You are the Messenger; should anyone be denied your gracious gifts
and the sight of your radiant face, destiny has surely abased him.

The detachment then set out and halted at Maʿān. There they were told that Heraclius had encamped at Maʾab with 100,000 Byzantine troops and another 100,000 Arab auxiliaries. They remained in Maʿān for two days and said, “Let us send word of the situation to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”

ʿAbd Allah ibn Rawāḥah roused the men and said, “My people, by Allah, the very thing you fear is the goal for which you set out—martyrdom. We do not fight men on the strength of numbers or superior force; we fight them with this religion with which Allah has honored us. If Allah grants us victory through it, that is His favor; if the other outcome occurs, it is martyrdom—and that is by no means the worse of the two stations.”

The men replied, “By Allah, he has spoken the truth,” and they pressed on—3,000 in all—until they met the Roman host at a village in al-Balqāʾ called Mushārif. The Muslims then withdrew to Muʾtah, a village above al-Aḥsāʾ, still numbering 3,000.

Al-Wāqidī relates—from Rabīʿah ibn ʿUthmān, from al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah—who said: “I was present at Muʾtah. When the idolaters caught sight of us, we beheld what no one could withstand: stores of equipment, weapons, cavalry mounts, brocade, and gold. My eyes flashed, and Thābit ibn Aqram said to me, ‘What is the matter with you, Abū Hurayrah? You look as though you are staring at an immense host.’ I said, ‘Indeed.’ He answered, ‘You were not with us at Badr; we were not granted victory by sheer numbers.’”

Al-Mughīrah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrates—from ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿīd ibn Abī Hind, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar—who said: “In the expedition of Muʾtah the Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed Zayd ibn Ḥārithah as commander; if Zayd were killed, then Jaʿfar, and if Jaʿfar were killed, then ʿAbd Allah ibn Rawāḥah.” Ibn ʿUmar went on: “I was with them, and we examined him—meaning Ibn Rawāḥah—and found on the front of his