They fought with the utmost ferocity until every one of them was slain; yet one man, wounded and counted among the dead, slipped away. When the night air cooled his wounds, he mustered his strength and made his way to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ resolved to send a force after their attackers, but word reached him that they had already moved to another place.
***
The Battle of Muʾtah (1)
This was the expedition of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, some three thousand strong, dispatched to the district of al-Balqāʾ in greater Syria.
[Muḥammad] ibn Isḥāq (2) relates, after the story of ʿUmrat al-Qaḍāʾ: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained in Madinah for the rest of Dhū al-Ḥijjah—during which the idolaters performed the Pilgrimage—then through Muḥarram, Ṣafar, and the two months of Rabīʿ. In Jumādā al-Ūlā he sent the detachment to Syria, the very men who later fell at Muʾtah. Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr told me, from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched the expedition to Muʾtah in Jumādā al-Ūlā of the eighth year and appointed Zayd ibn Ḥārithah as commander. He said, ‘If Zayd is struck down, then Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib shall lead the people; if Jaʿfar is struck down, then ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah shall take command.’”
The men prepared themselves and made ready to depart, three thousand in all.
Al-Wāqidī (3) reports: Rabiʿah ibn ʿUthmān narrated to me, from ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥakam, from his father, who said:
A Jew named al-Nuʿmān ibn Funḥuṣ came and stood before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ among the people. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ proclaimed:
“Zayd ibn Ḥārithah is the commander. If Zayd is killed, then Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib; if Jaʿfar is killed, then ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah; and if ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah is killed, let the Muslims choose one of themselves and place him in command.”
Al-Nuʿmān replied, “Abū al-Qāsim, if you are truly a prophet, then whether you name few or many, all of those you name will indeed be struck down. The prophets of the Children of Israel, whenever they appointed a man over a people, would say, ‘If so-and-so is slain…’”