Al-Umawī (1) said: “My father related to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid narrated from al-Bahī (2) that on the Day of Badr the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had only two horsemen: al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām on the right flank and al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad on the left.

Ibn Isḥāq (3) adds: “They also possessed seventy camels which they rode in turns. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, ʿAlī, and Murthid ibn Abī Murthid shared one camel, while Ḥamzah, Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, Abū Kabshah, and Anasah (5) shared another.” Such are the words of Ibn Isḥāq—may Allah have mercy on him.

Imām Aḥmad (6) reports—through ʿAffān, from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah, from Zirr ibn Ḥubaish, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd—who said: “On the Day of Badr we were assigned one camel for every three men. Abū Lubābah and ʿAlī were the two riding companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

“When the riding turn of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came, the two of them said, ‘We will walk on your behalf.’ He replied, ‘You are no stronger than I am, and I am no less in need of reward than you.’”

Al-Nasāʾī (8) likewise recorded it, through al-Fallās, from Ibn Mahdī, from Ḥammād ibn Salamah with this chain.

I [the author] say: This seems to have taken place before the Prophet ﷺ sent Abū Lubābah back from al-Rawḥāʾ; thereafter his two companions would have been ʿAlī and Murthid in place of Abū Lubābah—and Allah knows best.

Imām Aḥmad (9) also said: “Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us; Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, from Zurārah ibn Awfā (10), from Saʿd ibn Hishām, from ʿĀʾishah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded that the bells be cut off the necks of the camels on the Day of Badr.” This chain meets the conditions set by the two Ṣaḥīḥs. Al-Nasāʾī (11) transmitted the same report through Abū al-Ashʿath, from Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith, from Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah.

Our teacher, the ḥadith master al-Mizzī, said in al-Aṭrāf (12): “Saʿīd ibn Bashīr (13) corroborated it from Qatādah, and it was also narrated…"