Imam Aḥmad relates (1): “Yazīd and ʿAffān narrated to us; they said: Ḥammād—namely Ibn Salamah—narrated to us, informing us from Thābit, from Anas, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ picked up a sword on the Day of Uḥud and declared, ‘Who will take this sword?’ A number of men stepped forward and stretched out their hands, but he looked them over and then said, ‘Who will take it with its right?’ The men held back, whereupon Abū Dujānah —Simāk—said, ‘I shall take it with its right.’ He took it and began cleaving the heads of the idolaters with it.”
Muslim also transmitted the report (2) through Abū Bakr, from ʿAffān, with the same chain.
Ibn Isḥāq (3) says: Abū Dujānah was a valiant man who liked to swagger in battle. He possessed a red head-band by which he was recognized in war; whenever he tied it on, the people knew he intended to fight. When he took the sword from the hand of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ he produced that head-band, tied it around his head, and then began strutting between the two lines.
He continues: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aslam, the client of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, told me—on the authority of an Anṣārī man from Banū Salamah—that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw Abū Dujānah strutting he remarked, “It is a gait Allah detests—except on an occasion such as this.”
Ibn Isḥāq (4) adds: Abū Sufyān, urging the standard-bearers of Banū ʿAbd al-Dār to fight, said, “O Banū ʿAbd al-Dār! The banner was yours on the Day of Badr, and you saw what befell us. People are routed where their banners are routed; when a banner falls, they fall. Either relieve us of the burden of our banner, or hand it over to us so we may relieve you.” They rebuked him and threatened him, saying, “Are we to surrender our banner to you? Tomorrow, when we meet, you will see what we do.” That was precisely what Abū Sufyān wanted.
He continues: When the armies met and closed in on one another, Hind bint ʿUtbah rose with the women who were with her. They took up frame-drums, beating them behind the men and inciting them to fight, while Hind chanted:
Woe, sons of ʿAbd al-Dār!
Woe, guardians of the rear!
Strike with every keen blade!
She also recited:
If you advance, we shall embrace you,
Spreading cushions beneath you;
But if you turn your backs, we depart—
A parting devoid of love.
Ibn Isḥāq (5) further says: ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah related to me that Abū ʿĀmir ʿAbd ʿAmr ibn Ṣayfī ibn Mālik ibn al-Nuʿmān, one of Banū Ḍabīʿah, had left for Mecca to distance himself from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, accompanied by fifty youths of the Aws