Abu Tha'laba al-Khushani said that when the people encamped they scattered in the glens and wadis, but when God’s Messenger said, “Your scattering in these glens and wadis is only of the devil," they afterwards kept close together when they encamped to such an extent that it used to be said that if a cloth were spread over them it would cover them all.
Jabir told that God’s Messenger used to keep to the rear when traveling and urge on the weak. He would take someone up behind him and would make supplication for them all.
At the battle of Badr there was one camel to every three men of us. Abu Lubaba and ‘Ali b. Abu Talib were the travelling companions of God’s Messenger, and when his turn to dismount came they would offer to walk instead of him, but he would reply, “You are not stronger than I am, and I am not more able to dispense with the reward* than you are."
* i.e. the reward in the next world for walking part of the way.
Ibn ‘Abbas reported the Prophet as saying, "The best number of companions is four, the best number in expeditions four hundred, and the best number in armies four thousand; and twelve thousand will not be overcome through smallness of numbers."
Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud and Darimi transmitted it, Tirmidhi saying this is a gharib tradition.
