Ibn Isḥāq (1) said: When Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr was killed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ handed the banner to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.
Yūnus ibn Bukayr, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, adds: The banner had first been with ʿAlī, but when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw the idolaters’ standard borne by the Banū ʿAbd al-Dār he declared, “We are more entitled to loyalty than they are.” He thereupon took the banner from ʿAlī and gave it to Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr; when Muṣʿab fell, he returned it to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.
Ibn Isḥāq (2) also said: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib fought, and with him a company of the Muslims.
Ibn Hishām (3) relates: Maslamah ibn ʿAlqamah al-Māzinī told me that when the fighting grew intense on the Day of Uḥud, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sat beneath the Anṣār’s banner and sent word to ʿAlī, “Advance with the standard.” ʿAlī moved forward, proclaiming, “I am Abū al-Qaṣm!” Abū Saʿd ibn Abī Ṭalḥah—the idolaters’ standard-bearer—then called out, “Abū al-Qaṣm, do you desire a duel?” “Yes,” ʿAlī replied. They stepped out between the two lines and traded two blows; ʿAlī struck him down and withdrew without finishing him off. One of his companions asked, “Why did you not dispatch him?” He answered, “He bared his nakedness to me, and kinship moved me to spare him. I knew that Allah had already killed him.”
ʿAlī did the same at the Battle of Ṣiffīn with Busr ibn Abī Arṭāh: as he closed in to kill him, Busr exposed himself and ʿAlī turned away. ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ acted likewise on another day of Ṣiffīn; he uncovered himself and ʿAlī again withdrew. Concerning this al-Ḥārith ibn al-Naḍr composed:
Is there, day after day, some rider unrestrained,
Whose shame shows bare amid the swirling dust?
For that ʿAlī stays the point of his spear,
While Muʿāwiyah laughs at leisure.
Yūnus, narrating from Ibn Isḥāq (4), relates that Ṭalḥah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah al-ʿAbdarī, the idolaters’ standard-bearer that day, challenged the Muslims to single combat, and the people shrank from him. Al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām stepped forward, vaulted onto Ṭalḥah’s camel, forced it to the ground, threw him off, and slew him with his sword. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ praised him, saying,
“Every prophet has a disciple; al-Zubayr is my disciple.” (5)
He also said,
“Had he not gone out to face him, I would have seen the extent of the people’s hesitation before him.”