The Book of Jihad and Expeditions

Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman reported: Nothing kept me from taking part in Badr except that my father Husayl and I had set out, but the Quraysh disbelievers seized us. They asked, ‘Are you going to Muhammad?’ We replied, ‘We are going only to Medina; we do not intend to go to him.’ They took from us a solemn pledge by Allah that we would return to Medina and not fight alongside him. We went to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and told him what had happened. He said, ‘Go back; we will honor their pledge and ask Allah for help against them.’

Ibrahim al-Taymi reported from his father: We were with Hudhayfa when a man said, ‘Had I lived in the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), I would have fought at his side and done my utmost.’ Hudhayfa said, ‘Would you really have done so? We were with the Messenger of Allah on the night of the Confederates, in a fierce wind and bitter cold. He repeatedly asked someone to bring him news of the enemy, promising that Allah would keep that person with him on the Day of Resurrection. We were silent, and no one answered. Finally he called me by name and told me to bring news without provoking the enemy. When I left, I felt as though I were walking in a bathhouse until I reached them. I saw Abu Sufyan warming his back by a fire. I set an arrow in my bow and was about to shoot him, for I would have hit him, but I remembered the Messenger of Allah’s instruction not to provoke them. I returned, feeling as though I were walking in a bathhouse again. When I had reported the news and finished, I began to feel cold. The Messenger of Allah wrapped me in an extra cloak he had been praying in. I slept until morning. When morning came, he called me a heavy sleeper and told me to get up.’

Anas ibn Malik reported that on the day of Uhud the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was left with seven men from the Ansar and two men from Quraysh. When the enemy closed in, he said, ‘Who will drive them away from us and have Paradise, or be my companion in Paradise?’ A man from the Ansar stepped forward and fought until he was killed. When the enemy closed in again, the Prophet repeated the words, and another man from the Ansar came forward and fought until he was killed. This continued until all seven had been killed. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to his two companions, ‘We have not done justice to our companions.’

Anas reported that on the day of Uhud the Messenger of Allah’s (ﷺ) front tooth was broken and his head was wounded. He wiped the blood away and said, ‘How can a people prosper when they have wounded their Prophet and broken his tooth, while he calls them to Allah?’ Then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed: ‘You have no authority in the matter.’

Hammam ibn Munabbih reported from Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said among other things: ‘Allah’s anger was severe against a people who did this to His Messenger’—and he was pointing to his front tooth. He also said, ‘Allah’s anger is severe against a man whom the Messenger of Allah kills in the cause of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.’

Aisha, the Prophet’s wife, asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) whether he had ever faced a day harder than Uhud. He replied that he suffered much at the hands of her people, and the hardest was at al-Aqaba. He had presented himself to Ibn Abd Yalil ibn Abd Kulal, but the man did not respond as he had hoped. He left deeply distressed and did not recover until reaching Qarn al-Thaalib. He looked up and saw a cloud shading him, with Gabriel in it. Gabriel said that Allah had heard what his people said and how they rejected him, and had sent the Angel of the Mountains so he could command him as he wished. The Angel of the Mountains greeted him and offered, if he wished, to bring the two mountains together over them. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) replied that he instead hoped Allah would bring forth from their descendants people who worship Allah alone and associate nothing with Him.