The Battle of Uḥud, which took place in Shawwāl

Shaybān reported from Qatādah: “The Prophet of Allah ﷺ fought at Uḥud in the Shawwāl of the year following Badr, on a Saturday when eleven nights of the month had passed. On that day his Companions numbered seven hundred, whereas the idolaters were two thousand—or whatever figure Allah willed.”

Ibn Isḥāq maintained that the battle fell in the middle of Shawwāl, while Mālik said, “The actual fighting that day began early in the morning.”

Burayd ibn ʿAbd Allāh related, through Abū Burdah from Abū Mūsā, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “I saw in a dream that I brandished a sword and its tip was severed; that represented what befell the believers on the Day of Uḥud. I swung it again and it returned better than it had been, and that symbolised the victory Allah later granted and the unity of the believers. I also saw cattle in my dream—and Allah’s interpretation is best—and they stood for a number of the believers who were killed at Uḥud. The goodness I saw signified the beneficence Allah afterwards bestowed and the reward for the truthfulness He granted us on the Day of Badr.” Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim recorded this narration.

Ibn Wahb said: Ibn Abī al-Zinād told me, from his father, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ claimed the sword Dhū al-Faqār as personal booty on the Day of Badr, and it was that same sword he saw in his dream before Uḥud. When the idolaters approached Uḥud, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was inclined to remain in Madinah and fight them within it. But certain men who had not been present at Badr said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, go out with us so that we may confront them at Uḥud…’”