After the Muslim victory over the Quraysh in Mecca in 624 in the Battle of Badr (17 Ramadan AH 2 in the ancient (intercalated) Arabic calendar (16 December) – see Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa#Discrepancy in dates), a number of Muhammad's opponents were killed.
In response, she composed poems that publicly criticized the local tribesmen who converted to Islam and allied with Muhammad, calling for his death.
[2] Ibn Ishaq mentions that bint Marwan also displayed disgust after the Medinian Abu Afak was killed for inciting rebellion against Muhammad.
Umayr bin Adiy al-Khatmi, a blind man belonging to the same tribe as Asma bint Marwan's husband, Banu Khatma, responded that he would.
Instead, according to al-Waqidi, a man named ʿUmayr bin ʿAdī, decided individually to kill Asma bint Marwan.
He narrates that in response to the killing of Abu Afak, Asma recited the following poem (originally Arabic, here using the translation by Alfred Guillaume): :"I despise B. Malik and al-Nabit Hassan b. Thabit answered her: On hearing these verses, Muhammad is reported to have said: "Who will rid me of Marwan's daughter?"
[1] This account is found in Ibn Sa'd's Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā and is given the rank of Mawḍūʻ, fabricated, by hadith scholars including Al-Albani, Majdi, and Al-Jawzi.
They point out in their arguments against the factuality of the incident that the chains of transmission (isnads) by which the story was transmitted are all weak (daʻif) of the lowest degree (mawḍūʻ).
[5] Jane Smith, in her study Women, Religion and Social Change in Early Islam points at the high influence of poets and poetry at the time of Muhammad in Arabia.
She states that assassinations of poets such as Abu Afak and Asma after Muhammad's final victory were the result of fears of "their continuing influence", and that this episode "constitutes interesting testimony of the power of their position, as well as of the recited words".
[12] V. J. Ridgeon sees certain parallels between Khomeini's declaration of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and the incident of Asma bint Marwan's assassination.