he said: On the day of Uḥud the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed by Ḥamzah, whose nose had been severed and whose body had been mutilated, and remarked, “Were it not that Ṣafiyyah would be distressed, I would leave him until Allah resurrects him from the crops of birds and the stomachs of wild beasts.” He then wrapped him in a striped cloak and did not perform the funeral prayer over any of the martyrs apart from him … and so the report continues.

Yahyā al-Ḥammānī said: Qays—meaning Ibn al-Rabīʿ—related to us, from Ibn Abī Laylā, from al-Ḥakam, from Maqsim, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that on the day Ḥamzah was slain and mutilated the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared, “If I prevail over Quraysh I shall mutilate seventy of them.” Thereupon the verse was revealed: “But if you retaliate, then retaliate only to the extent that you were wronged” (Q 16:126), and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Rather, O Lord, we shall be patient.” This chain is weak on account of Qays.

A similar report was transmitted by Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl and others, through Ṣāliḥ al-Mary—who is weak— from Sulaymān al-Taymī, from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī, from Abū Hurayrah, with the additional wording: “He beheld a sight that had never before pained his heart so much.”

Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid the judge informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad the ascetic in Bayt al-Maqdis, in the year 629 AH, reported to us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Salafī reported to us; Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī reported to us; al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm reported to us; ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaʿfar al-Fārsī reported to us; Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī reported to us; ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUthmān reported to us; ʿĪsā ibn ʿUbayd al-Kindī told me; Rabīʿ ibn Anas told me; Abū al-ʿĀliyah told me from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb that on the day of Uḥud sixty-four men of the Anṣār and six of the Muhājirūn were killed—including Ḥamzah—and their enemies mutilated the slain. The Anṣār therefore said, “If ever we gain the upper hand over them, we shall surpass them in retaliation.”