After a day full of work, worship, and
entertainment, the people of Makkah fell
into a deep sleep. The people of the
Quraish were turning in their beds
except for one who forsook his bed of
sleep. He used to go to bed early, rest
for a few hours, then wake up in great
anxiety for the expected appointment
with Allah. He went to the praying comer
in his room to supplicate to his God.
Whenever his wife awakened upon hearing
the voice of his long supplications, she
shed tears out of warm sympathy and
asked him not to take it so hard and to
get some sleep. He only answered her in
tears, "The time for sleep is over,
Khadiijah." At that time Muhammad
was not yet a serious problem for the
Quraish, although he had started to draw
their attention as he started to spread
his call secretly; those who believed in
him were still quite few.
There were people among the
non-believers who loved and respected
him. They yearned to declare their
belief in him and become one of his
followers, but their fear of the
prevailing norms and the pressure of
inherited traditions prevented them.
Among them was Hamzah Ibn Abdul Muttalib,
the Prophet's paternal uncle who was at
the same time his brother through
fosterage (i.e. they had been breast-fed
by the same woman).
Hamzah was fully aware of the greatness
of his nephew and of the truth he came
with. He used to know him not only as a
nephew, but also as a brother and friend
because they both belonged to the same
generation. They always played together
and walked together on the same road of
life step by step. But in their youth
they departed, each one in his own way:
Hamzah preferred the life of leisure,
trying to take his place among the
prominent leaders of the Quraish and
Makkah, while Muhammad chose the life of
seclusion away from the crowd, immersed
in the deep spiritual meditation that
prepared him to receive the truth.
Despite the fact that each of them had a
different way of living out his own
youth, Hamzah was always attentive to
the virtues of his friend and nephew.
Such virtues helped Muhammad to win a
special place in the hearts of people
and helped to draw a clear outline for
his great future.
The next day, Uamzah went out as usual.
At the Ka'bah he found a number of
Quraishi noblemen. He sat with them,
listening to what they had to say: they
were talking about Muhammad. For the
first time .Hamzah saw them worried
about the call his nephew was
propagating with a tone of bitterness
and rage marking their voices. Before
that, they had never paid attention - at
least they had pretended not to do so -
but on that day their faces looked
perplexed, upset, and aggressive.
Hamzah laughed at their talks and
accused them of exaggeration. Abu Jahl
said to his companions that Hamzah was
the best one to know the danger of his
nephew's call and that he pretended to
underestimate this danger till the
Quraish would relax so much that when
they awakened it would be after his
nephew had complete control over them.
They kept talking and threatening while
Hamzah sat, sometimes smiling, sometimes
frowning. When they dispersed his head
was full of new ideas about the issues
of his nephew that they had discussed in
his presence.
Days passed and the Quraish's whispering
about the Prophet's call increased.
Later, whispering turned into
provocation and Hamzah watched from a
distance. His nephew's composed,
steadfast attitude towards their
provocations puzzled him. Such an
attitude was quite unfamiliar to the
Bani Quraish, who were themselves known
to be strong and challenging.
If doubts of the greatness and truth of
Muhammad could steal into anyone's
heart, they would have never stolen into
Hamzah's heart, because he was the best
one to know Muhammad from his early
childhood to his youth, then to his
proud, honest manhood. Hamzah knew
Muhammad as he knew himself and maybe
more. Since they had come into life
together, grown up together, and
attained full strength together,
Muhammad's life had been as pure and
clear as the sunlight. It never occurred
to Hamzah that Muhammad could make an
error or a doubtful act in his life. He
never saw Muhammad angry, hopeless ,
greedy, careless, or unstable.
Hamzah was not only physically strong,
but was also wise and strong-willed.
Therefore, it was natural for him to
follow a man in whose honesty and
truthfulness he wholeheartedly believed.
Thus he kept a secret in his heart that
was soon going to be disclosed.
Then came the day. Hamzah went out of
his house towards the desert carrying
his bow to practice his favorite sport
of hunting (in which he was very
skilled). He spent most of his day
there. On his way home he passed by the
Ka'bah as usual, to circumambulate it.
Near the Ka'bah, a female servant of 'Abd
Allah Ibn Jud'aan saw him and said,
"O Abu 'Umaarah! You haven't seen
what happened to your nephew at the
hands of Abu Al-Hakam Ibn Hishaam. When
he saw Muhammad sitting there, he hurt
him and called him bad names and treated
him in a way that he hated." She
went on to explain what Abu Jahl had
done to the Prophet of Allah.
Hamzah listened to her carefully and
paused for a while, then with his right
hand he picked up his bow and put it on
his shoulder. He walked with fast,
steady steps towards the Ka'bah, hoping
to meet Abu Jahl there. He decided that
if he did not find him, he would search
for him everywhere till he did.
As soon as he reached the Ka'bah he
glanced at Abu Jahl sitting in the yard
in the middle of the Quraishi noblemen.
Hamzah advanced very calmly towards Abu
Jahl and hit him with his bow on the
head till it broke the skin and bled. To
everybody's surprise, Hamzah shouted:
"You dare to insult Muhammad while
I follow his religion and I say what he
says? Come and retaliate upon me. Hit me
if you can." In a moment they all
forgot how their leader Abu Jahl had
been insulted and they were all
thunderstruck by the news that Hamzah
had converted to Muhammad's religion and
that he saw what Muhammad saw and said
what he said. Could Hamzah really have
converted to Islam when he was the
strongest and most dignified Quraishi
young man?
Such was the overwhelming disaster to
which the Quraish were helpless, because
Hamzah's conversion would attract others
from the elite to do the same. Thus
Muhammad's call would be supported, and
he would find enough solidarity that the
Quraish might wake up one day to find
their idols being pulled down.
Indeed, Hamzah had converted, and he
announced what he had kept secret in his
heart for so long.
Again Hamzah picked up his bow, put it
on his shoulder, and with steady steps
and full strength left the place with
everyone looking disappointed and Abu
Jahl licking the blood flowing from his
wounded head.
Hamzah possessed a sharp sight and clear
consciousness. He went home, and after
he had relaxed from the day's exhaustion
he sat down to think over what had
happened. He had announced it in a
moment of indignation and rage. He hated
to see his nephew getting insulted and
suffering injustice with no one to help
him. Such racial zeal for the honour of
Bani Haashim's talk had made him hit Abu
Jahl on the head and shout declaring his
Islam. But was that the ideal way for
anyone to change the religion of his
parents and ancestors and to embrace a
new religion whose teachings he had not
yet become familiar with and whose true
reality he had not acquired sufficient
knowledge of? It was true that Hamzah
had never had any doubts about
Muhammad's integrity, but could anybody
embrace a new religion with all its
responsibilities just in a moment of
rage as Hamzah had done?
It was true that he had always kept in
his heart a great respect for the new
call his nephew was carrying and its
banner, but what should the right time
have been to embrace this religion if he
was destined to embrace it? Should it be
a moment of indignation and anger or a
moment of deep reflection? Thus he was
inspired by a clear consciousness to
reconsider the whole situation in light
of strict and meticulous thinking.
Hamzah started thinking. He spent many
restless days and sleepless nights. When
one tries to attain the truth by the
power of mind, uncertainty will become a
means of knowledge, and this is what
happened to Hamzah. Once he used his
mind to search Islam and to weigh
between the old religion and the new
one, he started to have doubts raised by
his innate inherited nostalgia for his
father's religion and by the natural
fear of anything new. All his memories
of the Ka'bah, the idols, the statues
and the high religious status these
idols bestowed on the Quraish and Makkah
were raised.
It appeared to him that denying all this
history and the ancient religion was
like a big chasm, which had to be
crossed. Hamzah was amazed at how a man
could depart from the religion of his
father that early and that fast. He
regretted what he had done but he went
on with the journey of reasonable
thinking. But at that moment, he
realized that his mind was not enough
and that he should resort sincerely to
the unseen power. At the Ka'bah he
prayed and supplicated to heaven,
seeking help from every light that
existed in the universe to be guided to
the right path.
Let us hear him narrating his own story:
I regretted having departed from the
religion of my father and kin, and I was
in a terrible state of uncertainty and
could not sleep. I came to the Ka'bah
and supplicated to Allah to open my
heart to what was right and to eliminate
all doubts from it. Allah answered my
prayer and filled my heart with faith
and certainty. In the morning I went to
the Prophet (PBUH) informing him about
myself, and he prayed to Allah that He
may keep my heart stable in this
religion.
In this way Hamzah converted to Islam,
the religion of certainty.
Allah supported Islam with Hamzah's
conversion. He was strong in defending
the Prophet of Allah (PBUH) and the
helpless amongst his Companions. When
Abu Jahl saw him among the Muslims, he
realized that war was inevitably coming.
Therefore he began to support the
Quraish to ruin the Prophet and his
Companions. He wanted to prepare for a
civil war to relieve his heart of anger
and bitter feelings.
Hamzah was unable, of course, to prevent
all the harm alone, but his conversion
was a shield that protected the Muslims,
and was the first source of attraction
to many tribes to embrace Islam. The
second source was 'Umar Ibn Al-Khattab's
conversion, after which people entered
Allah's religion in crowds. Since his
conversion, Hamzah devoted all his life
and power to Allah and His religion till
the Prophet (PBUH) honored him with the
noble title, "The Lion of Allah and
of His Messenger".
The first military raid launched by the
Muslims against their enemies was under
the command of Hamzah. The first banner
that the Prophet handed to any Muslim
was to Hamzah. In the battle of Badr,
when the two conflicting parties met,
the Lion of Allah and of His Messenger
was there performing great wonders.
The defeated remnants of the Quraish
army went back to Makkah stumbling in
disappointment. Abu Sufyaan was
brokenhearted with a bowed head as he
left on the battlefield the dead bodies
of the Quraish martyrs such as Abu Jahl,
"Utbah Ibn RabiTah, Shaibah Ibn
Rabifah, Umaiyah Ibn Khalaf, 'Uqbah Ibn
Abi Mu'ait, Al-Aswad Ibn 'Abdul Al-Asad
Al-Makhzumi, Al- Waliid Ibn 'Utbah, Al-Nafr
Ibn Al-Haarith, Al-'Aas Ibn Sa'iid,
Ta'mah and tens of other great Quraish.
But the Quraish would not accept the
defeat easily. They started to prepare
the army and to pull together all powers
to avenge their honor and their dead.
They insisted to continue the war. In
the Battle of Uhud, all the Quraish went
to war together with their allies from
the Arabs, under the leadership of Abu
Sufyaan once again.
The Quraishi leaders had targeted two
persons in the new battle, namely, the
Prophet (PBUH) and Hamzah (May Allah be
pleased with him). If one had heard them
talking and plotting before the war, one
would realize that Hamzah was their
second main target after the Prophet (PBUH).
Before they went to war, they had
already chosen the person in charge of
assassinating Hamzah: an Abyssinian
slave with extraordinary skill in spear
throwing. They planned for him to kill
Hamzah, his only role being to hit him
with a deadly spear. They warned him not
to be busy with any other preoccupation
other than Hamzah, regardless of the
situation on the battlefield. They
promised him the excellent reward of his
freedom. The slave, whose name was
Wahshiy, was owned by Jubair Ibn Mufam.
Jubair's uncle had been killed in the
Battle of Badr, so Jubair said to
Wahshiy, "Go out with the army, and
if you kill Hamzah you will be
free." Afterwards, the Quraish sent
Wahshiy to Hind Bint 'Utbah, Abu
Sufyaan's wife, to give him more
encouragement to kill Hamzah, because
she had lost her father, uncle, brother,
and son and it was said that Hamzah had
been behind their deaths.
This was the reason why Hind was the
most enthusiastic one of all the Quraish
to escalate the war. All she wanted was
Hamzah's head, whatever the cost might
be. She spent days before the battle
pouring all her rage into Wahshiy','s
heart and making the plans for him. She
promised him if he killed Hamzah she
would give him her most precious
trinkets. With her hateful fingers she
held her precious pearl earrings and a
number of golden necklaces around her
neck and gazed at him saying, "All
these are yours if you kill Hamzah."
Wahshiy's mouth watered for the offer,
and his soul yearned for the battle
after which he would win his freedom and
cease to be a slave, in addition to all
the jewellery decorating the neck of the
leading woman of the Quraish, the wife
of its leader, and the daughter of its
master. It was clear then that the whole
war and the whole conspiracy were
decisively seeking Hamzah.
The Battle of Uhud started and the two
armies met. Hamzah was in the middle of
the battlefield in battle dress and on
his bosom he put an ostrich feather that
he used to wear while fighting. He was
moving everywhere cutting off the head
of each polytheist he reached among the
army of the Quraish. It seemed that
death was at his command. Whenever he
ordered it for anyone it reached him in
the heart.
The Muslims were about to gain victory
and the defeated army of the Quraish
started to withdraw in fright, but the
Muslim archers left their places on the
mountain to collect the spoils of war
that the Quraish had left. If they had
not left their places, giving the
Quraish cavalry the chance to find a
way, the battle would have ended as a
gigantic grave for all the Quraish,
including men, women, horses, and even
cattle.
The Quraish attacked the Muslims by
surprise from the back and started
striking them with thirsty swords. The
Muslims tried to pull themselves
together, picking up the weapons they
had put down upon seeing the Quraish
withdrawing, but the attack was too
violent. When Hamzah saw what had
happened, he doubled his strength and
his activity. Hamzah was striking all
around him while Wahshiy was observing
him, waiting for the right moment. Let
us hear Wahshiy himself describe the
scene.
I was an Abyssinian man who used to
throw the spear in an Abyssinian way
that scarcely misses its target. When
the armies met I searched for Hamzah
till I found him in the middle of the
crowd like a huge camel. He was killing
every one around him with his sword.
Nothing could stop him. By Allah, I
prepared for him. I wanted him. I hid
behind a tree so that I might attack him
or he might come close to me. At that
moment Sabaa'u Ibn 'Abd Al-'Uzzaa
approached him before me. When Hamzah
glanced at him he shouted, "Come to
me, you son of the one who
circumcises!" and he hit him
directly in the head. Then I shook my
spear till I was in full control over it
and threw it. The spear penetrated him
from the back and came out from between
his legs. He rose to reach me but could
not and soon died. I came to his body
and took my spear and went back to sit
in the camp. I didn't want anything else
to do with him. I killed him only to be
free.
Let Wahshiy continue his story: When I
returned to Makkah, they set me free. I
stayed there till the Prophet (PBUH)
entered Makkah on the Day of the
Conquest. I fled to At-Taa'if. When the
delegation of Al-Taa'if went to declare
their conversion to Islam, I heard
various people say that I should go to
Syria or Yemen or any other place. While
I was in such distress, a man said to
me, "Woe to you! The Prophet (PBUH)
never kills anyone entering his
religion." I went to Allah's
Prophet (PBUH) in Al- Madinah, and the
moment he first saw me I was already
giving my true testimony. When he saw me
he said, "Is it you, Wahshiy?"
I said, "Yes, Messenger of
Allah." He said, "Tell me, how
did you kill Hamzah?" I told him,
and when I finished he told me,
"Woe to you! Get out of my sight
and never show your face to me."
From that time, I always avoided
wherever the Prophet (PBUH) went lest he
should see me, till he died.
Afterwards, when the Muslims fought
Musailamah the Liar in the Battle of
Al-Yamaamah, I went with them. I took
with me the same spear that I had killed
Hamzah with. When the armies met, I saw
Musailamah standing with his sword in
his hand. I prepared for him, shook my
spear till I had full control over it,
threw it, and it went into his body. If
I killed with this spear the best of
people, Hamzah, I wish that Allah may
forgive me, as I killed with it the
worst of people, Musailamah.
Thus the Lion of Allah and of His
Messenger died as a great martyr. His
death was as unusual as his life,
because it was not enough for his
enemies to kill him. They sacrificed all
the men and money of the Quraish to a
battle only seeking the Prophet (PBUH)
and his uncle Hamzah.
Hind Bint 'Utbah, the wife of Abu
Sufyaan, ordered Wahshiy to bring her
Hamzah's liver, and he responded to her
savage desire. When he returned to her,
he delivered the liver to her with his
right hand, while taking the necklaces
with the left as a reward for the
accomplished task. Hind, whose father
had been killed in the Battle of Badr
and whose husband was the leader of the
polytheist army, chewed Hamzah's liver
hoping to relieve her heart, but the
liver was too tough for her teeth so she
spat it out and stood up shouting her
poem: For Badr we've paid you better
In a war more flaring than the other.
I was not patient to revenge the murder
of
Utbah, my son, and my brother.
My vow's fulfilled, my heart's relieved
forever.
The battle ended and the polytheists
mounted their camels and led their
horses back to Makkah. The Prophet
(PBUH) and his Companions examined the
battlefield to see the martyrs. There,
in the heart of the valley, the Prophet
(PBUH) was examining the faces of his
Companions who had offered their souls
to their Lord and had given their lives
as a precious sacrifice to Him.
The Prophet (PBUH) suddenly stood up and
gazed in an upset manner at what he saw.
He ground his teeth and closed his eyes.
He never imagined that the Arabic moral
code could be that savage so as to cut
and disfigure a dead body in the
dreadful way that had happened to his
uncle, the Lion of Allah, Hamzah Ibn
'Abd Al-Muttalib. The Prophet (PBUH)
opened his shining eyes and looked at
the dead body of his uncle saying,
"I will never have a worse loss in
my life than yours. I have never been
more outraged than I am now."
Then he turned to his Companions saying,
"It is only for the sake of Safiyah
[Hamzah's sister] that she should be
grieved and that it should be taken as a
practice after me. Otherwise, I would
have ordered him to be left without
burying so that he may be in the
stomachs of beasts and in the craws of
birds. If Allah destines me to win over
the Quraish, I will cut thirty of them
into pieces."
Therefore, the Companions shouted,
"By Allah, if one day we conquer
them, we will cut them in a way that no
Arab has done before!" Allah
honored Hamzah by making his death a
great lesson for the Muslims to leam
justice and mercy, even in situations
when penalties and retaliation were
justified. No sooner had the Prophet
finished his threatening words, then a
revelation came down to him while he was
still standing in his place with the
following verse: < Call
mankind to the Way of your Lord with
wisdom and sound advice, and reason with
them in a well mannered way. Indeed your
Lord is well aware of those who have
gone astray from His way, and He is well
aware of those who are guided. And if
you retaliate, let your retaliation be
to the extent that you were afflicted,
but if you are patient, it will
certainly be best for those who are
patient; and be patient, yet your
patience is only with the help of GOD,
and do not sorrow for them, not distress
yourself at what they devise. Indeed GOD
is with those who are pious, and those
who are doers of good > (16:125-127).
The revelation of these verses in this
situation was the best honour for
Hamzah. As stated before, the Prophet
(PBUH) loved hin dearly because he was
not only an uncle, but also his brother
b) fosterage, his playmate in childhood,
and the best friend in all his life.
The Prophet (PBUH) did not find any
better farewell for Hamzah than praying
for him among the numerous martyrs.
Hamzah's body was carried to the place
of prayer on the battlefield, in the
same place, which had witnessed his
bravery and embraced his blood. The
Prophet (PBUH) and his Companions prayed
for him, then they brought another
martyr and put him beside Hamzah, and
prayed for him. Then they took the
martyr away and left Hamzah and brought
the next martyr and placed him beside
Hamzah and prayed for him and so on.
They brought all the martyrs, one after
the other and prayed for them beside
Hamzah, who on that day was prayed for
seventy times (the number of martyrs).
On his way from the battlefield, the
Prophet (PBUH) heard the women of Bani
'Abd Al- Ashhal lamenting their martyrs
and he said, "But Hamzah has no one
to lament him." Sa'd Ibn Mu'aadh
heard this sentence and thought that the
Prophet (PBUH) would be satisfied if the
women would lament his uncle. He hurried
to the women of Bani 'Abd Al-Ashhal and
ordered them to lament Hamzah. When the
Prophet (PBUH) heard them doing this he
said, "I did not mean this. Go
back, may Allah have mercy on you. There
will be no crying anymore." The
Prophet's (PBUH) Companions began to say
their eulogies for Hamzah in praise of
his virtues. The poet Hassaan Ibn
Thaabit said in the course of a long
poem:
Moan for Hamzah, the one Who won't
forget your horse which was old. He
spurs horses when away they run Like
lions in jungles. He's strong and bold,
whiter than Haashim. He looks in the sun
Except for the night, his tongue never
told Among your swords, in was he done,
Paralyzed be the hands that Wahshiy has
sold."
'Abd
Allah Ibn Rawaahah also said: I moaned, but what did moaning do
for me? When they said Hamzah the Lion
was killed Abu Ya'liy, a man with honor
was filled For your death, pillars down
were pulled.
Safiyah, Hamzah's sister and the
Prophet's (PBUH) aunt said:
To the happy Paradise of Allah he was
invited.
Such a destiny for Hamzah was what we
wanted,
I won't forget you if I stayed or
departed.
I moan for a lion by whom Islam was
protected.
0 brother, may Allah for what you did
Make you rewarded.
But
the best words said about him were those
of the Prophet (PBUH) when he first saw
him among the martyrs: "May Allah
have mercy on you. You were, as far as I
knew, always uniting blood relations and
doing all sorts of goodness."
The loss of Hamzah was great and nothing
could console the Prophet (PBUH) for it.
But to his surprise, Allah offered him
the best consolation. When he was
walking home from Uhud, he saw a woman
from the Bani Diinaar whose husband,
father, and brother had been killed in
the battle. She asked the returning
Muslim soldiers about the battle. When
they told her of the death of her
father, husband, and brother, she soon
asked them anxiously, "What about
the Prophet of Allah?" They said,
"He is very well as you wish him to
be." She said, "Show me, let
me look at him." They stayed beside
her till the Prophet (PBUH) came and
when she saw him she said, "If you
are safe, all other disasters will be of
no importance."
Yes, this was the best condolence for
the Prophet (PBUH). He smiled at this
unusual situation which had no
similitude in loyalty and devotion. A
poor, helpless woman lost in an hour her
father, brother, and husband. Her
reaction to that news - which if it had
fallen on a mountain would have made it
collapse - was, "What about the
Prophet of Allah?" It was such a
well-timed situation that it is evident
that Allah planned to console His
Prophet (PBUH) for the death of Allah's
Lion and martyr of all martyrs.
Sheikh Abdulfattah Abu-Abdullah Adelabu (Ph. D. Damas),
a West African Islamic Academic founded AWQAF Africa, of
which he's the first al Amir (i.e. President).
Sheikh Dr. Adelabu was studying Postgraduate Degrees in
Damascus early 1990's during when Syria reviewed its
national security after an ‘Oslo Accord'...
Syria like many other countries around the world
witnessed, during this period, the flood of refugees
from war troubled nations like Somalia, arrival of
people from Algeria during the brutal struggling between
the Mujahidun and the government, resettlement of the
Palestinians fleeing from sophisticated guns of the
Israelis as well as adventure of African migrants for
reasons uncountable…
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