and prayed for mercy upon him, whereupon Muʿāwiyah said to ʿAbdullāh, “We have granted him to you. By the Lord of the Kaʿbah, he was the champion-ram of his people. O Allah, let al-Ashtar and al-Ashʿath fall into our hands! By Allah, a man like this is just as the poet said:

A brother of war—when battle bites, he bites it back,
And when the fray draws tight, he tightens still the slack.
A lion in his prime, defending sacred ground;
Fate loosed its shafts at him—yet every shaft ran aground.

He then added, “If the women of Khuzāʿah had the power to fight me—let alone their men—they would have done so.”

Ibn Saʿd relates in his Tabaqāt, through the chain of ʿAmr ibn Sharahīl, from Ḥanish ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣanʿānī, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Zurayr al-Ghāfiqī, who said: “I was with the army on the day of Ṣiffīn when we and the Syrians locked in combat until I thought no one would survive. Then I heard a voice crying out, ‘People! Fear Allah concerning the women and children! Who will stand against the Romans and the Turks? Fear Allah!’ We disengaged, and I sensed movement behind me. It was ʿAlī racing forward with the banner until he planted it firmly. His son Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah caught up with him, and I heard him say, ‘My son, stay close to your standard, for I am advancing against the enemy.’ I watched him strike with his sword until a path opened before him, then saw him return and plunge into them again.”

Khalīfah said: Among the veterans of Badr who fought alongside ʿAlī were ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, Sahl ibn Ḥunayyf, Khawwāt ibn Jubayr, Abū Saʿd al-Sāʿidī, Abū al-Yusr, Rifāʿah ibn Rāfiʿ al-Anṣārī, and—though some dispute this—Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī. He added: Among the Companions who had not been at Badr were Khuzaymah ibn Thābit, the man of the Two Testimonies; Qays ibn Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah; Abū Qatādah; and Sahl ibn Saʿd.