The Battle of Uhud

An excerpt from the book,The Brother of the Prophet Muhammad, by M. Jawad Chirri, Director of the Islamic Center of America, Two Volumes, Harlo Press 1988, Revised Edition.

The Conclusion

It would not be difficult for the reader to infer the following:

1. The Battle of Uhud was one of the battles on which the future of Islam depended.

2. The death of the bearers of the banners of the pagan army at the beginning of the battle had its important effect in raising the morale of the Muslims and breaking the morale of the pagans who were four times more numerous than the Muslims. The bearers of the banners in the eyes of the warriors in those days were the leaders of the army. Their death had a great effect on the morale of the army. History recorded that Abu Sufyan said to Banu Abdud Dar:

"O Banu Abdud Dar, we recognize that you have more right than any other Meccan clan to carry the banner (because the Meccan tradition gives the clan of Abdud Dar the right to carry the banner at war). We were defeated in Badr because of the banner. Hold your banner firmly and protect it or hand it to us."

This infuriated the clan of Abdud Dar. As they refused to surrender their right of carrying the banners Abu Sufyan said:

"Let another banner be added to it." They said: "Yes, but the additional banner will be carried also by a man from Banu Abdud Dar, and nothing other than this will be accepted."

The Meccan pagans witnessed at the beginning of the battle their banner fallen ten times, and their hearts fell with the banner ten times. They found, to their astonishment, that they are facing a tremendous power. Ali (a.s.) was the one who destroyed the banner bearers or most of them. This signalled the defeat of the Meccan army in the very first round.

3. When the Muslims were defeated in the second round, no one remained with the Prophet except Ali and thirteen others of the companions of the Messenger. These thirteen were the first to come back to the Messenger after their flight. It is clear that Ali's defence in that decisive hour was much more valuable than the defence of the thirteen companions put together.

The Messenger ... became the target of the pagan's attacks. Whenever a regiment aimed at the Prophet, Ali charged the regiment and forced it to retreat.

Thus, we would not be erroneous if we say that Ali in this decisive battle had the exclusive honour of being the main defender of the Messenger and his Message, against the forces which no one other than Ali could face successfully. The Battle of Badr laid the foundation of the Islamic state, but the Battle of Uhud was about to destroy the foundation, had not a small number of heroes headed by Ali been present.

The pagans found that the Battle of Uhud ended in their favour. They defeated the army of the Prophet, and the Muslims lost seventy companions, among them the giant hero: Al-Hamzah, uncle of the Messenger and Lion of God. But the pagan victory was not decisive. Their target was Mohammed and Mohammed was still alive. He was the biggest danger to them Therefore, it was necessary for them to have another decisive battle in which they would realize the goal that they could not realize at the Battle of Uhud.

The Battle of Uhud took place during the third year after the Hijrah. Two years later, the third decisive battle in which the pagans gathered their biggest task force, took place.