Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihaad)
كتاب الجهاد والسير
Chapter 10: (The superiority of) the wounded in Allah's Cause
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "By Him in Whose Hands my soul is! Whoever is wounded in Allah's Cause....and Allah knows well who gets wounded in His Cause....will come on the Day of Resurrection with his wound having the color of blood but the scent of musk."
Chapter 11: The Statement of Allah Aza wa'jal: "Say: Do you wait for us except one of the two best things (martyrdom or victory)?..."
That Abu Sufyan told him that Heraclius said to him, "I asked you about the outcome of your battles with him (i.e. the Prophet (ﷺ) ) and you told me that you fought each other with alternate success. So the Apostles are tested in this way but the ultimate victory is always theirs.
Chapter 12: The Statement of Allah Aza wa'jal: "Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah..."
My uncle Anas bin An-Nadr was absent from the Battle of Badr. He said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! I was absent from the first battle you fought against the pagans. (By Allah) if Allah gives me a chance to fight the pagans, no doubt. Allah will see how (bravely) I will fight." On the day of Uhud when the Muslims turned their backs and fled, he said, "O Allah! I apologize to You for what these (i.e. his companions) have done, and I denounce what these (i.e. the pagans) have done." Then he advanced and Sa`d bin Mu`adh met him. He said "O Sa`d bin Mu`adh ! By the Lord of An-Nadr, Paradise! I am smelling its aroma coming from before (the mountain of) Uhud," Later on Sa`d said, "O Allah's Apostle! I cannot achieve or do what he (i.e. Anas bin An-Nadr) did. We found more than eighty wounds by swords and arrows on his body. We found him dead and his body was mutilated so badly that none except his sister could recognize him by his fingers." We used to think that the following Verse was revealed concerning him and other men of his sort: "Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah.........." (33.23) His sister Ar-Rubbaya' broke a front tooth of a woman and Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) ordered for retaliation. On that Anas (bin An-Nadr) said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! By Him Who has sent you with the Truth, my sister's tooth shall not be broken." Then the opponents of Anas's sister accepted the compensation and gave up the claim of retaliation. So Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "There are some people amongst Allah's slaves whose oaths are fulfilled by Allah when they take them."
Zaid bin Thabit said, "When the Qur'an was compiled from various written manuscripts, one of the Verses of Surat Al-Ahzab was missing which I used to hear Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) reciting. I could not find it except with Khuza`ima bin Thabjt Al-Ansari, whose witness Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) regarded as equal to the witness of two men. And the Verse was:-- "Among the believers are men who have been true to what they covenanted with Allah." (33.23)
Chapter 13: Practising good deeds before taking part in a battle
A man whose face was covered with an iron mask (i.e. clad in armor) came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Shall I fight or embrace Islam first? "The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Embrace Islam first and then fight." So he embraced Islam, and was martyred. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, A Little work, but a great reward. "(He did very little (after embracing Islam), but he will be rewarded in abundance).
Chapter 14: Whoever is killed by an arrow
Um Ar-Rubai'bint Al-Bara', the mother of Hartha bin Suraqa came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said, "O Allah's Prophet! Will you tell me about Hartha?" Hartha has been killed (i.e. martyred) on the day of Badr with an arrow thrown by an unidentified person. She added, "If he is in Paradise, I will be patient; otherwise, I will weep bitterly for him." He said, "O mother of Hartha! There are Gardens in Paradise and your son got the Firdausal-ala (i.e. the best place in Paradise).
Chapter 15: Whoever fights so that Allah's Word be superior
A man came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and asked, "A man fights for war booty; another fights for fame and a third fights for showing off; which of them fights in Allah's Cause?" The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "He who fights that Allah's Word (i.e. Islam) should be superior, fights in Allah's Cause."
Chapter 16: Whose feet get covered with dust in Allah's Cause
(who is `Abdur-Rahman bin Jabir) Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said," Anyone whose both feet get covered with dust in Allah's Cause will not be touched by the (Hell) fire."
Chapter 17: The dust which falls on head in Allah's Cause
that Ibn `Abbas told him and `Ali bin `Abdullah to go to Abu Sa`id and listen to some of his narrations; So they both went (and saw) Abu Sa`id and his brother irrigating a garden belonging to them. When he saw them, he came up to them and sat down with his legs drawn up and wrapped in his garment and said, "(During the construction of the mosque of the Prophet) we carried the adobe of the mosque, one brick at a time while `Ammar used to carry two at a time. The Prophet (ﷺ) passed by `Ammar and removed the dust off his head and said, "May Allah be merciful to `Ammar. He will be killed by a rebellious aggressive group. `Ammar will invite them to (obey) Allah and they will invite him to the (Hell) fire."
Chapter 18: To take a bath after fighting
When Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) returned on the day (of the battle) of Al-Khandaq (i.e. Trench), he put down his arms and took a bath. Then Gabriel whose head was covered with dust, came to him saying, "You have put down your arms! By Allah, I have not put down my arms yet." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Where (to go now)?" Gabriel said, "This way," pointing towards the tribe of Bani Quraiza. So Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) went out towards them .
Chapter 19: The Statement of Allah Taa'la: "Think not of those who are killed in the Way of Allah as dead..."
For thirty days Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) invoked Allah to curse those who had killed the companions of Bir- Mauna; he invoked evil upon the tribes of Ral, Dhakwan, and Usaiya who disobeyed Allah and His Apostle. There was reveled about those who were killed at Bir-Mauna a Qur'anic Verse we used to recite, but it was cancelled later on. The Verse was: "Inform our people that we have met our Lord. He is pleased with us and He has made us pleased."
"Some people drank alcohol in the morning of the day (of the battle) of Uhud and were martyred (on the same day)." Sufyan was asked, "(Were they martyred) in the last part of the day?)" He replied, "Such information does not occur in the narration."
Chapter 20: The shade of angels on the martyr
My father's mutilated body was brought to the Prophet (ﷺ) and was placed in front of him. I went to uncover his face but my companions forbade me. Then mourning cries of a lady were heard, and it was said that she was either the daughter or the sister of `Amr. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Why is she crying?" Or said, "Do not cry, for the angels are still shading him with their wings." (Al-Bukhari asked Sadqa, a sub-narrator, "Does the narration include the expression: 'Till he was lifted?' " The latter replied, "Jabir may have said it.")
Chapter 21: The wish of the Mujahid to return to the world
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Nobody who enters Paradise likes to go back to the world even if he got everything on the earth, except a Mujahid who wishes to return to the world so that he may be martyred ten times because of the dignity he receives (from Allah)."
Chapter 22: Paradise is under the blades of swords
Narrated Al-Mughira bin Shu'ba: Our Prophet told us about the message of our Lord that "Whoever amongst us is killed will go to Paradise." Umar asked the Prophet, "Is it not true that our men who are killed will go to Paradise and their's (i.e. those of the Pagan's) will go to the (Hell) fire?" The Prophet said, "Yes."
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Know that Paradise is under the shades of swords."
Chapter 23: Who wishes to beget a son to send for Jihad
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Once Solomon, son of David said, '(By Allah) Tonight I will have sexual intercourse with one hundred (or ninety-nine) women each of whom will give birth to a knight who will fight in Allah's Cause.' On that a (i.e. if Allah wills) but he did not say, 'Allah willing.' Therefore only one of those women conceived and gave birth to a half-man. By Him in Whose Hands Muhammad's life is, if he had said, "Allah willing', (he would have begotten sons) all of whom would have been knights striving in Allah's Cause."
Chapter 24: Bravery and cowardice in the battle
The Prophet (ﷺ) was the best, the bravest and the most generous of all the people. Once when the people of Medina got frightened, the Prophet (ﷺ) rode a horse and went ahead of them and said, "We found this horse very fast."
Jubair bin Mut`im told me that while he was in the company of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) with the people returning from Hunain, some people (bedouins) caught hold of the Prophet (ﷺ) and started begging of him so much so that he had to stand under a (kind of thorny tree (i.e. Samurah) and his cloak was snatched away. The Prophet (ﷺ) stopped and said, "Give me my cloak. If I had as many camels as these thorny trees, I would have distributed them amongst you and you will not find me a miser or a liar or a coward."
Chapter 25: Seeking refuge with Allah from cowardice
Sa`d used to teach his sons the following words as a teacher teaches his students the skill of writing and used to say that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to seek Refuge with Allah from them (i.e. the evils) at the end of every prayer. The words are: 'O Allah! I seek refuge with You from cowardice, and seek refuge with You from being brought back to a bad stage of old life and seek refuge with You from the afflictions of the world, and seek refuge with You from the punishments in the grave.'
The Prophet (ﷺ) used to say, "O Allah! I seek refuge with You from helplessness, laziness, cowardice and feeble old age; I seek refuge with You from afflictions of life and death and seek refuge with You from the punishment in the grave."