God’s Messenger sent us with a detachment and the people wheeled round in flight, so when we came to Medina we hid in it thinking that we had become corrupted.1 Then we went to God’s Messenger and told him we were those who had fled, but he replied, “No, you are the ones who return to fight after wheeling away, and I am your main body.”2
1. Literally “had perished.” They thought that they had committed a serious sin by turning in flight.
2. The word fi’a is here used. The suggestion is that to withdraw to join one’s unit stationed in the rear is not flying from the enemy. Cf. Al-Qur’an; 8:16.
Tirmidhi transmitted it. Abu Dawud’s version has something similar. He said, “No, you are the ones who return to fight after wheeling away.” We then approached and kissed his hand, and he said, “I am the main body of the Muslims.”
At the battle of Badr 'Utba b. Rabi'a came forward followed by his son and his brother and cried out, “Who will engage in single combat?” Some young men of the Helpers responded to his call, but when he asked them who they were and they told him he said, “I have no use for you; I want only my cousins on my father’s side.” God’s Messenger then said, “Get up, Hamza; get up, ‘Ali; get up, ‘Ubaida b. al-Harith.” Hamza went forward to ‘Utba, I went forward to Shaiba, and after two blows had been exchanged between ‘Ubaida and al-Walid they wounded one another severely; so we turned against al-Walid, and when we had killed him we carried ‘Ubaida away.
Anas reported God's Messenger as saying, “Go in God’s name, trusting in God, and adhering to the religion of God’s Messenger. Do not kill a decrepit old man, or a young infant, or a woman; do not be dishonest about booty, but collect your spoils, do right and act well, for God loves those who do well.”*
