23- VICTORY CONVERTED INTO DEFEAT
Arguing thus they left the pass and plunged into the battle. The fleeing Meccan army included Khalid bin Walidra, who later became a great Muslim general. His keen eye fell on the unguarded pass. There were only a few men guarding it now. Khalidra shouted for another Meccan general ‘Amr bin al-‘Asra, and asked him to have a look at the pass behind. ‘Amrra did so, and thought it the chance of his life. Both generals stopped their men and climbed on to the hill. They killed the few Muslims who were still guarding the pass and from the eminence started an attack upon the Muslims. Hearing their war cries, the routed Meccan army collected itself again, and returned to the field. The attack on the Muslims was sudden. In their pursuit of the Meccan army they had dispersed over the whole of the field. Muslim resistance to this new attack could not be assembled. Only individual Muslim soldiers were seen engaging the enemy. Many of these fell fighting. Others fell back. A few made a ring round the Prophetsa. They could not have been more than twenty in all. The Meccan army attacked this ring fiercely. One by one, the Muslims in the ring fell under the blows of Meccan swordsmen. From the hill, the archers sent volleys of arrows. At that time, Talhara, one of the Quraish and the Muhajirin (Meccan Muslims who had taken refuge in Medina), saw that the enemy arrows were all directed to the face of the Prophetsa. He stretched out his hand and held it up against the Prophet’ssa face. Arrow after arrow struck Talha’sra hand, yet it did not drop, although with each shot it was pierced through. Ultimately it was completely mutilated. Talhara lost his hand and for the rest of life went about with a stump. In the time of the Fourth Khalifah of Islam when internal dissensions had raised their head, Talhara was tauntingly described by an enemy as the handless Talhara. A friend of Talhara replied, “Handless, yea, but do you know where he lost his hand? At the Battle of Uhud, in which he raised his hand to shield the Prophet’ssa face from the enemy’s arrows.”
Long after the Battle of Uhud friends of Talhara asked him, “Did not your hand smart under the arrow shots and the pain make you cry?” Talhara replied, “It made me smart, and it almost made me cry, but I resisted both because I knew that if my hand shook but slightly, it would expose the Prophet’ssa face to the volley of enemy arrows.” The few men who were left with the Prophetsa could not have stood the army which they faced. A party of the enemy advanced forward and pushed them off. The Prophetsa then stood alone like a wall, and soon a stone struck his forehead and made a deep gash in it. Another blow drove the rings of his helmet into his cheeks. When the arrows were falling thick and fast and the Prophetsa was wounded he prayed, “My God, forgive my people for they know not what they are doing” (Muslim). The Prophetsa fell on the dead, the dead who had lost their lives in his defence. Other Muslims came forward to defend the Prophetsa from more attacks. They also fell dead. The Prophetsa lay unconscious among these dead bodies. When the enemy saw this, they took him for dead. They withdrew in the certainty of victory, and proceeded to line up again.
Among the Muslims who had been defending the Prophetsa and who had been pushed by the avalanche of enemy forces, was ‘Umarra. The battlefield had now cleared. ‘Umarra who saw this, became certain that the Prophetsa was dead. ‘Umarra was a brave man. He proved it again and again; best of all, in fighting simultaneously the great Empires of Rome and Iran. He was never known to blench under difficulties. This ‘Umarra sat on a stone with drooping spirits, crying like a child. In the meantime another Muslim, Anas bin Nadrra by name, came wandering along in the belief that the Muslims had won. He had seen them overpower the enemy but, having had nothing to eat since the night before, had withdrawn from the battlefield, with some dates in his hand. As soon as he saw ‘Umarra crying, he stood amazed and asked, ”‘Umarra, what is the matter with you that instead of rejoicing over a magnificent victory won by the Muslims, you are crying?”
‘Umarra replied, “Anasra, you do not know what has happened. You only saw the first part of the battle. You do not know that the enemy captured the strategic point on the hill and attacked us fiercely. The Muslims had dispersed, believing they had won. There was no resistance to this attack by the enemy. Only the Prophetsa with a handful of guards stood against the entire enemy and all of them fell down fighting.”
“If this is true,” said Anasra, “what use is sitting here and crying? Where our beloved Master has gone, there must we go too.”
Anasra had the last date in his hand. This he was about to put in his mouth but, instead, he threw it away saying, “O date, except thee, is there anything which stands between Anasra and Paradise?”
Saying this, he unsheathed his sword and flung himself into the enemy forces, one against three thousand. He could not do much, but one believing spirit is superior to many. Fighting valiantly, Anasra at last fell wounded, but he continued to fight. Upon this the enemy horde sprang barbarously upon him. It is said that when the battle was over, and the dead were identified, Anas’sra body could not be identified. It had been cut into seventy pieces. At last a sister of Anasra identifying it by a mutilated finger said, “This is my brother’s body” (Bukhari).
Those Muslims who made a ring round the Prophetsa but were driven back, ran forward again as soon as they saw the enemy withdrawing. They lifted the Prophet’ssa body from among the dead. Abu ‘Ubaida bin al-Jarrahra caught between his teeth the rings which had sunk into the Prophet’ssa cheeks and pulled them out, losing two teeth in the attempt.
After a little while, the Prophetsa returned to consciousness. The guards who surrounded him sent out messengers to tell Muslims to assemble again. A disrupted force began to assemble. They escorted the Prophetsa to the foot of the hill. Abu Sufyanra, the enemy commander, seeing these Muslim remnants, cried aloud, “We have killed Muhammadsa.” The Prophetsa heard the boastful cry but forbade the Muslims to answer, lest the enemy should know the truth and attack again and the exhausted and badly-wounded Muslims should have again to fight this savage horde. Not receiving a reply from the Muslims, Abu Sufyanra became certain the Prophetsa was dead. He followed his first cry by a second and said, “We have also killed Abu Bakrra.” The Prophetsa forbade Abu Bakrra to make any reply. Abu Sufyaran followed by a third, and said, “We have also killed ‘Umarra.” The Prophetsa forbade ‘Umarra also to reply. Upon this Abu Sufyanra cried that they had killed all three. Now ‘Umarra could not contain himself and cried, “We are all alive and, with God’s grace, ready to fight you and break your heads.” Abu Sufyanra raised the national cry, “Glory to Hubal. Glory to Hubal. For Hubal has put an end to Islam.” (Hubal was the Meccans’ national idol.) The Prophetsa could not bear this boast against the One and Only God, Allah, for Whom he and the Muslims were prepared to sacrifice their all. He had refused to correct a declaration of his own death. He had refused to correct a declaration of the death of Abu Bakrra and of ‘Umarra for strategic reasons. Only the remnants of his small force had been left. The enemy forces were large and buoyant. But now the enemy had insulted Allah. The Prophetsa could not stand such an insult. His spirit was fired. He looked angrily at the Muslims who surrounded him and said, “Why stand silent and make no reply to this insult to Allah, the Only God?”
The Muslims asked, “What shall we say, O
Prophetsa?” “Say, ‘Allah alone is Great and Mighty. Allah alone is Great and Mighty. He alone is High and Honoured. He alone is High and Honoured.’ “
The Muslims shouted accordingly. This cry stupefied the enemy. They stood chagrined at the thought that the Prophetsa after all had not died. Before them stood a handful of Muslims, wounded and exhausted. To finish them was easy enough. But they dared not attack again. Content with the sort of victory they had won, they returned making a great show of rejoicing.
In the Battle of Uhud, Muslim victory became converted into a defeat. Nevertheless, the battle affords evidence of the truth of the Prophetsa. For in this battle were fulfilled the prophecies the Prophetsa had made before going into battle. Muslims were victorious in the beginning. The Prophet’ssa beloved uncle, Hamzara, died fighting. The commander of the enemy was killed early in the action. The Prophetsa himself was wounded and many Muslims were killed. All this happened as it had been foretold in the Prophet’ssa vision.
Besides the fulfilment of the incidents told beforehand this battle afforded many proofs of the sincerity and devotion of Muslims. So exemplary was their behaviour that history fails to provide a parallel to it. Some incidents in proof of this we have already narrated. One more seems worth narrating. It shows the certainty of conviction and devotion displayed by the Prophet’ssa Companions. When the Prophetsa retired to the foot of the hill with a handful of Muslims, he sent out some of his Companions to look after the wounded lying on the field. A Companion after long search found a wounded Muslim of Medina. He was near death. The Companion bent over him and said, “Peace on you.” The wounded Muslim raised a trembling hand, and holding the visitor’s hand in his own, said, “I was waiting for someone to come.”
“You are in a critical state,” said the visitor to the soldier. “Have you anything to communicate to your relations?”
“Yes, yes,” said the dying Muslim. “Say peace to my relations and tell them that while I die here, I leave behind a precious trust to be taken care of by them. That trust is the Prophet of Godsa. I hope my relations will guard his person with their lives and remember this my only dying wish” (Mu’atta and Zurqani).
Dying persons have much to say to their relations, but these early Muslims, even in their dying moments, thought not of their relations, sons, daughters or wives, nor of their property, but only of the Prophetsa. They faced death in the certainty that the Prophetsa was the saviour of the world. Their children if they survived, would achieve but little. If they died guarding the Prophet’ssa person, they would have served both God and man. They believed that in sacrificing their families they served mankind and they served their God. In inviting death for them they secured life everlasting for mankind at large.
The Prophetsa collected the wounded and the dead. The wounded were given first-aid and the dead were buried. The Prophetsa then learnt that the enemy had treated the Muslims most savagely, that they had mutilated the bodies of the dead Muslims and cut off a nose here and an ear there. One of the mutilated bodies was that of Hamzara, the Prophet’ssa uncle. The Prophetsa was moved, and said, “The actions of disbelievers now justify the treatment which we so far thought was unjustified.” As he said this, he was commanded by God to let the disbelievers alone and to continue to show them compassion.
(Source: LIFE OF MUHAMMAD (pbuh))
BY HADRAT MIRZA BASHIRUDDIN MAHMUD AHMAD
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