hurt.”
Abu Dujana stood before the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) and used to protect him from  the  arrows by his back. Hatib bin Balta‘a followed ‘Utbah bin Abi Waqqas — who broke the honourable  incisor of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) — struck him with the sword, cracked his head and took  his mare and sword. Sa‘d bin Abi Waqqas was so keen to kill his brother ‘Utbah, but he could not;  however, Hatib could.
Sahl bin Haneef — a hero archer — who had pledged to die in the cause of Allâh, also played a  prominent part in Uhud hostilities.
The Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) himself was involved in shooting arrows. In a version by
Qatadah bin An-Nu‘man that the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) shot so many arrows that  the  two ends of his bow were flattened. So Qatadah bin An-Nu‘man took it to remain with him for good.
On  that day his eye was so hurt that it fell down onto his cheek; but the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be  upon  him) reput it in its socket with his hand and it became the better and the more sharp-sighted of the  two.
On that day ‘Abdur Rahman bin ‘Awf kept on fighting till his mouth was hurt and got broken. He  sustained over twenty wounds, some in his leg, and that lamed him.
Malik bin Sinan, the father of Abi Sa‘eed Al-Khudri sucked the blood out of the Prophet ’s cheek till he  cleaned it. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: “Spit it!”. But Malik said: “By Allâh, I will never spit  it”. Then he set out to fight. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) then said: “He who wants to see a man  of the people of Paradise, let him look at this one.” No sooner had he resumed fighting than he was  martyred in the thick of the battle.
Umm ‘Amarah participated in the fight too. She encountered Ibn Qami’a in combat, and sustained a  slight wound on her shoulder, but she herself also struck him with her sword several times but he  survived because he was wearing two armours. She, however, went on striking until her wounds  counted twelve.
Mus‘ab bin ‘Umair, in his turn, fought fiercely and violently defending the Prophet (Peace be upon him)  against the attacks of Ibn Qami’a and his fellows. He was carrying the standard with his right hand. In  the process of fighting, it was cut off, so he grabbed the standard in his left hand till this was also  amputated so he knelt down and shielded it with his chest and neck. Ibn Qami’a then killed him,  mistaking him for the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) on account of resemblance in  appearance. Only then did Ibn Qami’a shout ‘Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has been killed.’
No sooner had Ibn Qami’a uttered that ominous sentence than consternation spread among
Muhammad’s followers, and their morale was drastically reduced. Consequently, confusion and a  miserable state of disorder prevailed amongst them. Whilst the rumours managed to adversely act  amongst the Muslims, it alleviated the sharp impact of the assaults of the polytheists who came to  believe that they did really achieve their final objective and so they turned towards mutilating the  dead  bodies.
When Mus‘ab was killed, the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) delivered the standard to ‘Ali bin
Abi Talib. ‘Ali, in conjunction with the other Companions, went on fighting bravely and set marvellous  examples of heroism, courage and endurance in both defence and attack.
Then the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) made his way to his encircled army. Ka‘b bin Malik,  who was the first one to recognize the approaching Prophet (Peace be upon him), shouted as loudly as  he could: “O folks of Muslims, be cherished! The Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) is here.” But  the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) signed to him to stop lest his position should be located  by  the idolaters. Upon hearing the shout, the Muslims immediately raced towards the source of the shout  which brought about thirty Companions to gather around the Prophet (Peace be upon him). With this  assembled number of his Companions, the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) started drawing a  planned withdrawal to the hillocks nearby.
Hostilities of the enemy grew fiercer than ever with the aim of foiling the plan of withdrawal of the
Muslims. Their attempts however proved to be fruitless due to the heroic steadfastness of the lions of
Islam.
‘Uthman bin ‘Abdullah bin Al-Mugheerah — one of the enemy horsemen — progressed towards the
Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) while saying: “Either I kill him i.e. Muhammad (Peace be