Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, cried out:
I am the one my mother called Ḥaydar—
a lion of the thicket, stern and fierce;
I shall repay you in full measure,
a measure as weighty as Sandarah’s.
They traded two blows; then ʿAlī struck first, cleaving the stone helmet, the mail-coif, and the head beneath them, the blade lodging in the molars. He then captured the citadel (1).
The ḥāfiẓ al-Bazzār (2) also relates—through ʿAbbād ibn Yaʿqūb, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bukayr, Ḥakīm ibn Jubayr, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, and Ibn ʿAbbās—the story of Abū Bakr being sent out, then ʿUmar on the day of Khaybar, and finally ʿAlī, at whose hands the victory came. Its wording is odd and objectionable, and its chain contains a narrator suspected of pro-Shīʿī leanings. Allah knows best.
Muslim and al-Bayhaqī (3)—the wording here is al-Bayhaqī’s—also transmit, through ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, from Iyās ibn Salamah ibn al-Akwaʿ, from his father, a long ḥadīth in which he mentions their return from the expedition against Banū Fazārah.
He said, “We had remained only three days before marching out to Khaybar.
“ʿĀmir went forth, chanting:
By Allah, were it not for You we’d have no guidance,
no charity given and no prayer performed;
From Your favor we can never dispense—
so send down serenity upon us,
and make firm our steps when we meet the foe.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked, “Who is reciting that?” They replied, “ʿĀmir.” He said, “May your Lord forgive you.”
The narrator remarked: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never singled anyone out with that prayer but that he was martyred. ʿUmar, seated on his camel, said, “Would that we might have enjoyed ʿĀmir a little longer.”
When we reached Khaybar, Marḥab came out swaggering with his sword and declaimed (4):
Khaybar well knows that I am Marḥab—
fully armed, a seasoned warrior;
When wars blaze hot, my fury flames.
ʿĀmir, may Allah be pleased with him, advanced to meet him, responding:
Khaybar well knows that I am ʿĀmir—
fully armed, a warrior who plunges ahead.
They exchanged two blows; Marḥab’s sword struck ʿĀmir’s shield, and as he tried to pull it back in a low arc, it rebounded against himself