He answered, “By Allah, they are many in number and fierce in strength.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ tried hard to make him state their exact number, but he refused. The Prophet ﷺ then asked, “How many camels do they slaughter?” He replied, “Ten each day.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Their force is about one thousand; one camel serves a hundred men, with something left over.”
That night a light shower fell upon us, so we took shelter beneath the trees and beneath our shields, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spent the night calling upon his Lord, saying, “O Allah, if this band is destroyed, You will no longer be worshipped.” When dawn broke he called out, “To prayer, servants of Allah!” The people came out from under the trees and the shields, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in prayer and then stirred us to fight.
He said, “The host of Quraysh is massed beneath this red ridge of the mountain.” When the enemy drew near and we had taken our positions, we saw a man among them riding a red camel, moving about the ranks. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “ʿAlī, call Ḥamzah for me—he is the nearest of us to the idolaters—and ask him who the rider of the red camel is.”
Ḥamzah came and said, “It is ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah. He is trying to keep them from fighting and saying, ‘My people, place the blame on me today and say that ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah has turned coward, though you know I am not the most cowardly among you.’”
Abū Jahl heard this and said, “You say that? By Allah, had anyone else said it I would have bitten him; terror has filled your chest!” ʿUtbah answered, “You taunt me, O yellow-backside? Today you will know which of us is the coward!”
Then ʿUtbah, his brother Shaybah, and his son al-Walīd stepped forward in zeal and cried, “Who will duel with us?” Some youthful men of the Anṣār came out, but ʿUtbah said, “We do not want these; let men from our own cousins, the sons of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, face us.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Rise, ʿAlī; rise, Ḥamzah; rise, ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Muṭṭalib.” Allah caused ʿUtbah and Shaybah, the sons of Rabīʿah, and al-Walīd ibn ʿUtbah to be slain, while ʿUbaydah was wounded. We killed seventy of them and took seventy prisoner.
A short man from the Anṣār brought al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib as a captive. Al-ʿAbbās said, “O Messenger of Allah, by Allah, this man did not capture me. I was taken by a bald, handsome man riding a dapple-gray horse, and I do not see him among the people.” The Anṣārī said, “I captured him, O Messenger of Allah.” He replied, “Be quiet; Allah aided you with a noble angel.”
He went on, “Among those we captured from the clan of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib were al-ʿAbbās, ʿAqīl, and Nawfal ibn al-Ḥārith.” This is a sound account, supporting what has already been mentioned and what will follow, and Imām Aḥmad alone narrated it in full. Abū Dāwūd related part of it through the narration of Isrāʾīl.
When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ descended from the shelter and urged the people to fight, they stood firm in their ranks, remembering Allah often, just as Allah the Exalted had commanded them: “O you who believe, when you meet a force, stand firm and remember Allah much…” (al-Anfāl 8:45).
Al-Umawī said: Muʿāwiyah ibn ʿAmr narrated to us from Abū Isḥāq that al-Awzāʿī said, “It used to be said: Seldom would…”