cows scratching the gate of their make-shift residence with their horns, he felt the urge to hunt the wild cows on his horse accompanied by some men and his brother, Hassaan, who got killed by the men of Akidar in a fight in the same night as Akidar coveted the cows for himself and hated rival hunters trespassing in his territories. Khaled conquered the territories of the tribe the following day, and he confiscated to himself the huge, precious tent of the defeated Akidar, who fled, which was embroidered with gold and fineries of cloth. Back in Yathreb, when Muhammad saw such a tent and saw that other men liked it very much as a spoil of war, he told them that the handkerchief of the late Saad Ibn Muaaz in Paradise is softer than the tissue of such a tent, and later on Akidar paid tribute for keeping his creed and signed the peace treaty, and returned to his territories in safety…). Any reader that would believe such a story is a denier of the Quran and an enemy of God and Muhammad, and this applies to its fabricator/narrator in historical accounts. The Quran refutes such fabrications; tributes were paid when in self-defense wars, the aggressive enemy is defeated, NOT as an alternative to occupying people's lands and coercing them in religion. Tributes are paid as punishment for the defeated enemy's aggression. The above story, or rather we call it a falsehood, asserts the lies of Muhammad committing aggression against non-aggressive ones who never raided Yathreb at all. Muhammad could never have violated the teachings of the Quran; we know quite well that when Muhammad made mistakes, the Quran has reproached and rebuked him. Thus, such a crime of aggression against the tribe of Akidar is NOT true. Besides, the Quran asserts that Muhammad never knew the future; how could he knew about the wild cows and about persons in Paradise or Hell, both eternal places are yet to be created after the commencement of the Last Day. Hence, such silly and laughter-inducing talks about dead Saad and fooling Akidar by hunting wild cows are fabrications of narrators who made up silly falsehoods about Muhammad and the so-called companions, and such accounts are still loved by infatuated masses of the Muhammadans until now! Another account about Khaled goes like this: (…when Muhammad conquered Mecca, he sent Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed to Mecca as a preacher of peace, not as a military leader, with soldiers of several tribes who converted to Islam, and they passed a well of water owned by tribesmen who were enemies of Khaled, who had killed before some of his allies, relatives, and friends, and when they raised up arms against Khaled and his troops, he told him to feel safe and rest assured that all people of Arabia converted to Islam, forgetting past offences and grudges…). This story is believable, as Muhammad used to send emissaries for peaceful preaching and calls, and it was natural that old enemies of Khaled would protect themselves against potential treachery. The problem lies in the fact that Khaled, who declared his conversion to Islam, which was a cunning façade for deceit in our opinion, used to revoke his words and break his promises as in his days before the advent of Islam. The rest of this story goes like this: (…some tribesmen did not believe Khaled and decided not to leave their arms and weapons lest they might be taken captives or get killed by the treacherous Khaled, some other tribesmen assured the rest of the doubting ones that new converts to Islam brought general peace, and not more intertribal wars. Eventually, all of the tribesmen gave up their arms and weapons at the feet of Khaled, who had all of them tied up in ropes and he himself killed some of them. Muhammad was rumored to have said that he was innocent of such madness and treachery committed by Khaled. Muhammad was rumored to have sent Ali to stop this bloodshed reminiscent of pre-Islamic eras, and Ali reached them with a lot of money to pay compensations (i.e., diyya money) for the families of those killed, and he distributed the rest of the money among the tribesmen. Muhammad praised Ali for his conduct, and Muhammad prayed to God at the Kaabah Mosque that he was innocent of the foolish deeds of Khaled…). This story is in accordance with the peaceful call and preaching of the Quran, as at the time of the conquest of Mecca, many people converted willingly on their own accord, and the crimes of Khaled against the tribesmen assert his violent nature before and after his assumed conversion to Islam. Another story about the enmity between Khaled and Abdel-Rahman Ibn Awf due to the aforementioned crime of Khaled and goes like this: (…Abdel-Rahman Ibn Awf protested angrily against the crime committed by Khaled, and the latter assured him that he wanted to avenge the tribesmen who murdered the father of Abdel-Rahman, but the latter retorted mockingly that Khaled was avenging their murder of the paternal uncle of Khaled, thus repeating the crimes of the pre-Islamic era of darkness and barbarity…). 

3- Thus, we now know very well the true nature and character traits of Khaled, who opposed early Muslims and committed military aggressions against them at first and then feigned conversion to Islam by orders taken from Abou Sufyan; Khaled remained loyal to barbaric values of pre-Islamic era. We tend to think that Muhammad might have kept Khaled away from him for the rest of his lifetime because of such heinous crime and treachery committed by Khaled. Later on, when Abou Sufyan caused the renegades' wars to break out, Abou Bakr needed badly the military genius of Khaled. As per the plots and plans of Abou Sufyan, Khaled returned once more to militarily lead all Arabs within the caliphate of Abou Bakr during the so-called renegades' wars and the Arab conquests that created the bad habit of violating the four sacred months.

4- Within the renegades' wars, Khaled committed several crimes: he killed Malik Ibn Nuweira the leader of the Bani Tamim tribe after he surrendered and declared his conversion to Islam. At the same night when this leader was killed by Khaled, Khaled married forcibly his widow! Other heinous crimes of Khaled included burning some POFs alive after tying them in huts! Omar tried to convince Abou Bakr to stop Khaled from committing more crimes by dismissing him from his post as the leader of the troops. Abou Bakr refused to follow this piece of advice! Instead, he appointed Khaled as the military leader of the troops against Museilama the Liar, the false prophet, and historical accounts praise Khaled for his crimes! In a coming chapter, we will write about the details of the complicated relations between Khaled, Omar, Abou Bakr, and Abou Sufyan, and how the life of the criminal Khaled came to an end suddenly in the city of Homs, in the Levant, in 21 A.H. within the caliphate of Omar.

Lastly:

1- It is noteworthy that most of the so-called companions who committed the crime called the Arab conquests received honorific titles by historians of the period, whereas those who did not participate in such crimes never received, like Ali Ibn Abou Talib, never received any titles of honor. Hence, Abou Bakr was given the honorary epithet of ''Al-Seddiq'' (i.e., the truthful one), Omar was given the honorary epithet of Al-Farooq (i.e., the differentiator between right and wrong), Othman was given the honorary epithet of Zu Al-Nurain (i.e., of the two lights), Al-Zubayr Ibn Al-Awwam was given the honorary epithet of Hawariy (i.e., disciple of Prophet Muhammad), and Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed was given the honorary epithet of Seif Allah Masloul (i.e., the brandished sword of God).

2- It is unbelievable to think that Muhammad could have given such titles to such men; especially that title of Khaled, as it was impossible for Muhammad to ascribe something to God on his own accord. Hence, no one had the right to call someone as the sword of God; such epithets were the fabrications of historians who used to adore, deify, and worship historical figures and were bent on showing them as infallible ones who committed no mistakes at all! How come Khaled would receive such a title while his sword used to be brandished against early Muslims, against captives and POWs, and against tens of thousands of innocent victims within the conquered nations? Of course, Khaled was the brandished sword of Abou Sufyan, and his story does not end here in our book; we will write in a coming chapter about his battles and whims and how he came to be the source of discord and conflict between Abou Bakr and Omar, as Omar himself was the biggest secret spying agent working for Abou Sufyan.