Ḥamzah, Master of the Martyrs

There were seventy martyrs on the day of Uḥud. It was in the Battle of Uḥud that the āyāt of martyrdom were revealed, and it was in the Battle of Uḥud that many of the aḥādīth speaking of martyrdom were stated. The sayyid of the martyrs also died in the Battle of Uḥud, and that is Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, may Allah be pleased with him. When using the word "die" or "dead" of a martyr, this is not really the right word to use, though it is the linguistic term used to refer to them — a martyr is not really dead according to the Qur'an; he is alive.

Two of the Successors went to visit Wahshī, who was old at the time, and they wanted to hear from him the story of him killing Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, may Allah be pleased with him. Wahshī said, "I will tell you the story, just as I narrated it to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) when he asked me about it. I was a slave of Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, whose uncle Ṭuʿaymah ibn ʿAdī was struck down at Badr. When Quraysh went forth to Uḥud, Jubayr told me: if you kill Ḥamzah, Muḥammad's uncle, in retaliation for my uncle's death, then you will be a free man. So I went out with the warriors — I was an Abyssinian, and I could throw the spear like my countrymen; I rarely missed with it. When the two sides met in battle, I went forth looking for Ḥamzah, to lie in wait for him. I found him right amidst the fray, like an enormous camel, striking out viciously at our men with his sword, nothing withstanding him. I made use of bushes and rocks to get close to him."

Before Wahshī reached him, Sibāʿ ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā got to Ḥamzah first. When Ḥamzah saw him, he said, "Come over here, you son of a woman who does circumcisions" — and struck him a blow so quickly that it appeared to have missed his head; the only way to recognise that it had not missed was that the head flew off. Wahshī continued: "I aimed my spear carefully, and when I was sure of it, I hurled it at him. It struck him below his navel and emerged between his legs. He tried to move towards me, but was overcome. I left him with the spear until he died. Then I went over to him — and, by Allah, he was still terrifying even with the spear already through him. I retrieved my spear and returned to camp, where I stayed. I had no business with anyone other than him; I only killed him to gain my freedom. I did not join the rest of the battle. After I killed Ḥamzah, that was it — I went back to camp, because that was the reason I had come, to get my freedom by killing him."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) heard the news of his uncle's death, and it can hardly be imagined how devastating that was to him — Ḥamzah was his uncle, and he loved him greatly. It was one of the saddest moments in the life of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). He asked, "Did anyone see the death spot of my uncle? Where is he?" So one of the Companions volunteered and said, "I did." So they went together, and when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw him, he cried and he choked — his stomach had been opened, and his insides had been pulled out. The Companion who took him there said, in the name of Allah, that Ḥamzah had been mutilated — meaning this was not the state he had been in when he was first killed; the mutilation happened afterward. It was Hind bint ʿUtbah, the wife of Abū Sufyān, who wanted to eat the liver of Ḥamzah, and she had ordered that it be pulled out. This was the state in which the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) found his uncle, and it is not hard to imagine how deeply saddened he was.

After the battle was over, a woman was rushing towards the bodies of the dead, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told al-Zubayr to go and stop her. Al-Zubayr said, "I felt that that woman was my mother, Ṣafiyyah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the aunt of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — she was his aunt."^*** So he rushed towards her and stopped her. She pushed him in his chest and said, "Move away…"