Hārithah ibn Naḍlah al-ʿAdawī and Wahb ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ—these, then, make four men.

Among the Helpers were: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah and ʿAbbād ibn Qays, both of the Khazraj; al-Ḥārith ibn al-Nuʿmān ibn Isāf ibn Naḍlah al-Najjārī; and Surāqah ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAṭiyyah ibn Khansāʾ al-Māzinī—another four men.

Thus, according to Ibn Isḥāq,(1) the total number of Muslims slain that day reached eight.

Ibn Hishām,(2) however, relates—quoting Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī—that among those martyred at Muʾtah were Abū Kulayb and Jābir, the sons of ʿAmr ibn Zayd ibn ʿAwf ibn Mabdhūl al-Māzinī, who were full brothers, and ʿAmr and ʿĀmir, the sons of Saʿd ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbbād ibn Saʿd ibn ʿĀmir ibn Thaʿlabah ibn Mālik ibn Afṣā. These, too, are four men of the Anṣār,(3) so that on the basis of the two reports the total comes to twelve.

This is truly remarkable: two armies, adversaries in creed, faced one another—one, the force fighting in the path of Allah, numbering three thousand; the other, a disbelieving host two hundred thousand strong, half Romans and half Christian Arabs. They engaged in single combat and fierce struggle, yet only twelve Muslims were killed, while a great multitude of the idolaters fell.

Khalid alone declared, “Nine swords were smashed in my hand that day, and nothing lasted in my grasp save a Yemeni blade. Consider, then, how many were slain by all those swords!” And that apart from the other champions and heroes—bearers of the Qur’an who gained mastery over the worshippers of the cross, upon whom be the curses of the All-Merciful, then and forever.

This is encompassed by the Almighty’s words:

“Indeed, there has already been for you a sign in the two forces that met: one fighting in the cause of Allah and the other disbelieving; they saw them as twice their own number with their very eyes. But Allah supports with His victory whom He wills. Surely in that is a lesson for those endowed with insight.” (Āl ʿImrān 3:13)

A ḥadīth that proclaims the tremendous merit of the commanders of this expedition: Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah—may Allah be pleased with them.

The learned Imām and ḥāfiẓ Abū Zurʿah ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Rāzī—may Allah illumine his face—said in his book: