The Knights of the Messenger of Allah

At that time, Salamah said, I started seeing the knights of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) approaching; I could see them between the trees. The first among them was al-Akhram al-Asadī; following him was Abū Qatādah, the knight of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); and after Abū Qatādah was al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad. When the polytheists saw that, they ran away. The first, as was said, was al-Akhram al-Asadī. So, Salamah said, I came down and took hold of the reins of his horse, and I told him: O Akhram, beware of them, because I fear that they will cut you off. Al-Akhram was ahead of the rest, and he was alone, and Salamah wanted to warn him that if he carried on pursuing the kuffār alone, without waiting for the rest of the Muslims to follow, they would cut him off and surround him.

What was the response of al-Akhram al-Asadī? He said: O Salamah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day, and you believe that Jannah is true and the Fire is true, then do not stand between me and martyrdom. Look at the love al-Akhram had for meeting Allah (swt). He wanted to meet Allah (swt) as a shahīd. Salamah said: so I let him go. He pursued ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUyaynah, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān turned around to face him. Each of them stabbed the other: al-Akhram stabbed the horse of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, but ʿAbd al-Raḥmān stabbed al-Akhram and killed him. So now the horse of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was killed and al-Akhram was killed, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān took over the horse of al-Akhram.

Now the opposite happened. Abū Qatādah attacked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and in this case it was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān who stabbed the horse of Abū Qatādah and killed it, while Abū Qatādah stabbed ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and killed him. So now Abū Qatādah took over the horse ʿAbd al-Raḥmān had, which was originally the horse of al-Akhram. This is amazing.

Salamah said: and now I started running after the enemies of Allah, until, from the dust, I could no longer see a thing of the companions of the Messenger of Allah. All of the horsemen of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) were now behind Salamah, while Salamah was running on foot. It was now almost Maghrib, sunset, and they reached a valley that had some water in it, called Dhū Qarad. They wanted to drink from that water, but when they saw me running after them, pursuing them, he said, they left it, and they started running up the hills. And now the sun had set, and I followed one of them and struck him with an arrow, and I said: "Take it! I am the son of al-Akwaʿ, and today the wicked will die." What did that man say? He said: are you the same man who has been following us since the beginning of the day? And this happened to be a man he had already struck with an arrow in the morning, so now he had two arrows sticking out of him.

He said: they left behind them two horses, so I took them, and I went back to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and I found them at the same water in this valley that the mushrikūn had wanted to drink from. I found the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with five hundred men, and Bilāl was slaughtering for them one of the camels I had left behind me, and he was roasting part of its liver; he was roasting for them from this camel. And I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and told him: O Messenger of Allah, let me choose a hundred of your men, and I will pursue the kuffār with them until we leave none of them alive. He said: would you do so, O Salamah? I said: yes, by the One who has honoured you. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) laughed until I saw his teeth in the light of the fire.

He said: now they are already being fed in the land of Ghaṭafān. A man came from Ghaṭafān and said: they passed by a certain man of Ghaṭafān, and he slaughtered a camel for them. And when they started skinning the camel, they saw some dust, so they left it and ran away. They thought it was the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and his Companions, so they did not even enjoy their meal. When it was the morning of the next day, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: the best of our horsemen today is Abū Qatādah, and the best of our foot soldiers is Salamah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave me a share of the spoils equal to that of a horseman and a foot soldier together, and he had me ride behind him on his camel as we were going back to Madīnah.