ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥarām and His Son

The accounts of the martyrs of Uḥud continue with ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥarām. He told his son, "You are the dearest thing to me in this world after the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and I would have wished you to die a martyr — but I wanted you to take care of your sisters, and to pay off my debt." That is why his son, Jābir, stayed behind while his father went to fight, and he was killed in the Battle of Uḥud. His son Jābir and the family gathered around him, weeping over the loss of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥarām. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them — and this is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī — "Whether or not you weep for him, the angels went on shading him with their wings until you have lifted him up." It made no difference whether they wept for him or not; he was content.

Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) met Jābir and said to him, "Shall I give you some glad tidings?" He told him, "Allah greeted your father right there at Uḥud where he was struck down." He then asked him, "What is your wish, ʿAbdullāh?" — Allah, the Almighty and Glorious, speaking to His servant and calling him by his own name, asking him what he wished for. ʿAbdullāh replied, "O Lord, return me to the world, so that I may fight again for You and be killed once more." No one at all wants to go back to this world and taste the agony of death a second time, except the martyr — everyone else would hate to go back and go through that agony again, but since the martyr does not feel death in that way, and feels being killed like no more than a thorn or the sting of an insect, and after seeing the great reward Allah gives him, he wishes to go back for more of it.