God’s Messenger, accompanied by a thousand warriors, left Madina for Uhud, a volcanic hill only a few miles from the western outskirts of Madina, with a plain stretching before it. However, half way to the destination ‘Abd Allah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul broke away along with his three hundred men. (1) This, happening as it did just before the commencement of the battle, caused such perplexity and confusion that the people of Banu Salama and Banu Haritha wanted to turn back, but were persuaded not to.

God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, advanced with the remaining seven hundred Muslims, much less in number and equipment than their enemies, and lined up his troops at the foot of Mount Uhud in such a manner that the mountain was behind and the Quraysh army in front of them. There was only a mountain pass from where the Muslims could be subjected to a surprise attack. God’s Messenger posted fifty archers there as guards under the command of ‘Abd Allah ibn Jubayr, instructing him neither to let anyone approach nor to move away from that spot, adding: Even if you see birds fly off with our flesh, still you must not move away from this place. (2)

The standard of God’s Messenger was again in the hands of Mus‘ab ibn ‘Umayr. Zubayr ibn ‘Awwam commanded the cavalry and, Hamza, the infantry. The army was ready to begin the battle. In order to encourage his Companions, the Prophet had brought forth a sword and asked: Who would like to have this sword in return for giving its due? Abu Dujana asked: ‘What is its due?’ It is to fight with it until it is broken, the Prophet answered. Abu Dujana took it and was engaged in fighting. (3) Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas and ‘Abd Allah ibn Jahsh prayed to God to make them encounter the strongest soldiers of the enemy. Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet and who was known as the Lion of God, wore an ostrich feather on his breast. The verse revealed to describe the godly persons around previous Prophets pointed also to them:

Many a Prophet there was, with whom a large number of God-devoted men fought. They fainted not for anything that befell them in the way of God, neither weakened, nor did they abase themselves. God loves the steadfast. Nothing else did they say but, ‘Our Lord, forgive us our sins, and that we exceeded in our affair, and make firm our feet, and help us against the people of the unbelievers.’ And God gave them the reward of the world and the good reward of the Hereafter. God loves the good-doers. (Al ‘Imran, 3. 146–8)

In the first stage of the battle, the Muslims defeated the enemy, so easily so that Abu Dujana, with the sword the Prophet had given him, advanced as far as the central part of the Quraysh army and, encountering Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan, who was the commander of the Quraysh army, attempted to kill her but, ‘in order not to dirty the sword given by the Prophet with the blood of a woman’, spared her life. (4) ‘Ali had killed Talha ibn Abi Talha, the standard-bearer of the enemy. Those who took hold of the standard of the Quraysh one after the other had all been killed by either ‘Ali or ‘Asim ibn Thabit or Zubayr ibn ‘Awwam. After that, the self-sacrificing heroes of the Muslim army like Hamza, ‘Ali, Abu Dujana, Zubayr ibn ‘Awwam, and Miqdad ibn ‘Amr thrust themselves into the ranks of the enemy and put them to flight.

When the enemy began to flee the battlefield, the Muslims occupied themselves with the spoils. The archers on the mountain pass saw their brothers collecting booty, and said to themselves. ‘God has defeated the enemy, and our brothers are collecting the spoils. Let us go and join them.’

‘Abd Allah ibn Jubayr tried to persuade them not to leave their posts by reminding them of the Prophet’s directive, but they answered: ‘He ordered us to do that without knowing that the matter would come to what we now see’. Except a few who remained at their posts, they took part in collecting booty. Khalid ibn Walid, who was at that time an unbeliever and who commanded the Quraysh cavalry, seized this opportunity. He rode with his men around Mount Uhud and attacked the flank of the Muslim army through the pass. ‘Abd Allah ibn Jubayr’s depleted forces tried unsuccessfully to resist the attack.