while they were in that state their Lord looked upon them and said, “Ask of Me whatever you wish.” They answered, “Our Lord, what should we ask of You when we roam about Paradise wherever we please?” Yet when they realized that they would not be excused from making a request, they said, “We ask You to return our souls to our bodies in the world so that we may be killed once more in Your cause.”

When He saw that this was the only thing they asked for, He left them as they were. Muslim recorded this report.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs narrated—from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Ismāʿīl ibn Umayyah, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Prophet ﷺ said: “When your brothers were struck down at Uḥud, Allah placed their souls inside green birds that drink from the rivers of Paradise, eat of its fruits, and lodge in golden lanterns suspended beneath the Throne. When they experienced the sweetness of their food, drink, and resting place, they said, ‘Who will convey to our brothers that we are alive in Paradise and receiving provision, so that they will neither falter in battle nor grow weary of striving?’ Allah said, ‘I shall inform them on your behalf,’ and He revealed: ‘And never think of those who are killed in the path of Allah as dead…’ (Āl ʿImrān 3:169).”

Yūnus related from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah told me, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from his father: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say—whenever the martyrs of Uḥud were mentioned—“By Allah, I wish I had been left with the companions on the mountainside,” meaning that he wished he had been killed along with them.

Al-Layth narrated—from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Abū al-Khayr, from ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ once went out, offered the funeral prayer over the martyrs of Uḥud as one prays over the dead, then turned toward the pulpit and said, “I am your forerunner, and I shall bear witness over you.”