~Approach and encampment 13th-14th Shawwal, Year 3 AH; the battle itself was fought on the morning of Saturday 15 Shawwal, Year 3 AH. · 3 AH
Details differ across the sources
The exact sequence of the battle is reconstructed differently across the sira sources, and this account is one plausible reconstruction. Several details were not found in the classical sources checked: al-Abbas RA's letter and its reading by Ubay ibn Ka'b RA, the Prophet ﷺ being the first to see Khalid's attack, all but ten of the archers leaving, the size of Khalid's cavalry, the exchange of armour with Ka'b ibn Malik RA, and Ikrimah's remark attributed to Zad al-Ma'ad.
In brief
The Battle of Uhud was fought in Shawwal 3 AH, a year after Badr, when the Quraysh marched on Madinah with 3,000 men under Abu Sufyan to avenge their defeat. The Prophet ﷺ favoured defending the city from within, but the younger companions pressed for open battle and he agreed. Abdullah ibn Ubayy deserted on the march with about 300 men, leaving roughly 700 Muslims to face the Quraysh at the foot of Mount Uhud, with fifty archers posted on a hill and ordered never to leave it. The first Muslim charge broke the Quraysh, but as the Muslims began gathering the spoils most of the archers abandoned their post, and Khalid ibn al-Walid led the Quraysh cavalry around the hill and struck from behind. The army was split and thrown into chaos. The Prophet ﷺ was wounded in the face and lost a tooth, and a false report that he had been killed spread across the field before companions fought their way back to him. The Quraysh withdrew without pressing their advantage, vowing to return the following year. Around seventy Muslims were martyred, among them Hamzah RA, whose body was mutilated. The next day the Prophet ﷺ led the wounded out to Hamra al-Asad to show the Quraysh that the Muslims were still standing. Uhud was neither a clean Muslim victory nor a Quraysh one: Madinah was defended, but at a heavy cost.
Outcome: The initial Muslim assault broke deep into the Quraysh lines: their women, stationed at the rear of the camp, were forced to flee up the mountainside, and the Banu Abd al-Dar flag-bearers were killed one by one (Ibn Ishaq names Quzman as killing several of them, and others killed by Ali ibn Abi Talib, Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Asim ibn Thabit) until their flag fell, the traditional sign of a defeated army. The Muslims had the clear upper hand at this stage. In the accounting of the dead, sources differ: Ibn Ishaq counts 65 Muslim martyrs, Ibn Hisham adds five more for 70; Qur'an 3:165, reflecting on the disaster after the double loss the Muslims had inflicted on the Quraysh at Badr, is read as corroborating a toll of around 70, set against the 140 losses the Muslims had inflicted at Badr, seventy killed and seventy captured (al-Bukhari). The Quraysh lost about 22 men at Uhud. Most of the Muslim dead were Ansar. Judged only by casualties the battle was a loss for the Muslims, yet by every other measure (Madinah was successfully defended and the Quraysh's aim to annihilate the Muslims failed; the Muslims, not the Quraysh, held the battlefield afterward; the Muslims took a prisoner of war (Abu Azzah al-Jumahi) while the Quraysh took none; the Quraysh did not pursue, but were themselves pursued the next day at Hamra al-Asad; and even Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal's own words afterward) "we haven't done anything worthy of honor yet" (Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma'ad): concede the Quraysh had not achieved a real victory. Uhud was therefore neither a clean Muslim victory nor a Quraysh one.
Uhud is read in the Qur'an as a deliberate counterpart to Badr: at Badr Allah separated the mushrikun from the believers (Qur'an 8:37); at Uhud He separated the munafiqun, whose true colors, visible for the first time in Abdullah ibn Ubayy's withdrawal, had never been tested under real pressure before (Qur'an 3:179). Where the sahaba's unity and obedience at Badr brought a victory beyond what their numbers could explain (Qur'an 8:43), their dispute over the ghanima and the archers' disobedience at Uhud is presented in the Qur'an as the direct cause of the reversal: "you disputed about the command and disobeyed after Allah had brought victory within your reach... He denied you victory over them as a test" (Qur'an 3:152). When a man later reproached Uthman RA for fleeing at Uhud, Ibn Umar RA answered that Allah had forgiven him (al-Bukhari). When the Prophet ﷺ, bleeding from his wounds, wondered aloud how a people could prosper after wounding their own Prophet ﷺ, Allah's reply ("Not for you is the decision whether He should forgive them or punish them, for indeed, they are wrongdoers" (Qur'an 3:128)) is read as one of the starkest correctives in the Qur'an against later movements that would attribute to the Prophet ﷺ any share in Allah's own authority to judge or forgive. Read against what actually followed, the verse also anticipates the outcome: nearly every senior Quraysh commander at Uhud (Abu Sufyan, Khalid ibn al-Walid, Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal, Safwan ibn Umayyah) later accepted Islam, Khalid himself becoming the sword with which the Muslims later conquered. Uhud stands in the tradition as proof that neither piety nor prophethood exempts anyone from real loss and real pain: the Prophet ﷺ himself was wounded and lost a tooth like any other fighter, protected in his life but not from suffering. The lesson repeatedly drawn from this is that rank in this life or the next is earned only through trial, never granted automatically to the sincere. The Prophet ﷺ returned to this same lesson years later: eight years after the battle, near the end of his life, he prayed over the martyrs of Uhud as though bidding farewell to the living and the dead, then told the Companions from the minbar that he did not fear they would worship others besides Allah, but that the world would tempt them and they would compete for it (al-Bukhari), as some at Uhud had competed for the ghanima. The martyrs of Uhud fixed the shaheed's burial as a category apart from every other Muslim death, still followed as fiqh today; the wailing the Prophet ﷺ permitted once, for Hamzah RA's sake, and then forbade for good marks the origin of a standing prohibition observed ever since. And the mutilation the Prophet ﷺ witnessed that day, though he first vowed to answer it in kind, instead became (once Qur'an 16:126 capped retaliation at no more than what was suffered) the occasion for banning mutilation outright, a ruling that has held regardless of how an enemy treats Muslim dead.
The Life of the Prophet ﷺ·Chapter 7 of 12Madinah
See the whole storyThe Year of Uhud·Chapter 3 of 13Uhud
See the whole storyThe seizure of the Quraysh caravan on the Iraq road closed their last trade route and hastened the march on Madinah.
The Quraysh spent the year after Badr raising an army to avenge their dead.
Ubay took the one wound the Prophet ﷺ ever inflicted with his own hand, and died of it on the road home.
The day after Uhud the wounded army marched out again to show the Quraysh they were not beaten.
Abu Sufyan's parting challenge from the mountain fixed a meeting at Badr one year on.
Jabir's father had died at Uhud, and his new marriage after it is the evidence for dating the expedition.
Wahshi threw at Musaylimah the javelin he had thrown at Hamzah, as expiation.
Other events recorded in 3 AH. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
Abu Sufyan goes door to door for the Badr caravan's profits, and Makkah hires poets and swords.
Went from door to door among the Quraysh households that had shared in the Badr caravan's profits, calling on them to put that wealth toward war against the Muslims.
Now, Abu Azzah, you are a poet, so help us with your tongue and go forth with us.
Muhammad ﷺ spared me, and I do not want to go against him.
No, but help us with your presence. God is my witness that if I return I will make you rich, and if you are killed I will treat your daughters as my own.
Gave in, went through the lowlands calling the Banu Kinana to war with his verses, and marched with the Quraysh to Uhud.
Al-Abbas's letter reaches Quba, the Prophet ﷺ tells his dream, and Madinah argues whether to go out or stay.
Sent a trusted servant racing to the Prophet ﷺ in Madinah with word of the Quraysh army's numbers, horses, and arms.
Rode three days from Makkah to Madinah as fast as I could, and found the Prophet ﷺ at Quba to hand him al-Abbas's letter.
Read al-Abbas's letter aloud to the Prophet ﷺ at Quba, then told him everything it said.
Do not tell anybody about this news.
I saw that I had put my hand into a strong coat of mail, and I interpreted it as Madinah.
His own opinion, given first when the council asked how to meet the Quraysh.
Yes, this is the correct position. Madinah has never been successfully attacked from within.
A number of the younger Companions, eager to meet the enemy after having missed Badr, pressed the Prophet ﷺ to march out and fight the Quraysh in the open rather than defend Madinah from within, until he set aside his own preference and agreed to go out.
We changed our minds.
Sent by the younger Companions after they realized they had pressured the Prophet ﷺ into overriding his own preference.
It is not possible for a prophet, once he has worn his armor, to take it off until he has fought the enemy.
I saw in a dream that I had struck with my sword, but my sword broke. Then I struck again, and it came back as good as it had ever been. I also saw cows, and Allah is good. And I saw myself wearing a protective armor.
Acting in predetermined thought is from Allah; and acting in haste is from shaytan.
A general teaching invoked to describe why the Prophet ﷺ sent scouts to confirm al-Abbas's report before calling a general meeting.
Ibn Ubayy turns back with a third of the army, and the boys under fifteen are sent home.
He listened to some youth, and did not take my advice. Why should we risk our lives when he hasn't listened to us?
Said to the Muslims who asked him where he was going, as he and about 300 men turned back.
I remind you to fear Allah, and not leave your Prophet ﷺ or the people at this time when the enemy is about to attack. Did you not promise him that you would protect him and defend him like you defend your own families?
If we knew they would fight, we would go with you; we would not leave; but we don't think they are going to attack.
Who is this? Is this Muhammad ﷺ and his Companions? Verily, I don't allow you to step foot in my land!
Leave him alone. He is a blind man of the eyes, and a blind man of the heart.
Turned back from the army at Uhud, being under the age of fifteen.
Turned back from the army at Uhud, being under the age of fifteen.
Turned back from the army at Uhud, being under the age of fifteen.
Turned back from the army at Uhud, being only eleven or twelve years old.
Turned back from the army at Uhud, being under the age of fifteen.
At fourteen, first turned back for being underage, then permitted by the Prophet ﷺ to remain at Uhud after relatives told him he was an expert archer.
Ya Rasulullah, if you're going to allow Rafi, I am stronger than Rafi and I've beaten him in wrestling a number of times! It's not fair!
Said after the Prophet ﷺ agreed to let Rafi ibn Khadij, also fourteen, stay in the army because he was a skilled archer.
The archers are posted, the sword is offered, and Usayrim becomes a Muslim before the first blow.
Protect us with your arrows, for their horses will never come forth in response to arrows. Even if you see the birds eating our bodies, do not leave your places until I send for you. Make sure the enemy does not surprise us from behind, regardless of whether we are the victors or the losers: stay there until I tell you.
Who will take this sword from me and fight?
I will take it, ya Rasulullah!
Who will take it from me with its haq?
And what is its haq, ya Rasulullah?
You fight the enemy with it until it breaks or it's not serviceable anymore.
I will take it with that haq, ya Rasulullah!
This type of walking: Allah despises it, except at such a time and such a place.
Said of Abu Dujana's swaggering walk through the ranks in his "turban of death," sword unsheathed, to intimidate the Quraysh.
I saw someone encouraging the Quraysh with all of the encouragements imaginable, so I said to myself, "I'm going to get rid of this person." So I walked up and raised my sword to strike, but all of a sudden, she turned around and screamed like an Arab lady would scream, and I felt embarrassed to use the sword of the Prophet ﷺ upon a woman, so I withdrew and I let her be.
Abu Dujana's own account of sparing a Quraysh woman, later identified as Hind bint Utbah, once he realized who she was.
O people of Madinah! Leave us to our cousins, for we have nothing against you! And we have no desire to fight you!
Relayed to the Ansar by a messenger sent ahead of the battle, in hopes of splitting the Ansar from the Muhajirun.
Leave this to me, for my people have always respected and honored me. You will see the power I have over them.
Said to Abu Sufyan after his first messenger's appeal asking the Ansar to abandon the Prophet ﷺ was rejected, offering to persuade his own former tribesmen among the Aws himself.
O my people of the Aws! This is me, Abu Amir!
My people have been afflicted with some disease: I don't know what's happened to them.
Said to Abu Sufyan after the Ansar rejected him and renamed him Abu Amir al-Fasiq.
Who will fight me?!
I will!
I beg you by the rights of kinship! Don't kill me!
Pleaded after Ali struck off his leg; they were third cousins.
I felt embarrassed, and he begged me by the ties of kinship not to kill him.
Ali's explanation for sparing Talha, given afterward to the sahaba.
Embraced Islam at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ after Salat al-Fajr on the morning of Uhud, and was martyred before Salat al-Zuhr, without having prayed a single rak'ah.
I am here to fight.
Said to his kinsmen of Banu Abd al-Ashhal, who told him, "We have no need of you," since he was not yet known to be a Muslim.
I am now a Muslim, and I want to fight for the sake of Islam.
Answering when his kinsmen asked whether he was fighting out of tribal loyalty or for the sake of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.
He did very little, but he was rewarded a lot. And he is of the people of Jannah.
Said of Usayrim after his martyrdom.
The Quraysh break and run, and the archers leave the hill.
When we fought them at Uhud, they turned and fled, until I saw with my own eyes the legs of the women as they lifted their skirts, running up the mountains, and I could see their ankle bracelets.
Al-Bara' ibn Azib's account of the Quraysh women fleeing as the initial Muslim assault broke through.
Have you forgotten what the Prophet ﷺ told you? "Stay where you are until my command comes to you." By Allah, I will not move my place until the command comes to me.
Said to the archers on the hill who wanted to leave their post and go collect the war booty after seeing the Quraysh flee.
O Muslims! Behind you! Take your precautions: they are coming from behind!
Khalid's horsemen come from behind: al-Yaman, Mus'ab, Hanzala, Quzman and Mukhayriq.
How long do we have left to live anyway? We are so old now.
Said to another elderly companion exempted from the fighting, as the two, sitting with the women and children, urged each other to join the battle anyway.
You are right. Let us go, and perhaps Allah will end our lives with a shahada.
Joined the battle in old age during the chaos of Khalid ibn al-Walid's counterattack, and was killed by his own Muslim brothers, who did not recognize him in the confusion.
That is my father! That is my father! Stop!
Cried out on recognizing his father al-Yaman RA being struck down in the chaos by Muslims who did not recognize him.
May Allah forgive you! He is the Most Merciful of the merciful!
Said to the Muslims who came to ask his forgiveness for killing his father in the chaos of Uhud.
Wanted to pay the blood money for al-Yaman RA's death, but Hudhayfah RA gave it as alms to the Muslims.
Took the blood money paid for his father's death and distributed all of it to the poor.
Held the Muslim banner at Uhud; when his right hand was severed he took hold of it with his left, and when that too was severed he clutched it between the stumps of his arms until he was stabbed and fell a martyr.
Married the night before Uhud and, called to the battle the next morning before he could perform ghusl, went out to fight in that state.
Fought his way to Abu Sufyan ibn Harb and was on the verge of killing him when a spear struck him from behind and killed him.
Your companion, Hanzala, is being washed by the angels.
Said of Hanzala ibn Abi Amir RA after his martyrdom at Uhud, who had married the night before and, called to the battle before he could perform ghusl, fought and died in that state.
Returned to fight fiercely at Uhud after being shamed by the women of Madinah for abandoning the battle, though his purpose was to prove his manhood, not for the sake of Allah.
Ya Rasulullah! Quzman is fighting an amazing battle!
هو في النار
He will be in the Hellfire.
Shaken by the Prophet ﷺ's words, followed Quzman to see for himself what was wrong with him.
Reported Quzman's death back to the Prophet ﷺ.
Sometimes Allah helps this religion through a fajir.
Disabled by his wounds and carried to the quarter of Banu Zafar, he told those who praised him that he had fought only for the honour of his people; when the pain became unbearable, he took an arrow from his quiver, cut the veins of his wrist and bled to death.
You know that it is our duty to help Muhammad ﷺ!
Said to his fellow Jews, urging them to honor the Constitution of Madinah's pledge to help defend the city at Uhud.
لا سبت لكم
May you have no Sabbath after this!
Said to his people after they refused to join the fight at Uhud, citing the Sabbath.
If I die, my property will go to Muhammad ﷺ.
Said before going out alone to fight at Uhud after his people refused to join him.
Took up his armor and sword and went to the battlefield of Uhud, where he fought bravely in defense of the Muslims until he was killed.
Mukhayriq is the best of the Jews.
Said after Mukhayriq was killed fighting for the Muslims at Uhud, having kept his pledge to leave his property to the Prophet ﷺ.
Wahshi's spear, and what Hind did afterwards.
If you kill Hamzah, you will be free.
Said to his slave Wahshi, promising him his freedom for killing Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib RA, in revenge for his uncle Tu'aymah ibn Adi, whom Hamzah RA had killed at Badr.
I was a slave in Makkah, and my master Jubayr promised me my freedom if I killed Hamzah. So I went out with the army. When the fight began I looked carefully for Hamzah, hiding behind trees and rocks so that he might come near me, until I saw him in the midst of the army, like a great camel, slaying men with his sword. Then Siba' came at him first, and Hamzah struck him down. I poised my javelin until I was sure it would hit the mark and threw it. It pierced the lower part of his body and came out between his legs. He began to stagger towards me, then collapsed, and I left him until he died.
Wahshi's own later account of stalking and killing Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib RA at Uhud.
Woe to you! Hide your face from me, and never let me see you again.
Said after Wahshi RA, who had fled to Ta'if after the Conquest of Makkah, came to him as a Muslim and, at his request, told him how he had killed Hamzah RA.
After the fighting, cut open Hamzah RA's belly and took out his liver, chewing it but unable to swallow it; with the women with her she cut off the ears and noses of the dead and made them into anklets and necklaces.
Were it not for the fact that Safiyyah would grieve and that the people would then take this as sunnah if I were to do this, I would have left his body untouched until it disperses in the bellies of the beasts and the birds.
Said upon seeing the mutilated body of Hamzah RA after the battle.
If Allah ever gives me victory over the Quraysh, I shall mutilate 30 of their bodies because of this one.
Said upon seeing the mutilation Hind had inflicted on Hamzah RA's body after the battle.
Do not mutilate.
His standing instruction to his armies (Sahih Muslim); after Uhud, and the revelation of Qur'an 16:126, he forbade mutilation (Ibn Ishaq).
The rumour that he was dead, the men who stood over him, and Talha's hand.
Let him alone.
Said when the sahaba moved to shield the Prophet ﷺ as Ubay ibn Khalaf charged him on horseback.
Who will take on these people? He shall be my companion in Jannah.
Called out as the small band of sahaba with him retreated toward Mount Uhud, with Quraysh scouts closing in on their position.
I will go next.
Talha repeated this offer each time an Ansari fell, but the Prophet ﷺ kept him back: Talha was the best of the group and was being saved for the very end.
One by one, we went out to draw the Quraysh away from where the Prophet ﷺ was hiding, until none of us remained.
O Prophet of Allah ﷺ, may my father and mother be your ransom! Do not raise your head, lest an arrow of the enemy strike you. Let my neck and chest be struck instead of yours.
Said as he shot arrows in defence of the Prophet ﷺ.
فداك أبي وأمي
Fidaka abi wa ummi (May my mother and father be given in ransom for you)! Shoot, O Sa'd, shoot!
Said as he handed Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA arrows to shoot, even one with no head. Ali RA said he never heard him ransom anyone else with both his parents, though al-Zubayr RA reports that he said the same to him at Qurayzah.
On the Day of Uhud, the Prophet ﷺ gave me a bow, and I continued to use it so much that it was no longer flexible. When the arrows continued to come, I decided to use my body to shield the Prophet ﷺ. I started monitoring the arrows: every time one came, I tried to block it so it would not hit him. Until I saw an arrow coming that I could only stop with my face, so I did, and it struck my eye.
O Allah! Qatada has protected your Prophet ﷺ with his face! So let his eye become the best eye, and let it be the most precise in eyesight!
The Prophet ﷺ made this du'a and took the arrow out of Qatada's eye himself.
It became the better of my two eyes, and the more precise of my two eyes!
The Prophet ﷺ had put the eye back in its place with his hand.
How can a people prosper who have stained their prophet's face with blood while he summoned them to their Lord?
Said while continuously wiping the blood from his face.
O Allah, forgive my people, because they do not know.
Said after Allah revealed the verse telling him that judgment of the wrongdoers was not his to decide, once the Muslims had returned to Madinah.
I saw the Prophet ﷺ on the Day of Uhud being guarded by two men wearing the whitest of white, fighting a fierce battle; I never saw them before or after Uhud.
Muhammad ﷺ has killed me!!
Cried out after the Prophet ﷺ's spear struck his neck at Uhud.
Why aren't you fighting? The enemy is here!
Said to a group of sahaba who had sat down after hearing the false report that the Prophet ﷺ had been killed.
Even if the Prophet ﷺ has been killed, the Lord of the Prophet ﷺ has not been killed! And besides, what will you do with life now that the Prophet ﷺ is dead? Let us go and die as he died!
O Sa'd! Verily, I can smell the fragrance of Jannah from behind that mountain!
O Allah, I ask Your forgiveness for what these (my fellow Muslims) have done, and I disassociate from what they (the Quraysh) have done!
I threw myself into the fighting until I could no longer be recognized, martyred with over eighty wounds.
O Muslims, rejoice! For the Prophet ﷺ is alive!
Said after recognizing the Prophet ﷺ by the piercing brightness of his eyes; the Prophet ﷺ then told him to remain quiet, as it was not wise to give away his location.
So I gave him my armor and wore his ﷺ, so the enemy would think I was him ﷺ and come for me instead.
O Allah, let it be Talha.
Said on seeing a lone man fighting to protect the Prophet ﷺ from a distance, before he could tell who it was.
While I was rushing up, another man rushed past me so fast: it was Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah. We both reached the Prophet ﷺ together and saw that two rings of his helmet had been driven into his cheek.
Let me do this.
Said to Abu Bakr RA, begging to be the one to draw the ring of the helmet out of the Prophet ﷺ's cheek.
I bit onto the ring with my teeth and drew it out gently, not wanting the pain to fall on him ﷺ, and I broke one of my own teeth doing it.
No, I've done one: I'm going to do the other.
Said when Abu Bakr RA insisted on drawing out the second ring himself.
And so I did the same with the second, and broke another tooth: I was left without three or four teeth for the rest of my life.
حس
Hiss! (Ouch!)
Cried out when some of his fingers were cut off fighting an enemy the Prophet ﷺ had sent him to face.
بسم الله
If you had only said 'bismillah' [instead], the angels would have lifted you up while the people are watching you, and they would have taken you up to the skies.
The exchange from the foot of the mountain, and the promise of Badr next year.
Is Muhammad ﷺ alive?! Answer me!... Is the son of Abu Quhafa alive?... Is the son of al-Khattab alive?
Called out from the mountainside once the fighting had ended and Khalid's forces had failed to find the Prophet ﷺ; asked after Muhammad ﷺ, then Abu Bakr RA ("the son of Abu Quhafa"), then Umar RA ("the son of al-Khattab"), each time getting no response.
Don't answer him.
Repeated instruction to Umar RA and Abu Bakr RA, who were with him, to stay silent as Abu Sufyan called out.
We have killed all of them!!
Exalted after getting no response from the Muslims.
You are lying, O enemy of Allah! For verily, Allah has caused all of them to live! And they will remain to harm you at another day!
Today in retaliation for the Day of Badr! And war is in turns! ... You shall find amongst the dead mutilation: I did not command them to do this, but I am not angry with it either!
They are not the same! Our dead are in Jannah! Your dead are in Jahannam!
U'lu Hubal! (Hubal, be honored!)
Say to him: Allah is mightier and He has more honor!
Unlike the earlier questions about who was alive, the Prophet ﷺ told the sahaba to answer this one: he would not let shirk against Allah go unchallenged, even though mockery of himself and the sahaba he let pass unanswered.
We have Uzza! You have no Uzza!
Say to him: Allah will protect us! And you have no Protector!
We shall meet again, one year from today, at the Plains of Badr.
Burying the dead where they fell, and the women of Madinah who waited at the road.
The lady! The lady!
Said upon seeing a woman he did not yet recognize (Safiyyah bint Abd al-Muttalib RA) approaching the battlefield, out of concern she would be traumatized by what she would see there.
O mother,
Ran up to his mother, Safiyyah bint Abd al-Muttalib RA, after recognizing her approaching the battlefield following the Prophet ﷺ's call for her not to be there.
I have no need of you now!
But the Prophet ﷺ said you should not go.
I bought this for my brother Hamzah, so use this to shroud and bury him.
Handed Zubayr two garments she had brought for Hamzah RA.
I am embarrassed Hamzah should get two and this Ansari get none; so we drew lots to decide which person gets which, and we gave them as allocated.
Found an Ansari beside Hamzah RA with no shroud of his own; this became a classical example of maslaha ammah (public welfare) overriding maslaha khassah (a donor's personal intent).
Let those who know the most Qur'an be buried first.
Verily, this Book, Allah will raise people through it, and Allah will debase others through it.
I guarantee I will testify for every one of them on the Day of Judgment.
Said to the Companions in a speech honoring the martyrs of Uhud.
The shaheed will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment and his wounds will still be as fresh as the day he was killed, and the sight will be the sight of blood but the smell will be the smell of musk.
Where are the women of Hamzah to wail for him?
What should I name this child?
His wife, an Ansari woman, had just given birth, and he came to ask the Prophet ﷺ what to name their son.
Name him the most beloved name to me: Hamzah.
Ihtasibi (احتسبي), expect your reward from Allah.
Visiting Hammanah bint Jahsh in person to break the news of her losses.
What? Who?
Your brother.
Inna liLlahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. May Allah accept his shahada, may Allah forgive him.
Ihtasibi.
Who?!
Mus'ab ibn Umayr.
Verily, the husband has a maqam (special status) in the eyes of the wife.
Reflecting afterward on Hammanah bint Jahsh's reaction to news of her husband Mus'ab ibn Umayr RA's death, which grieved her more than the news of her brother's.
How is the Prophet ﷺ? Is the Prophet ﷺ alive? ... Until I see the Prophet ﷺ!
Asked, unwavering, after being told in turn of the deaths of her father, her husband, and her brother at Uhud, refusing to properly grieve any of them until she confirmed the Prophet ﷺ himself was safe.
Every musibah after you is trivial.
I tried to wash the wounds from his face ﷺ, but the bleeding would not stop. So Ali poured water while I worked, until I burned some date-palm leaves to ash and pressed the paste into the wound to seal it.
What the Prophet ﷺ and the Companions said of Uhud in later years.
Uhud is a mountain of Jannah.
Uhud is a mountain that loves us, and we love it.
Said on returning from an expedition and catching sight of Mount Uhud.
Calm down, Uhud! For there is only a prophet, a siddiq, and two martyrs upon you.
Said while climbing Uhud with Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, when the mountain began to tremble underfoot.
When the Prophet ﷺ offered his sword and I said I want it but he gave it to Abu Dujana, I felt something in my heart; so I decided to follow Abu Dujana. And I saw that Abu Dujana did not meet a single enemy except that he managed to get rid of him with the sword by the haq. And there was one person of the Quraysh who was causing much havoc among the Muslims, so I made a du'a to Allah, "O Allah! Let Abu Dujana meet him!" And Abu Dujana indeed got rid of him.
Zubayr ibn al-Awwam's own account, narrated years after the battle, of following Abu Dujana through the fighting.
I will be the one who will be waiting for you at the Fountain. I will testify in front of Allah SWT regarding you. Meet me at the Fountain. I am not worried that you will fall into shirk; I am worried that after I die, this dunya will open up for you, and you will compete with one another to try to get the most out of it.
Said from the minbar eight years after Uhud, near the end of his life, after praying over its martyrs as though bidding farewell to the living and the dead.
As for his flight on the day of Uhud, I testify that Allah has forgiven him.
Answering a man who, in Makkah, reproached Uthman RA for having fled at Uhud.
We all emigrated with the Prophet ﷺ seeking the reward of Allah, and our reward is with Him; but some of us left this world without taking any of it here: their full reward is in the Hereafter. Of them is Mus'ab ibn Umayr. He was killed on the Day of Uhud, and all he had was the one garment he was wearing: when we tried to cover him, if we covered his head his feet showed, and if we covered his feet his head showed, so the Prophet ﷺ told us to cover his head and cover his feet with idhkhir grass. As for the rest of us, we have lived on and Allah has blessed us in this world, and we do not know what He will do with us.
Khabbab's own deathbed speech, recalling the poverty in which Mus'ab ibn Umayr RA died at Uhud.
He is Usayrim of Banu Abd al-Ashhal. He remained firm upon his paganism until the Day of Uhud. On the morning of the Battle of Uhud, he decided to convert.
Recounted by Abu Hurairah RA to his students, asking them, "Who can tell me the name of the man who entered Jannah without having prayed a single rak'ah?"
Would test his students by asking who was the Muslim who entered Jannah without ever performing a single prayer: the answer being Usayrim.
A teaching device Abu Hurairah used later in life, recalling Usayrim RA's martyrdom at Uhud.
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَٰلَهُمْ لِيَصُدُّوا۟ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ فَسَيُنفِقُونَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسْرَةًۭ ثُمَّ يُغْلَبُونَ ۗ وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ يُحْشَرُونَ
“Surely, the disbelievers spend their wealth to hinder others from the Path of Allah. They will continue to spend to the point of regret. Then they will be defeated and the disbelievers will be driven into Hell, so Allah may separate the evil from the good. He will pile up the evil ones all together and then cast them into Hell. They are the [true] losers.”
Revealed after Badr; understood as prophesying the Quraysh's renewed campaign that becomes Uhud.
وَمَا أَصَابَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْتَقَى الْجَمْعَانِ فَبِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
“So what you suffered on the day the two armies met was by Allah's Will, so that He might distinguish the [true] believers”
On the trial of the two armies meeting at Uhud.
وَلِيَعْلَمَ ٱلَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا۟ ۚ وَقِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا۟ قَـٰتِلُوا۟ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ أَوِ ٱدْفَعُوا۟ ۖ قَالُوا۟ لَوْ نَعْلَمُ قِتَالًۭا لَّٱتَّبَعْنَـٰكُمْ ۗ هُمْ لِلْكُفْرِ يَوْمَئِذٍ أَقْرَبُ مِنْهُمْ لِلْإِيمَـٰنِ ۚ يَقُولُونَ بِأَفْوَٰهِهِم مَّا لَيْسَ فِى قُلُوبِهِمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا يَكْتُمُونَ
“and expose the hypocrites. When it was said to them, 'Come fight in the cause of Allah, or [at least] defend yourselves,' they replied, 'If we had known there was fighting, we would have definitely gone with you.' They were closer to disbelief than to belief on that day — for saying with their mouths what was not in their hearts. Allah is All-Knowing of what they hide”
Exposing the hypocrites who withdrew on the march to Uhud.
“Allah is not going to allow the Muslims to remain in status quo until he separates the filthy from the pure”
Cited for Allah separating the sincere believers from the hypocrites through the trial of Uhud.
“Why are you [believers] divided into two groups regarding the hypocrites while Allah allowed them to regress [to disbelief] because of their misdeeds?”
Allah's reprimand to the Muslims for disputing over how to treat the hypocrites who withdrew before Uhud.
“There were two groups about to give up, but Allah is their Protector [so Allah protected them]. And in Allah the people who put their trust should put their trust”
On the Banu Harithah and Banu Salama nearly withdrawing with the hypocrites before Uhud.
“...And consult with them in [conducting] matters. Once you make a decision, put your trust in Allah”
Cited for the principle of shura illustrated in the council before Uhud.
“If Allah helps you, none can defeat you”
Closing exhortation cited at the end of the account of the 700 who marched to Uhud.
“[those] who conduct their affairs by mutual consultation”
Cited for the principle of mutual consultation (shura) illustrated in the council before Uhud.
“Take your precautions”
Cited for the principle of taking precaution, illustrated by the Prophet ﷺ wearing two suits of armor to Uhud.
“Indeed, Allah fulfilled His promise to you when you [initially] swept them away by His Will, then your courage weakened and you disputed about the command and disobeyed after Allah had brought victory within your reach. Some of you were after worldly gain while others desired a heavenly reward. He denied you victory over them as a test, yet He has pardoned you. And Allah is Gracious to the believers.”
Revealed about the archers' dispute and disobedience at Uhud after the initial victory.
“[Remember] when you were running far away [in panic] -- not looking at anyone -- while the Messenger was calling to you from behind!”
Describes the Muslims fleeing in panic from Khalid ibn al-Walid's counterattack while the Prophet ﷺ called them back from behind.
وَإِنْ عَاقَبْتُمْ فَعَاقِبُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا عُوقِبْتُم بِهِ ۖ وَلَئِن صَبَرْتُمْ لَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لِّلصَّابِرِينَ
“And if you punish [an enemy, O believers], punish with an equivalent of that with which you were harmed. But if you are patient -- it is better for those who are patient.”
Revealed after the Prophet ﷺ vowed to mutilate 30 Quraysh bodies in response to what was done to Hamzah RA, restraining the vow to a like-for-like limit.
لَيْسَ لَكَ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ شَيْءٌ أَوْ يَتُوبَ عَلَيْهِمْ أَوْ يُعَذِّبَهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ ظَالِمُونَ
“Not for you, [O Muhammad, but for Allah] is the decision whether He should [cut them down] or forgive them or punish them, for indeed, they are wrongdoers”
Revealed after the Muslims returned to Madinah from Uhud, in response to the Prophet ﷺ's remark upon being wounded.
مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا عَاهَدُوا اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ ۖ فَمِنْهُم مَّن قَضَىٰ نَحْبَهُ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَنتَظِرُ ۖ وَمَا بَدَّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا
“Among the believers are men who have proven true to what they pledged to Allah”
Revealed regarding Anas ibn al-Nadr RA and companions like him who were martyred at Uhud.
أَوَلَمَّا أَصَابَتْكُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَدْ أَصَبْتُم مِّثْلَيْهَا قُلْتُمْ أَنَّىٰ هَٰذَا ۖ قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ أَنفُسِكُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
“Why [is it that] when a [single] disaster struck you [on the Day of Uhud], although you had struck [the enemy in the Battle of Badr] with one twice as great, you said, 'From where is this?' Say, 'It is from yourselves.' Indeed, Allah is over all things competent.”
Cited for the ~70 Muslim casualties at Uhud, by comparison with the ~140 mushrikun killed at Badr.