Abu ʿAzza al-Jumahī had earlier been granted clemency by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He was a man with dependants and in need, and he had once pleaded, “Messenger of Allah, I am poor and burdened with a family—show me your favour.”
Safwān now said to him, “Abu ʿAzza, you are a poet; lend us the support of your tongue—come out with us.” He replied, “Muhammad has bestowed his favour on me and I do not wish to take the field against him.” They pressed him: “At least come yourself. Allah is my witness: if you return, I shall assist you, and if you are killed I will place your daughters with mine so that whatever hardship or ease befalls them will be shared.”
So Abu ʿAzza set off through Tihāmah, summoning the Banū Kinānah while reciting:
Up, O sons of ʿAbd Manāt the staunch!
You are defenders, and your father was a defender.
Do not defer your aid until another year;
Do not forsake me—for forsaking is forbidden.
Masāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd Manāf al-Jumahī likewise went to the Banū Mālik of Kinānah, urging them to fight the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and declaiming poetry.
Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim then summoned his Abyssinian slave Wahshī, an expert javelin-thrower who rarely missed with the Ethiopian cast, and said, “March out with the people. If you kill Ḥamzah in retaliation for my uncle Ṭuʿaymah ibn ʿAdī, you will be a free man.”
Quraysh moved out with all their might and weaponry, together with their allied clans (aḥābīsh) and everyone who joined them. They even took their women along to inflame their zeal and keep them from fleeing. Abu Sufyān, the overall commander, set out accompanied by Hind bint ʿUtbah; ʿIkrimah brought with him Umm Ḥakīm bint al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām. They camped at ʿAynayn, a rise of Mount Uḥud, on the salt flat of Qanāh along the lip of the valley facing Medina.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “If you agree, stay in Medina and leave them where they have halted; if they remain there, they will be in the worst possible position, and if they enter our quarters we will fight them inside it.” He disliked going out to meet them.
Yet some men who had missed the Battle of Badr said, “Messenger of Allah, lead us out against them so that they will not think we have shrunk in fear.” They continued to press him until he went inside, donned his armour, and—on that day—