“Why do I hear the roaring of camels, the braying of donkeys, the cries of children, and the bleating of sheep?”
Mālik replied, “I have brought the people’s sons, their women, and their wealth with them.”
Duraid asked, “And why is that?”
He said, “So that every man will have his family and his property behind him and will therefore fight to protect them.”
At this Duraid flew into a rage. “A mere shepherd of sheep, by Allah! Can anything make a fugitive turn back? If victory is yours, only the man who strikes with his sword and his spear will benefit you; and if it goes against you, your family and your property will be laid bare.
“What have Kaʿb and Kilāb done?”
Mālik answered, “Not one of them has attended.”
“The cutting edge and the earnestness are absent,” Duraid said. “Had this been a day of high prices and prestige, Kaʿb and Kilāb would certainly not have stayed away. I wish you had acted as they have. So who among you has come?”
They said, “‘Amr ibn ʿĀmir and ʿAwf ibn ʿĀmir.”
Duraid remarked, “Those two mere striplings of ʿĀmir—of no use and no harm.”
He continued, “O Mālik, you have gained nothing by putting the very heart—the egg—of Hawāzin before the charge of the cavalry.”
Then Duraid said to Mālik ibn ʿAwf, “Withdraw them to the secure heights of their land, the uplands where their people are strong. Mount the children on the horses’ backs. If victory is yours, those behind you will catch up; if defeat befalls you, you will be found with your family and your wealth secured.”
Mālik retorted, “By Allah, I will not do that. You have grown old, and so has your judgment.”
He then declared, “By Allah, tribe of Hawāzin, you will obey me, or I shall lean on this sword until it comes out of my back.” He hated that Duraid should have any mention or opinion in the matter.
They said, “We obey you.”
Duraid muttered, “This is a day I have not attended, yet it has not escaped me,” and he recited:
Would that I were young again,
to run and leap amid the fray;
I’d lead a broad-rumped, swift mount,
like a ewe split from the flock.
Mālik then told the people, “When you see them, snap the sheaths off your swords and charge as one man.”
Ibn Isḥāq says: Umayyah ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān related to me that Mālik ibn ʿAwf sent out scouts from among his men, and they returned with their limbs trembling.
He asked, “Woe to you! What has happened?”
They said, “We saw men in white on piebald horses, and by Allah we could not hold our ground until what you see befell us.” Yet, by Allah, this did not deter him; he went on with what he intended.
Ibn Isḥāq also reports: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ heard about them, he dispatched ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ḥadrad al-Aslamī, instructing him to mingle with the people, stay among them until he had learned their plans, and then bring him word. Ibn Abī Ḥadrad went off and entered their camp.