and diminishes as they diminish. Thus, whenever a man is certain that he will overcome his enemy, the way he advances against him differs from that of one who lacks such certainty. This was among the greatest causes of the Muslims’ courage and their advance against their enemy, for they had become certain, through what Allah and His Messenger had told them, that they would be granted victory and that Allah(1) would grant them the conquest of the lands.
An instance of al-Siddīq’s courage is the report related in the two Sahih collections from Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, who said:
“I asked Abdullah ibn Amr(2) about the worst thing the polytheists had done to Allah’s Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He said: ‘I saw Uqba ibn Abī Mu'ayt approach the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—while he was praying. He placed his cloak around(3) his neck and strangled him with great force. Abū Bakr then came and pushed him away, saying:
“Would you kill a man merely for saying, ‘My Lord is Allah,’ when he has brought you clear proofs from your Lord?”
[Sūrat Ghāfir: 28](4).’”
(1) S, B: “and Allah.”
(2) M: “Ibn Umar.”
(3) S, B: “from.”
(4) The hadith narrated from Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As—may Allah be pleased with them both—is found in *Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, 5/10 (Book of the Merits of the Companions of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—, Chapter: “Al-Humaydī and Muhammad ibn Abd Allah narrated to us …”); 5/46 (Book of the Merits of the Ansar, Chapter: “What the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and his Companions suffered at the hands of the polytheists in Mecca”); 6/127 (Book of Exegesis, Sūrat al-Mu’min); and *al-Musnad*, 11/143–144. Shaykh Ahmad Shākir—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “This hadith was transmitted by al-Walīd ibn Muslim from al-Awzā'ī. Ibn Kathīr cited it in his *Tafsīr* (7:292) through al-Bukhārī’s narration from Ibn al-Madīnī, and in his *History* (3:45–46) through al-Bukhārī’s narration from Ayyāsh ibn al-Walīd. In his *History*, he said, ‘Al-Bukhārī alone narrated it’—that is, to the exclusion of *Sahīh Muslim*. Among the compilers of the Six Books, no one other than al-Bukhārī narrated it, as is clear from *Dhakhā'ir al-Mawārīth*, no. 4535.”