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Uhud
At last the Quraysh
marched out with the flower of their army, with some black Abyssinian
troops, with allies from the Banu Kinana and the lowlands, and with women
in howdahs who went to keep their anger and courage alight. The army was
led by Abu Sufyan, and they went as far as Aynayn and halted on a hill in
the
valley
of
Qanat
near
Medina
.
When the apostle of
Allah heard of this he said, ‘By Allah, I have had a favourable vision.
I have seen cows, and a notch on the blade of my sword; and in the vision
I thrust my hand into a strong coat of mail which represents, I believe,
Medina
.’ Then he told his followers, ‘If you think it proper to remain in
Medina and leave the enemy where they are, it will be well; for they will
either remain in their position, which is a bad one, or come in to us and
we shall fight them in the town.’ Although the apostle did not wish to
march out against the Unbelievers, several of his followers ‑ whom
Allah favoured with a martyr’s death on the day of Uhud, and who
included some who had missed the battle at Badr ‑ exclaimed, ‘Come
out with us against these enemies lest they take us for cowards and
weaklings.’ Others said, ‘Remain in
Medina
. Do not go out to them. If they enter Medina, our men will fight them
face to face, whilst our women and children throw stones upon them from
above; and, if they retreat, they will retreat as disgraced as they
came.’ But the people who wished to rush out and meet the enemy did not
cease to importune the apostle of Allah until he entered his house and
donned his armour. All this took place on a Friday, when he had finished
prayers.
When the apostle
reappeared from his house, however, they had repented, and said, ‘We
have vexed thee, and ought not to have done so. Remain in the city,
therefore, and may Allah bless thee! But the apostle replied, ‘After a
prophet has put on his armour, he must not lay it aside until he has
fought! Therefore he marched out with seven hundred of his companions.
They advanced as
far as the hollow of Uhud and the apostle said, ‘Let no man of you fight
until we command him.’ Then he drew up his army in battle array and
appointed over his fifty archers a man who was conspicuous by his white
garb, saying to him, ‘Keep off the cavalry with thy arrows, that they
may not attack us from the rear. Whether the battle move in our favour or
against us, always remain in thy place lest we be attacked from thy
side.’ Then the apostle of Allah put on two coats of mail and gave the
standard to Musab.
The apostle offered
a sword to his followers, saying, ‘Who will take this sword for a worthy
price?’ Many coveted it, but he would not give it up until Abu Dujana
asked, ‘What is its priceP He replied, ‘That thou strike the enemy
with it until it bends’, and Abu Dujana took the sword; he was a brave
man, anxious to distinguish himself in war, and he was best known by his
red head‑dress which he wore when he was ready to fight. He took the
sword, put on his red turban, and strutted about the ranks; seeing this,
the apostle said, ‘Such a gait pleases Allah only on occasions like
this!’
The Quraysh also
drew up in battle array; their army consisted of three thousand men
including two hundred horsemen on the flanks, commanded by Khalid b.
al‑Walid on the right and by the son of Abu Jahl on the left.
As the two armies
approached each other, Hind ‑ the daughter of that Utba who had been
slain at Badr ‑ and the other women from
Mecca
beat their drums and uttered cries of encouragement to the Quraysh army.
On the day of Badr,
the followers of the apostle had cried, ‘One god! One god!’ but on the
day of Uhud their war cry was ‘Slay! Slay!’
The people fought
violently, and Abu Dujana penetrated into the very heart of the enemy army
and killed every man he attacked. But there was one man among the Quraysh
who never failed to kill any man he wounded, and these two met and exchanged
blows. Then a blow from the infidel struck the shield of Abu Dujana and
stuck there and Abu Dujana slew the man with a single blow. Soon he saw a
Meccan inciting the enemy to further efforts and ‘lifting my sword I
heard a yell, and lo! It was a woman! [Hind.] I had too much respect for
the sword of the apostle to kill a woman with it.’
Hamza also fought
valiantly on that day, killing several infidels. But one of the Quraysh
had instructed his slave Wahshi, who was an Abyssinian and skilled in
throwing the javelin, that he must kill Hamza in the battle. ‘If you
kill Hamza, the uncle of Muhammad, in revenge for my uncle who died at
Badr, you will be free.’ While Hamza was engaged in battle with another
man, Wahshi related, ‘I poised my spear well and threw it with such
force at his groin that it came out between his legs at the back. He was
overcome with weakness and fell, and I waited until he expired then went
and took out my spear from his body. Then I returned proudly to the camp,
for I had business with no other but him.’
Musab, too, died on
that day, being slain by one who mistook him for the apostle of Allah and
returned to his army, saying, ‘I have killed Muharnmad.’ When Musab
was slain, the apostle gave the banner to Ali, and Ali and the Muslims
continued to fight.
Then Allah sent his
aid to the Muslims and fulfilled his promise so that they assailed the
infidels with their swords and put them to flight. But the Muslim archers
disobeyed the orders of the apostle and turned aside into the deserted
Quraysh camp, leaving the Believers’ rear open to the Quraysh cavalry.
And the Quraysh cavalry attacked and put the Muslims to flight.
Soon the enemy even
approached the apostle himself. He was struck down by stones and one of
his front teeth was lost.
‘His face being
wounded, blood trickled down it; and wiping it, he exclaimed: “How can a
nation prosper which dyes the face of its prophet with blood, though he
invites them to the worship of Allah?” ‘ Ali took the apostle by the
hand, and Talha lifted him up until he stood upright; Malik licked the
blood from the face of the apostle and swallowed it, and the apostle said,
‘He whose blood has touched mine will be exempted from the threat of
hell‑fire.’ When the foe pressed close on the apostle, he asked,
‘Who will save my life?’ and six men of his followers arose and fought
by his side. One by one they were martyred until a single defender
remained, and he, too, was wounded; but a company of Muslims arrived and
put the infidels to flight. Then the apostle said ‘Bring him near to me
1’ and they brought the wounded man to him and he made his foot a pillow
under the man’s head; and thus he expired, with his cheek on the foot of
the apostle of Allah.
Abu Dujana now
shielded the apostle with his body, bending over him so that his own back
would accept the thickly falling arrows of the enemy, and Sad, nearby,
shot at the infidels with the apostle ‘handing arrows to me, saying
“Shoot. May my father and mother be a ransom for thee!” He even gave
me an arrow without a point, saying “Shoot with that!” ‘ The apostle
of Allah also shot arrows himself until his bow broke. The bow was then
taken and prized by Qatada, whose eye was injured on that day so that it
hung out upon his cheek; but the apostle of Allah replaced the eye in its
socket with his own hand, and afterwards it became the better, and the
keener of his two eyes.
The first man who
recognized the apostle of Allah after the rumour spread that he had been
killed, was Kab; ‘I recognized his eyes under the helmet, and I shouted
with my loudest voice “0 Muslims, rejoice! Here is the apostle of
Allah!” But he beckoned to me to remain quiet.’
Now the apostle,
with Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Talha, al‑Zubayr and others withdrew to a
hollow near by, and rested.
Ali went out and
filled his water‑bottle from the reservoir, and brought it to the
apostle to drink from; but he found it had an evil smell, and would not
drink. Instead he washed the blood from his face, and as he did so, said,
‘The wrath of Allah will be great against him who made the face of His
prophet bleed.’ While the apostle and his companions were in the hollow,
the Quraysh cavalry appeared on the mountain, and the apostle exclaimed,
‘0 Allah! it is not meet that they should be above us!’ So a company
of the Emigrants attacked them and drove them off; but most of the
apostle’s army had fled.
The infidel woman,
Hind, and her companions mutilated the bodies of the Muslims slain that
day; they cut off the ears and noses, and Hind made necklaces, bracelets
and earrings from them. Also she cut off a piece of Hamza’s liver and
chewed it but could not swallow it, so she spat it out again. Then she
climbed a high rock and shouted the Quraysh victory from it.
When Abu Sufyan
decided to leave the field of battle, he climbed to the mountain and cried
aloud, ‘The day is decided; victory goes by turns ‑ today in
exchange for the day of Badr! Defend thy religion!’ The apostle said to
Umar, ‘Arise and say “Allah is the most high and glorious. Our slain
are in paradise; yours are in hell.” ‘ After Umar had exposed himself
and replied thus, Abu Sufyan summoned him to approach and asked, ‘Have
we killed Muhammad?’ Umar replied, ‘No, praise be to Allah. He hears
your words.’ Then Abu Sufyan shouted, ‘Some of your dead have been
mutilated, but I am neither pleased nor displeased, I neither forbade it
nor commanded it. We shall meet at Badr next year’; and he and his
companions prepared to depart. The apostle of Allah instructed one of his
companions to reply, ‘Agreed. Let that be our meeting‑place.’
Then the people of
Medina
went searching for their dead, and the apostle sent a man of the Helpers
to see whether Sad were alive or dead; the man found Sad fatally wounded.
‘I am among the dead,’ he said. ‘Give my salutations to my people
and say I sent them this message: “There will be no forgiveness from
Allah for you if your prophet is injured as long as you have life in
you.” ‘ Thus saying, he died. The apostle himself went out in search
of his uncle, Hamza, and when he found the mangled body he said, ‘If it
were not that it would pain his sister and that it might become customary
after me, I would leave this body to be consumed by the beasts and birds.
But if Allah aids me against the Quraysh in a future battle, I shall
mutilate thirty men of them.’ When the Muslims saw the apostle’s grief
and his wrath against those who had dealt thus with his uncle they swore
that if Allah should aid them to victory they would mutilate their foes as
no Arab had been mutilated before. But Allah sent down a commandment, and
his apostle followed it by giving pardon, waiting in patience, and
forbidding mutilation. The other corpses were placed by the side of Hamza,
and seventy‑two prayers were spoken over them, and then they were
interred.
The apostle
returned to
Medina
and there was great lamentation there. He passed a house of the Helpers
and heard weeping for the dead, and his own eyes overflowed with tears as
he realized that there were no women to weep for Hamza. Then two of his
companions returned and ordered their women to gird up their loins and go
weep for the uncle of the apostle. The apostle listened and then went out
to them, saying, ‘Return home, and Allah have mercy upon you. You
exhaust yourselves.’ On that day the apostle prohibited wailing and
lamentation.
One woman lost her
husband, her brother and her father on that day of Uhud, but when she was
told of their deaths she asked, ‘What of the apostle of Allah?’ They
replied, ‘He is well’, and she said, ‘If he is still with us, all
other misfortunes are trifling.’
When the apostle
arrived at the home of his family he gave his sword to his daughter
Fatima, saying, ‘Wash the blood from it, little one. By Allah, it has
been true to me today.’ Ali, too, gave her his sword and said, ‘Take
this and wash the blood from it. By Allah, it has been true to me
today’. The name of the apostle’s sword was Dhul‑Faqar.
The next morning,
so that the enemy might know they were pursued and that the followers of
the apostle were in no way cowed by the result of the battle of Uhud,
Muhammad and the survivors marched out for eight miles from the city, as
far as Hamraul‑Asad and remained there three days before returning
to
Medina
.
The day of Uhud was
a day of testing, of calamity and of purification, when Allah put the
Faithful on trial and struck at those whose belief was no deeper than
their words; it was a day on which Allah rewarded those he designed to
favour with the reward of martyrdom.
The part of the
Koran revealed by Allah concerning the day of Uhud amounts to sixty verses
of the Sura, Family of Imran. It mentions the calamity which befell
the Faithful at Uhud, and the trial which led to their purification and
His taking martyrs from among them. Then Allah gave them consolation and
information: ‘Before your time, there have been examples set; go over
the earth and behold what has become of those who accused the apostle of
Allah of imposture. . . . This is a clear declaration to men and an
admonition to the pious. Be not dismayed or grieved over what has
befallen, for you shall enjoy the end and the victory if you are
Believers. If a hurt has been inflicted upon you, your enemies have
received as great a hurt, and we cause such days to alternate among men
that Allah may know those who believe and may take martyrs from among you;
Allah loveth not those whose belief is in their mouth and not in their
heart. . . . Did you imagine you should enter paradise when Allah as yet
knew not which among you was strong to fight, and steadfast?
‘. . . Allah had
already made good unto you His promise [at Uhud] and you put the infidels
to flight by His permission; but you became faint‑hearted and
disputed about His command and disobeyed His prophet [when the archers
went after plunder instead of keeping their position]. So He made you flee
from them to try you. But now He hath pardoned you, for He is generous
towards the Faithful. Do not believe that the infidels will be victorious
in the end, but hold fast to Me and obey My command. . . . Trust in Allah,
for Allah loveth those who trust in Him. If Allah aid you, none shall
conquer you, but if He desert you, who will aid you? . . . Allah was
gracious unto the Believers when He raised up among them an apostle of
their own nation who should recite His signs unto them and purify them and
teach them the scripture and wisdom; whereas they were before in manifest
error. When a misfortune befalls you [at Uhud] after you have won a battle
twice as great, do not say “Whence cometh this?” Say “This is from
ourselves, because Allah is omnipotent.” And what happened to you on the
day when the two armies met was by the permission of Allah, in order that
He might know the Believers, and also the Hypocrites among you . . .
‘Do not think
that those slain in the path of Allah are dead; I have raised them up
again and they are with Me, rejoicing in the pleasures and the cool
breezes of paradise, happy in the reward Allah has bestowed upon them
because they waged holy war for Him.’
Then the apostle
said, ‘When your brothers were defeated at Uhud, Allah placed their
souls in the bodies of green birds, which flit about the rivers of
paradise and drink the waters of the river and eat the fruits of the
garden of paradise and perch on golden candlesticks under the throne of
Allah. When they learned the pleasure of all this, they said, “Would
that our brothers knew what Allah had given us, that they might not weaken
in their efforts in the holy war.” ‘
Of the Muslims who
fought on the day of Uhud, sixty‑five were martyred; and
twenty‑two infidels were slain on that day.
This explanatory
‑ and, in its complete form, extremely lengthy ‑Sura from
Allah was very necessary to restore the badly shaken faith of the
Believers. The argument that Allah wished to discover the Hypocrites among
the warriors lacked conviction in face of the fundamental tenet ‘Allah
knows all’, but the failure of the archers to carry out their orders,
thus turning victory into defeat, was much more plausible and confirmed
the often‑repeated injunction to obey ‘Allah and His prophet’.
The apostle soon restored his people to serenity, and the dead of Uhud
became revered as martyrs.
After Uhud, in the
third year of the Hijra, a deputation came from two neighbouring tribes
who asked Muhammad to send teachers with them to instruct them in Islam.
The apostle sent Marthad, Khalid, Asim, Khubayb, Zayd b. al‑Dathinna,
and Abdullah b. Tariq, and they went with the tribesmen as far as the
water of al‑Raji, which belonged to the Hudhayl tribe. Then the
tribesmen betrayed them and men with swords fell upon them while they were
resting in the night; but when the men from
Medina
snatched up their own swords, their attackers swore they did not wish to
kill them, but only to make use of them in an attempt to gain something
from the people of
Mecca
. Marthad, Khalid and Asim replied, ‘By Allah! We never believe a
promise or a covenant from an idolater’, and they fought against the
idolaters and were slain.
Asim had killed the
two sons of a Meccan woman on the day of Uhud and she had sworn to have
the skull of Asim and drink wine from it. But a swarm of bees settled
around his body and kept the idolaters away; they said, ‘Leave him there
until the evening when the bees go away, and then we shall cut off his
head.’ But Allah sent a torrent of water and swept away the body of Asim,
who had sworn to Him that he would never touch or be touched by an
idolater lest he be defiled; thus Allah protected him from defilement
after death as he had been protected in life.
The other three men
from
Medina
surrendered themselves and were taken to
Mecca
to be sold, but Abdullah tried to escape on the way and was killed.
Khubayb and Zayd were exchanged by their captors for two prisoners of
their own tribe who were held by the Quraysh, and the Quraysh slew Zayd
and crucified Khubayb in revenge for the deaths at Uhud.
Four months later a
similar treachery took place. Forty of the best of the Muslims went out as
invited guests to tell of Islam to the people of
Najd
and all save two were slain.
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