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Year 3 of the Hijra: the campaign of Najd, the Banu Qaynuqa’, the killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, the expedition of Zayd and the campaign of Uhud.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
This is the third year of the Hijra. At its beginning was the campaign of Najd, called the campaign of Dhi Ammar. Ibn Ishaq said: when the Messenger of Allah returned from the campaign of as-Sawiq he stayed in Medina the remainder of Dhu l-Hijja or near it, then made war upon Najd intending Ghatafan, and it is the campaign of Dhi Ammar. Ibn Hisham said: he appointed over Medina Uthman ibn Affan. Ibn Ishaq said: he stayed in Najd all of Safar or near it, then returned meeting no ruse. Al-Waqidi said: it reached the Messenger of Allah that a gathering of Ghatafan of the Banu Tha’laba ibn Muharib had gathered at Dhi Ammar intending war with him, so he went out to them from Medina on the Thursday, twelve nights having passed of Rabi’ al-Awwal of the year three, appointing over Medina Uthman ibn Affan, and was absent eleven days with four hundred and fifty-one men. The Bedouins fled from him to the mountaintops until he reached a water called Dhi Ammar, and he camped there, and abundant rain fell upon them, and the garments of the Messenger of Allah were soaked, and he alighted beneath a tree there and spread his garments to dry, and that within sight of an idolater, while the idolaters were occupied with their affairs. The idolaters sent a brave man of theirs called Ghowrath ibn al-Harith, or Duthur ibn al-Harith, and they said: Allah has given you power over the killing of Muhammad.
That man went with a polished sword until he stood over the Messenger of Allah with the sword brandished and said: O Muhammad, who protects you from me today? He said: Allah. And Gabriel pushed his chest, and the sword fell from his hand, and the Messenger of Allah took it and said: who protects you from me? He said: no one; and I testify that there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and by Allah I shall never gather an army against you. The Messenger of Allah gave him his sword, and when he returned to his companions they said: woe to you, what ails you? He said: I looked at a tall man who pushed my chest and I fell upon my back, and I knew he was an angel, and I testified that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and by Allah I shall never gather an army against him. And he began calling his people to Islam. And thereupon descended the word of the Most High: O you who believe, remember the favor of Allah upon you when a people resolved to stretch their hands toward you, but He withheld their hands from you; and fear Allah [al-Ma’ida: 11], the verse. Al-Bayhaqi said: there will come in the campaign of Dhat ar-Riqa’ a story resembling this; perhaps they are two stories. I say: were this one well preserved, it is categorically other than that one, for that man, also named Ghowrath ibn al-Harith, did not accept Islam but persisted in his religion, and had not covenanted with the Prophet not to fight him; and Allah knows best.
Ibn Ishaq said: he stayed in Medina all of Rabi’ al-Awwal, or excepting little of it, then went out in the morning intending Quraysh. Ibn Hisham said: he appointed over Medina Ibn Umm Maktum. Ibn Ishaq said: until he reached Buhran, which is a mine in the Hijaz on the side of al-Furu’, and he stayed there the month of Rabi’ al-Akhira and Jumada al-Ula, then returned to Medina meeting no ruse. Al-Waqidi said: his absence, peace be upon him, from Medina was ten days; and Allah knows best.
Al-Waqidi claimed it was on the Saturday, mid-Shawwal of the year two of the Hijra; and Allah knows best. They are the ones intended by the word of the Most High: like those before them, they soon tasted the evil consequence of their affair, and for them is a painful punishment [al-Hashr: 15]. Ibn Ishaq said: among what occurred between the campaigns of the Messenger of Allah was the affair of the Banu Qaynuqa’. Of their story is that the Messenger of Allah gathered them in their market and said: O assembly of Jews, beware of Allah as the punishment befell Quraysh, and accept Islam, for you know I am a prophet sent; you find that in your Book and the covenant of Allah with you. They said: O Muhammad, you think we are your people; let not the fact that you met a people with no knowledge of war deceive you, so you gained an opportunity over them; by Allah,
if we warred with you, you would know that we are the people. Ibn Ishaq said: a freedman of the family of Zayd ibn Thabit related to me, from Sa’id ibn Jubayr or from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: these verses descended only concerning them: say to those who disbelieved, you will be overcome and gathered to Hell, and wretched is the resting place; there has already been for you a sign in the two companies that met, meaning the men of Badr of the companions of the Messenger of Allah and Quraysh: one company fighting in the path of Allah and another disbelieving; they saw them as twice their number by the sight of the eye, and Allah supports with His help whom He wills; in that is a lesson for those of sight. Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada related to me that the Banu Qaynuqa’ were the first Jews to break the covenant and make war in the period between Badr and Uhud.
Ibn Hisham said: Abdallah ibn Ja’far ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Miswar ibn Makhrama mentioned, from Abu Awn, who said: of the affair of the Banu Qaynuqa’ was that an Arab woman came with merchandise and sold it in the market of the Banu Qaynuqa’ and sat beside a goldsmith of theirs. They sought to uncover her face and she refused, so the goldsmith took the hem of her garment and tied it to her back; when she rose her shame was exposed and they laughed at her, and she cried out, and a man of the Muslims leapt upon the goldsmith and killed him, and he was a Jew. The Jews fell upon the Muslim and killed him, and the kin of the Muslim called the Muslims against the Jews, and the Muslims became angry, and evil fell between them and the Banu Qaynuqa’. Ibn Ishaq said: Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada related to me that the Messenger of Allah besieged them until they submitted to his judgment, and Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul came to him when Allah had given him power over them and said: O Muhammad, be good to my allies, and they were allies of the Khazraj. The Messenger of Allah delayed before him and he said: O Muhammad, be good to my allies. He turned away from him, so he put his hand into the neck-hole of the Prophet’s mail, called Dhat al-Fudul, and the Messenger of Allah said: release me. The Messenger of Allah became angry until they saw shades upon his face, then said: woe to you, release me. He said: no, by Allah, I shall not release you until you are good to my allies: four hundred wearers of mail and three hundred wearers of breastplate,
who stood between me and the red and the black; you would mow them down in a single morning, and I am a man who fears the reversals of fortune. The Messenger of Allah said: they are yours. Ibn Hisham said: the Messenger of Allah appointed over Medina during his siege of them Abu Lubaba Bashir ibn Abd al-Mundhir, and his siege of them was fifteen nights. Ibn Ishaq said: my father related to me, from Ubada ibn as-Samit: when the Banu Qaynuqa’ made war upon the Messenger of Allah, Abdallah ibn Ubayy clung to their affair and stood against him, while Ubada ibn as-Samit walked to the Messenger of Allah; he was of the Banu Awf, having of his allegiance the like of what they had of Abdallah ibn Ubayy’s, so he absolved them to the Messenger of Allah and declared himself innocent toward Allah and His Messenger of their allegiance, and said: O Messenger of Allah, I take Allah and His Messenger and the believers as allies and declare myself quit of the allegiance of these disbelievers and of their protection. Concerning him and Abdallah ibn Ubayy descended the passage of the Table: O you who believe, take not the Jews and the Christians for allies; they are allies one of another, the verses, up to His word: and you see those in whose hearts is disease hastening among them, saying: we fear a change of fortune may strike us, meaning Abdallah ibn Ubayy, to His word: and whoever takes Allah and His Messenger and those who believe as allies, the party of Allah are the victors [al-Ma’ida: 51-56], meaning Ubada ibn as-Samit; and we have discussed it in the Tafsir.
Yunus ibn Bukayr said, from Ibn Ishaq: it was six months after the encounter of Badr. Ibn Ishaq said: of its story is that Quraysh feared the route they took to Syria when there occurred what occurred of the encounter of Badr, so they took the route of Iraq, and merchants went out of them, among them Abu Sufyan, with much silver, which was the bulk of their trade; and they hired a man of Bakr ibn Wa’il called Furat ibn Hayyan, meaning the Ijli, ally of the Banu Sahm, to guide them upon that route. Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah sent Zayd ibn Haritha, who met them at a water called al-Qarada, of the waters of Najd, and seized that caravan and what was in it, and the men were powerless against him, and he brought it to the Messenger of Allah. Hassan ibn Thabit said thereupon: ’Leave the caravans of Syria, for guides like the mouths of deep wells have barred their way, by the hands of men who emigrated toward their Lord and of their Ansar, truly, and of the hands of the angels. When it strikes toward the valley from the belly of Alij, it will be said to it: the road is not here.’ Ibn Hisham said: these verses are in a qasida of Hassan, and Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith answered him in it. Al-Waqidi said:
the going out of Zayd ibn Haritha in this expedition was at the beginning of Jumada al-Ula, twenty-eight months of the Hijra, and the chief of that caravan was Safwan ibn Umayya. The cause of sending Zayd ibn Haritha was that Nu’aym ibn Mas’ud arrived in Medina with news of that caravan, and he was upon the religion of his people, and he met Kinana ibn Abi l-Haqiq among the Banu an-Nadir, and with them was Salit ibn an-Nu’man, who had accepted Islam; and they drank, and that was before wine was forbidden. Nu’aym ibn Mas’ud began speaking of the affair of the caravan and the going out of Safwan ibn Umayya in it and of the wealth with him, and Salit left at once and informed the Messenger of Allah, who sent Zayd ibn Haritha straightaway; they met them, took the wealth, and the men were powerless, and they captured only one man or two, and came with the caravan. The Messenger of Allah took its fifth, and its fifth came to twenty thousand, and divided its four fifths among the expedition, and among the captives was the guide Furat ibn Hayyan, who accepted Islam. Ibn Jarir said: al-Waqidi claims that in Rabi’ of this year Uthman ibn Affan married Umm Kulthum bint of the Messenger of Allah, and she was brought in to him in Jumada al-Akhira of it.
This is the chapter of the killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf the Jew, who was of the Banu Tayyi’, then one of the Banu Nabhan, though his mother was of the Banu an-Nadir; thus Ibn Ishaq mentions it before the banishment of the Banu an-Nadir, and al-Bukhari and al-Bayhaqi mention it after the story of the Banu an-Nadir; and what is correct is what Ibn Ishaq mentioned, for it will come that the affair of the Banu an-Nadir was only after the encounter of Uhud, and during their siege wine was forbidden, as we shall explain in its place, Allah willing. Al-Bukhari said in his Sahih, the killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf: Ali ibn Abdallah narrated to us: Sufyan narrated to us, from Amr: I heard Jabir ibn Abdallah say: the Messenger of Allah said: who will deal with Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, for he has harmed Allah and His Messenger? Muhammad ibn Maslama rose and said: O Messenger of Allah, do you wish that I kill him? He said: yes. He said: then permit me to say something. He said: say. Muhammad ibn Maslama came to him and said: this man has asked us for charity and weighed us heavily, and I have come to you to borrow. He said: yes, and by Allah you will weary me with obligations. He said: we have followed this prophet and we do not like to leave him until we see what his affair will come to, and we wish you to lend us. He said: yes; give me a pledge. I said: what do you want? He said: pledge me your women. They said: how shall we pledge you our women, you the handsomest of the Arabs? He said: pledge me then your sons. They said: how shall we pledge you our sons,
when one of them would be abused and it said: a pledge of a sa’ or two? That is a shame upon us; but we pledge you the coat of mail: Sufyan said: meaning the weapons. And he appointed him to come to him by night, and he came to him by night with Abu Naila, who was a brother of Ka’b by nursing, and he invited them up to the fortress and came down to them. His wife said: where do you go out at this hour? Another than Amr said: she said: I hear a voice from which blood seems to drip. He said: it is only my brother Muhammad ibn Maslama and my nursing brother Abu Naila; the noble, if invited to a night lance-thrust, answers. Muhammad ibn Maslama entered with him two men: Amr said: he brought two men with him: while others than Amr said: Abu Abs ibn Jabr, al-Harith ibn Aws and Abbad ibn Bishr. Amr said: he brought two men with him, and he said: when he comes I shall ask to smell his hair and I shall smell him, and when you see me have mastery of his head, yours is to strike him; and once he said: then I shall smell you. He came down to them wrapped in his mantle from which the scent of perfume breathed, and said: never have I seen as today such fragrance, meaning the sweetest; and others than Amr said: he said: I have the most perfumed of the women of the Arabs and the handsomest of the Arabs. Amr said: he said: do you permit me to smell your head? He said: yes. He smelled him, then smelled his companions, then said: do you permit me? He said: yes. When he had mastery of him he said: yours! And they killed him, then came to the Prophet and informed him.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: of the story of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, who was a man of Tayyi’ then of the Banu Nabhan, his mother being of the Banu an-Nadir: when the news of the killing of the men of Badr reached him when Zayd ibn Haritha and Abdallah ibn Rawaha arrived, he said: by Allah, if Muhammad has struck these people, the belly of the earth is better than its back. When the enemy of Allah acquired certainty of the news he went out to Mecca and alighted with al-Muttalib ibn Abi Wada’a ibn Subayra as-Sahmi, with whom was A’ika bint Abi l-Is ibn Umayya ibn Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf, who lodged and honored him; and he began urging to war against the Messenger of Allah, declaiming verses and lamenting the idolaters slain on the day of Badr. Ibn Ishaq mentions his qasida, whose beginning is: ’The millstone of Badr has ground for the ruin of its people, and for the like of Badr you begin to weep.’ He mentions its answer from Hassan ibn Thabit and others. Then he returned to Medina and began to jest about the women of the Muslims and to revile the Prophet and his companions. Musa ibn Uqba said: Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf was one of the Banu an-Nadir or among them, who had harmed the Messenger of Allah with reviling, and he rode to Quraysh and urged them to aid against him, and Abu Sufyan said to him while he was in Mecca: I call upon you by Allah: is our religion dearer to Allah, or the religion of Muhammad and his companions? And which of us is better guided in your view and nearer the truth? We eat the camels of milk and drink milk upon water and eat what the north wind brings.
Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf said to him: you are better guided than they in the way. So Allah sent down upon His Messenger: have you not seen those given a portion of the Book, believing in idols and false deities and saying of those who disbelieved: these are better guided in the way than those who believed? Those are they whom Allah has cursed, and whoever Allah curses, you shall find for him no helper [an-Nisa: 51-52]. Musa and Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: he came to Medina and began openly declaring hostility and urging the people to war, and did not leave Mecca until he had united their affair to fight the Messenger of Allah, and he began to jest about Umm al-Fadl bint al-Harith and others of the women of the Muslims until he hurt them. Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah said, as Abdallah ibn al-Mughith ibn Abi Burda related to me: who is for me concerning the son of al-Ashraf? Muhammad ibn Maslama, brother of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal, said to him: I, O Messenger of Allah, will deal with him; I shall kill him. He said: do so if you can. Muhammad ibn Maslama returned and stayed three days eating and drinking nothing but what kept life in him, and that was mentioned to the Messenger of Allah, who called him and said: why have you left off food and drink? He said: O Messenger of Allah, I said to you a word and I know not whether I can fulfill it for you. He said: the striving is upon you. He said: O Messenger of Allah, we must needs speak. He said: say then what seems good to you; you are excused of that.
Ibn Ishaq said: gathered for his killing were Muhammad ibn Maslama; Silkan ibn Salama ibn Waqsh, who is Abu Naila, one of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal, brother of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf by nursing; Abbad ibn Bishr ibn Waqsh, one of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal; al-Harith ibn Aws ibn Mu’adh, one of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal; and Abu Abs ibn Jabr, brother of the Banu Haritha. They presented before them to the enemy of Allah Ka’b, Silkan ibn Salama Abu Naila, who came to him and spoke with him an hour and they exchanged verses: Abu Naila used to recite poetry: then he said: woe to you, O son of al-Ashraf; I have come to you for a need I wish to mention to you, so conceal it from me. He said: I shall. He said: the coming of this man upon us has been a calamity of calamities: the Arabs have shot at us from one bow and cut off our roads until families were lost and persons wearied, and we have become exhausted, and our families exhausted. Ka’b said: I am the son of al-Ashraf; by Allah I used to inform you, O son of Salama, that the affair will come to what I say. Silkan said to him: I wished that you sell us food and that we pledge you and trust you and you deal well therein.
He said: will you pledge me your sons? He said: you wished to expose us; I have companions of my view, and I wished to bring them to you that you sell them and deal well therein, and we pledge you from the circlet what it contains of pledges. Silkan wished not to reject the weapons when they came with them, and said: in the circlet there are indeed pledges. Silkan returned to his companions, told them his story and ordered them to take the weapons and set out and gather to him, and they gathered at the Messenger of Allah. Ibn Ishaq said: Thawr ibn Zayd related to me, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah walked with them to Baqi’ al-Gharqad, then directed them and said: go in the name of Allah; O Allah, help them; then the Messenger of Allah returned to his house on a moonlit night, and they went until they reached his fortress. Abu Naila hailed him, and he had been newly married a short while, and he leapt in his mantle, and his wife took its edge and said: you are a man of war, and men of war do not descend at this hour. He said: it is Abu Naila; were he to find me asleep he would not wake me. She said: by Allah, I know in his voice evil.
He said: Ka’b saying to her: if the youth is invited to a lance-thrust he answers. He came down and spoke with them an hour and they spoke with him; then they said: have you, O son of al-Ashraf, that we stroll to Shab al-Ajouz and converse there the rest of our night? He said: if you wish. They went out strolling and walked an hour. Then Abu Naila smelled his hand in the temple of his head, then smelled his hand and said: never have I known as tonight fragrance more perfumed. Then they walked an hour, then he did the like until he felt sure, then walked an hour, then did the like again and seized the two temples of his head, then said: strike the enemy of Allah! Their swords fell upon him to no effect. Muhammad ibn Maslama said: I remembered the dagger in my sword and took it, and the enemy of Allah cried a cry such that no fortress around us remained but fire was kindled upon it. I placed it in the base of his body, then bore down upon him until I reached his groin, and I slew the enemy of Allah; and al-Harith ibn Aws was wounded with a wound in his leg or his head, as some of our swords reached him. We went out until we took the road of the Banu Umayya ibn Zayd,
then the Banu Qurayza, then Bu’ath, until we climbed the Harra of al-Arayd, and our companion al-Harith ibn Aws was delaying us and his blood flowing; we stopped for him an hour, then he came following our tracks, and we carried him and brought him to the Messenger of Allah at the last of the night, and he was standing in prayer. We greeted him and he came out to us, and we informed him of the killing of the enemy of Allah, and the Messenger of Allah spat upon the wound of our companion, and we returned to our families. We rose in the morning and the Jews had feared our striking of the enemy of Allah, and there was no Jew but he feared for himself. Ibn Jarir said: al-Waqidi claims they brought the head of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf to the Messenger of Allah. Ibn Ishaq said: thereupon says Ka’b ibn Malik: ’Betrayed from among them was Ka’b, cast down, and after his death an-Nadir was abased; upon the two palms, then it rose upon him with our hands, swords brandished, males, by the command of Muhammad when he crept by night toward Ka’b; a brother of Ka’b walks: he deceived him and brought him down by deceit, and Mahmud, brother of the trust, bold.’
The killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf was at the hands of the Aws after the encounter of Badr; then the Khazraj killed Abu Rafi’ ibn Abi l-Haqiq after the encounter of Uhud, as its exposition will come, and Ibn Ishaq reported the poetry of Hassan ibn Thabit: ’What tribe have I met: O son of al-Haqiq, and you, son of al-Ashraf: striding with the white light ones toward you, joyous as lions in a yawning den, until they came to you in the place of your land and watered you in one draught with white, flashing blades, seeing clearly for the victory of the religion of their prophet, making themselves small against every contemptible matter.’ Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah said: whoever of you catches any men of the Jews, kill them. Thereupon Muhayssa ibn Mas’ud al-Awsi leapt upon Ibn Sunayna,
a man of the Jewish merchants who used to trade with them, and killed him; and his brother Huwayssa ibn Mas’ud, older than he and not yet a Muslim, began striking him and saying: O enemy of Allah, have you killed him? By Allah, much of the fat in your belly is of his wealth. Muhayssa said: by Allah, He who commanded me to kill him: were he to command me to kill you, I would strike your neck. Huwayssa said: and by Allah, were Muhammad to command you to kill me, would you kill me? He said: yes, and by Allah, were he to command me to strike your neck I would strike it. He said: by Allah, a religion that has brought you to this is a wonder; and Huwayssa accepted Islam. Ibn Ishaq said: this hadith was related to me by a freedman of the Banu Haritha, from the daughter of Muhayssa, from her father; and Muhayssa said therein: ’A son of a mother blames:
were I commanded his slaying I would match his nape with a white salt-colored blade of pure polish; when I point it, it lies not. Nor delighted me that I slew you willingly, and that we own what lies between Bosra and Ma’rib.’ Ibn Hisham related, from Abu Ubayda, from Abu Amr al-Madani, that this story was after the killing of the Banu Qurayza and that the slain was Ka’b ibn Yahudha; and when Muhayssa killed him upon the command of the Messenger of Allah on the day of the Banu Qurayza, his brother Huwayssa said what he said, and Muhayssa answered him with what preceded, and Huwayssa accepted Islam that day; and Allah knows best. A caution: al-Bayhaqi mentioned, and al-Bukhari before him, the story of the Banu an-Nadir before the encounter of Uhud, and the correct is to report it after that, as Muhammad ibn Ishaq and others of the imams of the campaigns mention; and its proof is that wine was forbidden the nights of the siege of the Banu an-Nadir,
and it is established in the Sahih that one of those slain on the day of Uhud as a martyr had become drunk with wine, indicating wine was then lawful and was only forbidden after; so it appears what we said, that the story of the Banu an-Nadir was after the encounter of Uhud; and Allah knows best. Another caution: the story of the Jews of the Banu Qaynuqa’ after the encounter of Badr, as preceded; and likewise the killing of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf the Jew at the hands of the Aws, and the story of the Banu an-Nadir after the encounter of Uhud as will come; and likewise the killing of Abu Rafi’ the Jew, merchant of the people of the Hijaz, at the hands of the Khazraj, upon the famous account; and the story of the Jews of the Banu Qurayza after the day of the Confederates and the story of the Trench, as will come.
The campaign of Uhud was in Shawwal of the year three, as az-Zuhri and Qatada and Musa ibn Uqba and Muhammad ibn Ishaq and Malik said; Ibn Ishaq said at mid-Shawwal, and Qatada said on the Saturday, the eleventh of it, and Malik said the encounter was at the first of the day. It is, upon the famous account, that in which Allah sent down His word: and when you went forth from your family at dawn assigning the believers their places for battle [Ali Imran: 121], and the verses after it to His word: and Allah would not leave the believers upon what you are until He separates the evil from the good [Ali Imran: 179]; and we have discussed all its details in our book of Tafsir. Let us mention here the summary of the encounter from what Muhammad ibn Ishaq and others of the scholars of this affair cite. Ibn Ishaq said: of the story of Uhud, as Muhammad ibn Muslim az-Zuhri and Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Hibban and Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada and al-Husayn ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Amr ibn Sa’d ibn Mu’adh and others of our scholars related to me,
each relating part of this hadith of the day of Uhud, and all their hadiths gathered in what I quote: they said: or whoever said of them: when there were struck on the day of Badr of the disbelievers of Quraysh the men of the well, and the defeated of them returned to Mecca, and Abu Sufyan ibn Harb returned with his caravan, there walked Abdallah ibn Abi Rabia and Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl and Safwan ibn Umayya with men of Quraysh whose fathers and sons and brothers had been struck on the day of Badr, and they spoke to Abu Sufyan and the men of Quraysh who owned that caravan of trade, and said: O assembly of Quraysh, Muhammad has mutilated you and killed your best; aid us with this wealth against his war, that we may attain our vengeance from him. And they did; and of them, as one of the people of knowledge mentioned to me, Allah sent down: indeed those who disbelieve spend their wealth to avert from the path of Allah; they will spend it,
then it will be for them a regret, then they will be overcome [al-Anfal: 36]. They said: Quraysh gathered for the war of the Messenger of Allah when Abu Sufyan and the men of the caravan did that with their companies and whoever of the tribes of Kinana and the people of Tihamma followed them. Abu Azza, Amr ibn Abdallah al-Jumahi, upon whom the Messenger of Allah had bestowed favor on the day of Badr, was poor, with family and need, and was among the captives; Safwan ibn Umayya said to him: O Abu Azza, you are a poet; aid us with your tongue and go out with us. He said: Muhammad has favored me, and I will not support against him. He said: rather aid us with your person, and Allah will be yours if you return that I shelter you, and if you are slain that I place your daughters with my daughters, receiving what they receive of hardship and ease. Abu Azza went out ranging through Tihamma calling the Banu Kinana and saying: ’O sons of Abd Manat the Ruzzam,
you are the guardians and your father a guardian; your aid shall not fail me after this year; give me no peace, no peace is permitted.’ And Musafi’ ibn Abd Manaf ibn Wahb ibn Hudhayfa ibn Jumah went out to the Banu Malik ibn Kinana urging them and saying: ’O possessors of the precedence of lineage, I call upon the near kin and the praised one: whoever has kinship and whoever shows not mercy: the oath in the middle of the sacred city, at the hatim of the magnified Kaaba.’ Jubayr ibn Mu’im called a Abyssinian lad of his called Wahshi, who hurled his lance with the hurling of the Abyssinians, seldom missing, and said to him: go out with the people, and if you kill Hamza, the uncle of Muhammad, in requital for my uncle Tu’ayma ibn Adi, you are free. Quraysh went out with its edge and its iron and its name and its companies, and whoever followed it of the Banu Kinana and the people of Tihamma, and they went out with them the laden camels,
seeking the guard and that they not flee. Abu Sufyan Sakhr ibn Harb went out, and he was the leader of the people, and with him his wife Hind bint Utba ibn Rabi’a; and Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl went out with his wife his cousin Umm Hakim bint al-Harith ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughira; and his uncle al-Harith ibn Hisham went out with his wife Fatima bint al-Walid ibn al-Mughira; and Safwan ibn Umayya went out with Barza bint Mas’ud ibn Amr ibn Umayr the Thaqifi; and Amr ibn al-As went out with Rayta bint Munabbih ibn al-Hajjaj, mother of his son Abdallah ibn Amr; and he mentions others who went out with their wives. Wahshi, whenever Hind bint Utba passed him or she passed him, would say: courage, O Abu Dasmah, heal and seek healing: meaning she urged him to kill Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib. They came forward until they camped at two springs of a mountain in the belly of the marshy flat of Qanat upon the edge of the valley opposite Medina. When the Messenger of Allah and the Muslims heard of them he said to them:
by Allah I have seen good: I saw cows being slaughtered, and I saw a notch in the pommel of my sword, and I saw that I put my hand into a solid coat of mail, and I interpreted it as Medina. This hadith al-Bukhari and Muslim both reported, from Abu Kurayb, from Abu Usama, from Burayd ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Burda, from Abu Burda, from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari, from the Prophet, who said: I saw in a dream that I emigrate from Mecca to a land of palms, and I thought it was al-Yamama or Hajar, and behold it was Medina, Yathrib; and I saw in this dream that I brandished a sword and its edge broke, and behold that is what befell the believers on the day of Uhud; then I brandished it again and it returned better than it was, and behold it is what Allah brought of the conquest and the gathering of the believers; and I saw in it also cows, and Allah is better, and behold they are the company of the believers on the day of Uhud; and the good is what Allah brought of good and the true reward Allah gave us after the day of Badr.
Al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Abdallah the hafiz informed us: al-Asamm informed us: Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Abd al-Hakam informed us: Ibn Wahb informed us: Ibn Abi az-Zinad informed me, from his father, from Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Utba, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah drew his sword Dhu l-Faqar on the day of Badr. Ibn Abbas said: it is that in which he saw the dream on the day of Uhud; and that is because when the idolaters came to the Messenger of Allah on the day of Uhud his view was to stay in Medina and fight them there. People who had not witnessed Badr said: go out with us, O Messenger of Allah, to them, that we fight them at Uhud; and they hoped to attain of merit what the men of Badr attained, and they kept pressing the Messenger of Allah until he donned his armor; then they regretted and said: O Messenger of Allah, stay; the view is yours. He said to them: it befits not a prophet who has donned his armor to set it down until Allah judges between him and his enemy.
He had said to them that day, before donning the armor: I saw that I was in a solid coat of mail and interpreted it as Medina, and that I rode behind a ram and interpreted it the ram of the battle, and I saw that my sword Dhu l-Faqar was nicked and interpreted it a nick among you, and I saw cows being slaughtered, and cows are a people; and Allah is better. At-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah reported it from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi az-Zinad, from his father, likewise. Al-Bayhaqi reported, through Hammad ibn Salama, from Ali ibn Zayd, from Anas, raised to the Prophet, who said: I saw in what the sleeper sees as though I rode behind a ram, and as though the pommel of my sword broke; I interpreted that I would kill the ram of the people, and interpreted the breaking of my sword’s pommel as the killing of a man of my kin. So Hamza was slain, and the Messenger of Allah slew Talha, who was the standard-bearer.