The rumour of the Prophet's(sa) death and the news of the dispersal of the Muslim army reached Medina, before the remnants of the Muslim force could return to the town. Women and children ran madly towards Uhud. Many of them learnt the truth from the returning soldiers and went back. One woman of the tribe of Banu Dinar went on until she reached Uhud. This woman had lost her husband, father and brother in the battle. According to some narrators, she had also lost a son. A returning soldier met her and told her that her father had died. She said in reply, "I do not care for my father; tell me about the Prophet(sa)." The soldier knew the Prophet(sa) was alive, so he did not answer her query at once, but went on to tell her of her brother and husband who had also died. At each report she remained unmoved and asked again and again, "What has the Prophet(sa) of God done?" It was a strange expression to use, but when we remember it was a woman who used it, it no longer seems so strange. A woman's emotions are strong. She often addresses a dead person as though he were alive. If that person is nearly related, she tends to make a complaint to him and ask why he is abandoning her and leaving her behind uncared for and unlooked after. It is common for women to mourn the loss of their dear ones in this way. The expression used by this woman, therefore, is appropriate to a woman grieving over the Prophet's(sa) death. This woman held the Prophet(sa) dear and refused to believe he was dead even after she had heard that he was. At the same time she did not deny the news but continued to say in true womanly grief, "What has the Prophet(sa) of God done?" By saying this she pretended the Prophet(sa) was alive, and complained that a loyal leader like him had chosen to give them all the pain of separation.
When the returning soldier found that this woman did not care about the death of her father, brother and husband, he understood the depth of her love for the Prophet(sa) and told her, "As for the Prophet(sa), he is as you wish, fully alive." The woman asked the soldier to show her the Prophet(sa). He pointed to one part of the field. The woman rushed to that part and reaching the Prophet(sa), held his mantle in her hand, kissed it and said, "My father and mother be sacrificed to thee, O Prophet of God(sa), if thou livest, I care not who else dies" (Hisham).
We can see, therefore, what fortitude and devotion did Muslims—both men and women—display in this battle. Christian writers narrate proudly the story of Mary Magdalene and her companions and tell us of their devotion and bravery. It is said that in the small hours of the morning they stole through the Jews and made for the tomb of Jesus(as). But what is this compared with the devotion of this Muslim woman of the tribe of Dinar?
One more example is recorded in history. After the dead had been buried and the Prophet(sa) was returning to Medina, he saw women and children who had come out of Medina to receive him. The cord of his dromedary was held by Sa’d bin Mu’adh(ra), a chief of Medina. Sa’d(ra) was leading the dromedary pompously. He seemed to proclaim to the world that Muslims had after all succeeded in leading the Prophet(sa) back to Medina hale and hearty. As he was advancing he saw his own aged mother advancing to meet the returning party of Muslims. This aged woman was very weak-sighted. Sa’d(ra) recognized her and, turning to the Prophet(sa), said, "Here, O Prophet(sa), is my mother."
"Let her come forward," replied the Prophet(sa).
The woman came forward and with a vacant look tried to spot the Prophet's(sa) face. At last she was able to spot it and was glad. The Prophet(sa) seeing her said, "Woman, I grieve over the loss of thy son."
"But," replied the devoted woman, "after I have seen you alive, I have swallowed all my misfortunes." The Arabic expression she used was "I have roasted my misfortune and swallowed it" (Halbiyya, Vol. 2, p. 210). What depth of emotion does this expression indicate. Normally, grief eats up a human being, and here was an aged woman who had lost her son, a staff for her old age. But she said that, instead of letting her grief eat her up, she had eaten up her grief. The fact that her son had died for the Prophet(sa) would sustain her during the rest of her days.
The Prophet(sa) reached Medina. In this battle, many Muslims were killed and many wounded. Still the battle cannot be said to have ended in defeat for Muslims. The incidents which we have related above prove the reverse. They prove that Uhud was as great a victory for Muslims as any other. Muslims who turn to the pages of their early history can derive sustenance and inspiration from Uhud.
Back in Medina, the Prophet(sa) returned to his mission. He engaged himself again in training and teaching his followers. But as before, his work did not go on uninterruptedly. After Uhud, the Jews became more daring, and the hypocrites began to raise their heads again. They began to think that the extirpation of Islam was within their means and their competence. Only, they had to make a concerted effort. Accordingly, the Jews put to use new methods of vexation. They would publish foul abuse in verse, and in this way they would insult the Prophet(sa) and his family. Once the Prophet(sa) was called to decide a dispute and he had to go to a Jewish fortress. The Jews planned to drop a stone slab on him and thus put an end to his life. The Prophet(sa) had a forewarning of this from God. It was his wont to receive such timely warnings. The Prophet(sa) left his seat without saying anything. The Jews later admitted their foul intrigue. Muslim women were insulted in the streets. In one such incident a Muslim lost his life. On another occasion the Jews stoned a Muslim girl and she died in great pain. This behaviour of the Jews strained their relations with Muslims and forced them to fight against the Jews. But Muslims only turned them out of Medina. One of the two Jewish tribes migrated to Syria. Of the other, some went to Syria and some settled in Khaibar, a well-fortified Jewish stronghold, to the north of Medina.
In the interval of peace between Uhud and the next battle, the world witnessed an outstanding example of the influence of Islam on its followers. We refer to the prohibition of drink. In describing the condition of Arab society before Islam, we pointed out that the Arabs were confirmed drunkards. To drink five times a day was in fashion in every Arab home. To lose oneself under the effect of drink was a common practice and of this the Arabs were not in the least ashamed. Rather they thought it was a virtue. When a guest arrived, it was the duty of the house-wife to send drinks round. To wean such a people from this deadly habit was no easy matter. But in the fourth year after the Hijra the Prophet(sa) received the command that drinking had been forbidden. With the promulgation of this command, drinking disappeared from Muslim society. It is recorded that when the revelation making drink unlawful was received, the Prophet(sa) sent for a Companion and ordered him to proclaim the new command in the streets of Medina. In the house of an Ansari (a Muslim of Medina) a drinking party was going on. Many persons had been invited and cups of wine were being served. One large pot had been drunk and a second one was going to be broached. Many had lost their senses, and many more were on the way to lose them. In this condition they heard some one proclaim that drinking had been forbidden by the Prophet(sa) under a command of God. One of the party stood up and said, "It looks like a proclamation against drinking; let us find out if this is so." Another stood up, struck the earthen pot full of wine with his staff, broke it to pieces and said, "First obey, then inquire. It is enough that we have heard of such a proclamation. It is not meet that we should go on drinking while we make inquiries. It is rather our duty to let the wine flow in the street and then inquire about the proclamation" (Bukhari and Muslim, Kitab al-Ashriba). This Muslim was right. For, if drinking had been forbidden, they would have been guilty of an offence, had they gone on drinking on the other hand, if drinking had not been forbidden, they would not lose much if for once they should let the wine in their pots flow into the streets. Drinking disappeared from the entire Muslim society after this proclamation. No special effort or campaign was needed to bring about this revolutionary change. Muslims who heard this command and witnessed the ready response with which it was received lived up to seventy or eighty years. No case is known of any Muslim who, having heard of this prohibition, showed the weakness of offending against it. If there was any such case, it must have been of one who did not have the chance to come under the direct influence of the Prophet(sa). Compare with this the prohibition movement of America and of the efforts to promote temperance which have been made for so many years in Europe. In the one case a simple proclamation by the Prophet(sa) was enough to obliterate a social evil rooted deep in Arab society. In the other, prohibition was enacted by special laws. Police and the army, custom officials and excise inspectors, all exerted themselves as a team and tried to put down the evil of drink but failed and had to confess their failure. The drunkards won and the drink evil could not be defeated. Ours is said to be an age of social progress. But when we compare our age with the age of early Islam, we wonder which of the two deserves this title—this age of ours or the age in which Islam brought about this great social revolution?
What happened at Uhud was not liable to be easily forgotten. The Meccans thought Uhud was their first victory against Islam. They published the news all over Arabia and used it to excite the Arab tribes against Islam and to persuade them that Muslims were not invincible. If they continued to prosper, it was not because of any strength of their own but because of the weakness of Arab orthodoxy. It was due to the weakness of Arab idolaters. If the Arab idolaters made a concerted effort, to overpower the Muslims was not a difficult business. The result of this propaganda was that hostility against Muslims began to gather strength. The other Arab tribes began to outstrip the Meccans in harassing the Muslims. Some began to attack them openly. Some began to inflict losses upon them surreptitiously. In the fourth year after the Hijra, two Arab tribes, the Adl and the Qara, sent their representatives to the Holy Prophet(sa) to submit that many of their men were inclined towards Islam. They requested the Prophet(sa) to send to them some Muslims well- versed in the teaching of Islam, to live among them and teach them the New Religion. Actually this was an intrigue hatched by the Banu Lihyan, arch-enemy of Islam. They sent these delegates to the Prophet(sa) under promise of a rich reward. The Prophet(sa) received the request unsuspectingly and sent ten Muslims to teach the tribes the tenets and principles of Islam. When this party reached the territory of the Banu Lihyan, their escorts had the news delivered to the tribesmen and invited them to arrest the party or to put them to death. On this vicious suggestion, two hundred armed men of the Banu Lihyan set out in pursuit of the Muslim party and overtook them at last at a spot called Raji. An encounter took place between ten Muslims and two hundred of the enemy. The Muslims were full of faith. The enemy was without any. The ten Muslims climbed up an eminence and challenged the two hundred. The enemy tried to overpower the Muslims by vile intrigue. They offered to spare them if only they would come down. But the party chief replied that they had seen enough of the promises made by disbelievers. So saying, they turned to God and prayed. God was well aware of their plight. Was it not meet that He should inform their Prophet(sa) of this? When the disbelievers found the small party of Muslims adamant, they launched their attack upon them. The party fought without thought of defeat. Seven of the ten fell fighting. To the three who remained the disbelievers renewed their promise to spare their lives, on condition that they should come down from the eminence. These three believed the disbelievers and surrendered. As soon as they did so, the disbelievers tied them up. One of the three said, "This is the first breach of your plighted word. God only knows what you will do next." Saying this, he refused to go with them. The disbelievers started belabouring the victim and dragging him down the way. But they were so overawed by the resistance and determination shown by this one man that they murdered him on the spot. The other two they took with them and sold them as slaves to the Quraish of Mecca. One of the two was Khubaib(ra), the other Zaid(ra). The purchaser of Khubaib(ra) wanted to murder him so as to avenge his own father, who had been killed at Badr. One day, Khubaib(ra) asked for a razor to complete his toilet. Khubaib(ra) was holding the razor when a child of the household approached him out of curiosity. Khubaib(ra) took the child and put him on his knee. The child's mother saw this and became terrified. Her mind was full of guilty feelings, and here was a man whom they were going to murder in a few days holding a razor so dangerously near their child. She was convinced that Khubaib(ra) was going to murder the child. Khubaib(ra) saw the consternation on the face of the woman and said, "Do you imagine I am going to murder your child. Do not think so for a moment. I cannot do such a foul thing. Muslims do not play false."
The woman was impressed by the honest and straightforward bearing and behaviour of Khubaib(ra). She remembered this ever afterwards and used to say she had never seen a prisoner like Khubaib(ra). At last the Meccans led Khubaib(ra) to an open field to celebrate his murder in public. When the appointed moment came, Khubaib(ra) asked for leave to say two rak’ats of prayer. The Quraish agreed and Khubaib(ra) addressed in public view his last prayers to God in this world. When he had finished praying, he said he wanted to continue, but did not do so lest they should think he was afraid of dying. Then he quietly submitted his neck to the executioner. As he did so, he hummed the verses:
While I die a Muslim, I care not whether my headless body drops to the right or to the left. And why should I? My death is in the way of God; if He wills, He can bless every part of my dismembered body (Bukhari).
Khubaib(ra) had hardly finished murmuring these verses when the executioner's sword fell on his neck and his head fell to one side. Those who had assembled to celebrate this public murder included one Sa’id bin Amir(ra) who later became a Muslim. It is said that whenever the murder of Khubaib(ra) was related in Sa’id's(ra) presence, he would go into a fit (Hisham). The second prisoner, Zaid(ra), was also taken out to be murdered. Among the spectators was Abu Sufyan(ra), chief of Mecca. Abu Sufyan(ra) turned to Zaid(ra) and asked, "Would you not rather have Muhammad(sa) in your place? Would you not prefer to be safe at home while Muhammad(sa) was in our hands?"
Zaid(ra) replied proudly, "What, Abu Sufyan(ra)? What do you say? By God, I would rather die, than that the Prophet(sa) should tread on a thorn in a street in Medina." Abu Sufyan(ra) could not help being impressed by such devotion. He looked at Zaid(ra) in amazement and declared unhesitatingly, but in measured tones, "God is my witness, I have not known any one love another as much as the Companions of Muhammad(sa) love Muhammad(sa)" (Hisham, Vol. 2).
About this time some people of Najd also approached the Prophet(sa) for Muslims to teach them Islam. The Prophet(sa) did not trust them. But Abu Bara, chief of the Amir tribe, happened to be in Medina at the time. He offered to act as surety for the tribe and assured the Prophet(sa) that they would commit no mischief. The Prophet(sa) selected seventy Muslims who knew the Qur’an by heart. When this party reached Bi’r Ma’una one of them, Haram bin Malhan(ra) went to the chief of the Amir tribe (a nephew of Bara) to give him the message of Islam. Apparently Haram(ra) was well received by the tribesmen. But while he was addressing the chief, a man stole up from behind and attacked Haram(ra) with a lance. Haram(ra) died on the spot. As the lance pierced through Haram's(ra) neck, he was heard saying, "God is great. The Lord of the Ka’ba is my witness, I have attained my goal" (Bukhari). Having murdered Haram(ra) in this foul manner, the tribal leaders provoked the tribe into an attack upon the rest of this party of Muslim teachers. "But," said the tribesmen, "Our chief, Abu Bara, offered to act as surety; we cannot attack this party." Then the tribal chiefs, with the assistance of the two tribes who had gone to the Prophet(sa) to ask for Muslim teachers and some other tribes, attacked the Muslim party. The simple appeal, "We have come to preach and to teach, not to fight," had no effect. They started murdering the party. All but three of the seventy were murdered. One of the survivors was lame and had climbed a hill before the encounter began. Two others had gone to a wood to feed their camels. On returning from the wood they found sixty-six of their companions lying dead on the field. The two counselled together. Said one, "We should go and make a report of this to the Holy Prophet(sa)."
Said the other, "I cannot leave a spot where the chief of our party, whom our Prophet(sa) appointed our leader, has been murdered." So saying, he sprang single-handed upon the disbelievers and died fighting. The other was taken prisoner but was later released in fulfilment of a vow which the tribal chief had taken. The murdered party included Amir bin Fuhaira(ra), a freedman of Abu Bakr(ra). His murderer was one Jabbar(ra) who later became a Muslim. Jabbar(ra) attributed his conversion to this mass massacre of Muslims.
"When I started murdering Amir(ra)," says Jabbar(ra), "I heard Amir(ra) say, ‘By God I have met my goal' I asked someone why a Muslim said this sort of thing when he was meeting his death. That person explained that Muslims regarded death in the path of God as a blessing and a victory." Jabbar(ra) was so impressed by this reply, that he started making a systematic study of Islam, and ultimately became a Muslim (Hisham and Usud al-Ghaba).
The news of the two sad events, in which about eighty Muslims lost their lives as the result of a mischievous intrigue, reached Medina simultaneously. These were no ordinary men who were murdered. They were bearers of the Qur’an. They had committed no crime and had harmed nobody. They were taking part in no battle. They had been decoyed into enemy hands by a lie told in the name of God and religion. These facts proved conclusively that enmity to Islam was determined and deep. On the other hand the zeal of Muslims for Islam was equally determined and deep.