When ʿUtbah heard Abu Jahl’s remark—“By Allah, his belly has swollen!”—he retorted, “That yellow-bottomed fellow will soon learn whose belly has really swollen.” He then looked for a helmet, but none in the entire army was large enough for his great head, so he wrapped a striped cloak round it instead.
Al-Aswad ibn ʿAbd al-Asad al-Makhzumi, a harsh and ill-tempered man, stepped forward and declared, “I pledge before Allah that I will drink from their cistern, demolish it, or die beside it.” He advanced toward it, but Hamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib came out to meet him. They closed, and Hamzah struck him, severing his leg while he was still short of the cistern. Al-Aswad fell on his back, his leg spurting blood. He nevertheless dragged himself to the cistern and hurled himself into it to fulfil his oath, but Hamzah followed him in and killed him there.
Next ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah came out for single combat, accompanied by his brother Shaybah and his son al-Walīd ibn ʿUtbah. They issued a challenge, whereupon ʿAwf and Muʿawwidh, the sons of ʿAfrāʾ, together with another man of the Ansar, stepped forward. The Meccans asked, “Who are you?” “We are of the Ansar,” they replied. “We have no quarrel with you,” the Meccans said. “Let our equals from our own people come out to us.” The Messenger of Allah then said, “Stand, ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith, Hamzah, and ʿAlī.”
When the three approached, the Meccans asked, “Who are you?” They gave their names. “Worthy and noble opponents,” came the reply. ʿUbaydah—the eldest—paired off with ʿUtbah; Hamzah faced Shaybah; and ʿAlī confronted al-Walīd. Hamzah wasted no time in killing Shaybah, and ʿAlī swiftly dispatched al-Walīd. As for ʿUtbah and ʿUbaydah, they exchanged two blows, each wounding the other. Then ʿAlī and Hamzah turned on ʿUtbah and finished him off, after which they carried ʿUbaydah back to their lines.
The sound view, as will be mentioned later, is that Hamzah actually fought ʿUtbah and ʿAlī fought Shaybah—Allah knows best. After this the two armies moved toward one another, and the Prophet had instructed his Companions not to charge until