70 companions died in one day in the Battle of Uhud. The city of Medina was a very small city. The simultaneous martyrdom of 70 people at this time was a major disaster. But dying in the path of Allah was a great reward. As a Muslim, that person would want his death to be for the pleasure of Allah. The tradition of martyrdom in war began in the Battle of Uhud, and the first person to introduce the tradition was Amir Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had four uncles. The first of those uncles was Abu Lahab, who was an extreme opponent of Islam. He died in the Battle of Badr. Although Abdul Muttalib did not convert to Islam, he remained a friend of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) as long as he was alive. Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him) embraced Islam during his middle years in Mecca. He was forced to convert to Islam. But then a true love for Islam was born in his heart. The last one is Abbas who converted to Islam after the Battle of Badr. He was always on the side of the Messenger of Allah. Each of these four people had their own society. Because they were the children of Abdul Muttalib, and Abdul Muttalib was very noble among the Quraysh.
Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him) fought with great bravery in the Battle of Uhud. The man who killed Hamza was named Warsi and he was a neutral person because he was a slave. He had no desire to fight, but rather he fought in the hope of being free.
His intention was to free himself by killing Hamza, and the story of Hamda’s murder is narrated from his own mouth. He narrated that he was the slave of Zubayr ibn. Hamza killed Muttakin uncle, To’bin, in the Battle of Badr. While preparations were being made for the Battle of Uhud, Zubayr, the nephew of Tayyabeen, came to me and said: Listen, Worsi, if you kill Hamza, I will set you free. I agreed. I could throw the javelin very skillfully. In the battle of Uhud, I saw Amir Hamza fighting with great courage and he was killing many of our soldiers. We could not stop him in any way. I was hiding behind the bushes and slowly moving towards him. I very carefully aimed my spear at Hamza and threw it. The spear went through his lower abdomen. He tried to run towards me but couldn’t. I went over to him to make sure he was dead. I took the weapon out of his body and then I returned to the tent. I had no other choice but to kill him. Then I fled to Taif, but at that time I didn’t know where to go or what to do. Then someone told me that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would not kill anyone who embraced Islam. I went straight to Medina and stood behind the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and uttered the Kalima, surprising him. He then asked Are you Warsi?
Then he told me to sit here and tell me how you killed Hamza. Then I narrated to him the same way I narrated to you, and he said to me, “Go away from me.” After that, I never met the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and I used to avoid him.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) loved his uncle very much. He asked, “Where is my uncle?” Then one of them said, “Come with me.” He went to the battlefield and saw his uncle’s body and wept.
Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) saw the bodies of the dead and said, “If Allah grants me victory over the Quraysh, I will mutilate their bodies in exactly the same way as the bodies of 30 of them.”
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. And be patient, [O Muhammad], and your patience is not but through Allah. And do not grieve over them and do not be in distress over what they conspire.
(Quran 16:126-127)
This verse prohibits mutilation of dead bodies. After killing, enemies must be left dead as they are. After this verse was revealed, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) remained patient and ordered everyone not to mutilate the dead. Then the dead body of Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him) was wrapped in a white sheet. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) performed his funeral prayer. Then the bodies of the other martyrs were brought and their funeral prayers were also performed, but the funeral prayer was performed with the body of Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him). Thus, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) recited the name of Hamza (peace be upon him) 72 times.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) was very distressed by the death of Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him). Even when his killer appeared before him seven years later, he did not want to look at his face. Even if he converted to Islam, all his previous sins would be forgiven, but he did not want to see the face of his uncle’s murderer, Wassi, because seeing his face would remind him of his uncle’s dead body.
Warsi (may Allah be pleased with him) asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to seek forgiveness for him. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) spat on the ground three times and said to him, “Fight for Islam as you fought against Islam before.”
If you commit a sin, you must first repent and then do good deeds so that the sin is erased.
Our second martyr Mujahir bin Anhu. Khabbab bin (may Allah be pleased with him) described the kind of person he was. We migrated in the hope of receiving a reward in the Hereafter, we did not migrate for any gain in this world. And Musa bin Umayr was just such a person, he migrated wearing only one cloak. At the time of his death, there was only a piece of cloth for his burial. Yet he was a celebrity in the Age of Ignorance, he had everything.
Our next martyr is Saad bin (may Allah be pleased with him). He was a companion with whom the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) consulted before the battle and he loved him very much. After the battle, the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked about his news. A companion went out to look for him and found him lying wounded on the battlefield. He went to Sadd (may Allah be pleased with him) and said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent his greetings to you and asked about your condition. He replied, “Give my greetings to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and tell him that I smell the fragrance of Paradise.”
After saying this, Sadr (may Allah be pleased with him) died.
One thing that is noticeable in all the above incidents is the indomitable will to go to war among the companions.
The name of the next companion is Handza (may Allah be pleased with him). The Ansar companion Handza (may Allah be pleased with her) was married the night before the battle. The companions usually stayed in tents on the night before a battle, but he asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to spend the night with his wife. The Prophet (peace be upon him) gave permission and he spent the night with his wife and then came in the morning and prayed the Fajr prayer with the companions.
Then he returned to his wife Jabir (may Allah be pleased with her) to bid her farewell. Then his wife embraced him and they had intercourse. Then he went out to fight without taking the obligatory bath. He was a brave warrior, even though he was an infantryman, yet he targeted Abu Sufyan Karam, who was sitting on a horse. It is not easy to fight on horseback, but the Ansar advanced and struck the horse’s legs with their spears. Abu Sufyan fell to the ground. But before that, a polytheist came forward and hit Hanja in the chest with a spear. But Hangar was not a man to be trifled with. He stood up to strike Abu Sufyan again. Then he struck the polytheist a second time. Hanjar (may Allah be pleased with him) was martyred.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) saw a strange sight with him. I saw Hanjar (may Allah be pleased with him) between the earth and heaven, where angels were bathing him with water from silver vessels.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) sent for his wife, who said that Hanjar (may Allah be pleased with him) had gone to the battlefield in an impure state. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “That is why the angels had him bathed.”
This time we will discuss the dignity of martyrs. The Quran and Hadith speak volumes about the dignity of martyrs. There is a wonderful hadith about martyrs, which is the green birds hadith. The hadith was narrated by Abbas bin (may Allah be pleased with him). The Prophet (peace be upon him) narrated that when your brothers are killed, Allah Almighty transforms them into green birds. They float on the rivers of Paradise and eat the fruits of Paradise.
Then Allah revealed this verse:
And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision, Rejoicing in what Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty, and they receive good tidings about those [to be martyred] after them who have not yet joined them – that there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. They receive good tidings of favor from Allah and bounty and [of the fact] that Allah does not allow the reward of believers to be lost –
(Quran 3:169-171)
From here we learn two things: that the martyrs are alive and that they want their brothers to fight jihad. Their desire was so strong that Allah Himself revealed their desire in the Quran. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) narrated in another hadith that those who visit the graves of martyrs and greet them will be greeted in return. The Prophet (peace be upon him) ordered that martyrs be buried in their blood and not bathed. They don’t even have to perform funeral prayers because they are not dead but alive.
In the next episode, we will discuss the lessons of the Battle of Uhud.
