The First Blood, and the Single Combat

Al-Aswad al-Makhzūmī was an evil, bad-charactered man from the people of Quraysh. He made an oath — he said: I'm going to reach the wells and drink from them; and the wells were now under the control of the Muslims. So he marches forth to go towards the wells, and Ḥamzah, may Allah be pleased with him, jumps forth and strikes his leg so it came off, and al-Aswad fell on his back with his leg in the air, spurting blood towards the army of Quraysh. But he was so stubborn he continued crawling in order to fulfil his oath and reach the wells, but Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib struck him again until he killed him. Now, whether this was the first person to die, or it was the three men who came out for single combat, Allah knows best.

ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, and his son al-Walīd ibn ʿUtbah, and his brother Shaybah, the three of them stood in front of their army and challenged the Muslims for single combat, mubārazah, dueling. Three young men from among the Anṣār jumped forth — ʿAwf ibn ʿAfrāʾ and Muʿawwidh ibn ʿAfrāʾ, and ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah — and these were all three young men. When they approached ʿUtbah, ʿUtbah said: who are you? Introduce yourselves. So they introduced themselves. They said: we're the opponents. ʿUtbah said: however, we want to meet our peers from among our own people. ʿUtbah is saying to these men that we have no quarrel with you — our problem isn't with the Anṣār, our problem isn't with the Aws and the Khazraj; our problem is with the men of Quraysh who followed Muḥammad (peace be upon him) — so send us our peers, people equivalent of our status. Now ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah was one of the leaders of Quraysh, part of the nobility of Quraysh, and he comes out with his brother and his son. And it should be remembered that a while ago it was ʿUtbah who was calling the kuffār to go back, but Abū Jahl is the one who inspired them and fired up this army to fight, and he cornered ʿUtbah by accusing him of being a coward; so now ʿUtbah is trying to prove that he's not a coward, and that he's not afraid of meeting the Muslims, even though his own son, Hudhayfah, might end up being killed — and stubbornness ended up leading him to this situation that he was in.

Now al-Amawī,^**** one of the scholars of the sīrah, says that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wasn't happy that three men from among the Anṣār are the ones who responded to the challenge; the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wanted his own relatives, his own family, to go out — so he called: stand up, Ḥamzah; stand up, ʿUbaydah; stand up, ʿAlī. Now, ʿUbaydah here is ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith, ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib — the direct cousin of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is asking these three men to go forth. This was the first time the Muslims and the mushrikīn are standing face to face in battle — there had been skirmishes before this, but this was the first time they would face off each other in single combat, so by no means was this an insignificant event; it was a very significant event. This mubārazah is extremely significant. In fact, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib says: I will be the first person who kneels before Allah, Mighty and Majestic, among the adversaries, on the Day of Judgement. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib is saying that he will be the first one to kneel in front of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, on the Day of Judgement, when Allah will judge among the disputants — because these three men from among the mushrikīn, and their equivalents from among the Muslims, are not facing off and fighting over land, they're not fighting over wealth, they're not fighting over power or dominance — they are fighting over their Lord. So Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed in Sūrat al-Ḥajj:

These are two adversaries who have disputed over their Lord. But those who disbelieved will have cut out for them garments of fire; poured upon their heads will be scalding water, by which is melted what is within their bellies and their skins; and for striking them are maces of iron. Every time they want to get out of it, from anguish, they will be returned to it — and it will be said: taste the punishment of the burning fire. Indeed, Allah will admit those who believe and do righteous deeds to gardens beneath which rivers flow; they will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold and pearl, and their garments therein will be silk. This āyah, too, was revealed concerning the single combat — the exegetes say that it is talking about the dueling that happened on the day of Badr. So ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Ḥamzah, and ʿUbaydah rush ahead to face off with ʿUtbah, Shaybah, and al-Walīd. ʿUbaydah was the eldest among them, so he faced off with ʿUtbah, since ʿUtbah was the oldest from among the three mushrikīn; and ʿAlī stood in front of al-Walīd, the two youngest; and Ḥamzah in front of Shaybah. And they started battle, and dust was just erupting from beneath their feet. ʿAlī and Ḥamzah immediately killed their opponents. But ʿUtbah and ʿUbaydah both exchanged blows and both of them fell down, but they were incapable of carrying on the fight — each one of them hurt the other one with a blow, but they couldn't carry on the fight, and at the same time they were both still alive. ʿAlī and Ḥamzah then attacked ʿUtbah and killed him, and ʿAlī says: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) didn't reprimand us for that, meaning that it was an acceptable thing to do in a duel. And then they carried ʿUbaydah back to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). This was the first mubārazah in Islam, and Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) honoured ʿUbaydah by placing his head on his own thigh.

Abū Ṭālib, the uncle of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), would say: we will serve the Messenger of Allah until we are laid out before him, uncaring even of our sons and our wives. For him, ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith said to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), while he was laying on his lap: O Messenger of Allah, if Abū Ṭālib could only see me, he would know that it was to me his words applied — we will serve him until we are laid out before him, uncaring even of our sons and our wives. ʿUbaydah was saying that his words really apply to him, O Messenger of Allah, I've laid my life down for you — and then he passed away. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: I testify that you are a shahīd.