THE BATTLE OF BADR ,UHUD AND KHANDAQ

In Medina, the Holy Prophet (s) was forced to defend himself and his followers, and was thus
forced to face many battles. At each and every battle, Imam Ali (a) was the hero. And it was he
who fought single-handedly with famous warriors of Arabia, defeated the enemies and brought
victory to Islam.
Records of these battles carry with them chronicles of his bravery, courage and chivalry. Even
the enemies sang songs of his valour and gallantry. Everyone of these battles was an outcome
of very grave circumstances and conditions, and combination of very serious events and
dangerous forces against the safety of the Muslims and Islam. There were many such
encounters, but I have briefly mentioned only five of those instances, where the events had far-
reaching effects. In each of them, Ali (a) alone broke through evil combinations and carried the
Muslims and Islam to a position of safety, eminence and power.

The Battle of Badr

The first of these battles was Badr. It took place in the month of Ramazan, in 2 A.H. Muslims
were not prepared for a battle and could ill-afford to fight against superior forces. But Medina was
being invaded and the Holy Prophet (s) was forced to defend himself and his followers. He
decided to leave Medina and fight out the battle in an open field. He had only 313 Muslims who
were not adequately armed for a battle, many of them were nervous of an encounter, and were
suffering from inferiority complex. The Quraish had come with an army of about 1000 warriors
and had frightened the Muslims even more. The battle took place and 36 Quraish were killed by
Imam Ali (a), some of them were famous warriors of Quraish and most of them were the same
who had surrounded the house of the Prophet (s) on the night of migration. During the encounter,
he was wounded, but by his bravery and courage, he brought home to Muslims that he would act
as the first line of defence for Islam, that they had no cause to sufferfrom inferiority complex and
that Allah would defend them against heavy odds. Amongst Quraish, there were two sworn
enemies of Islam, Abu Jahl and Abu Sufyan and in this battle, Abu Jahl was killed. Imam Ali was
hero of this battle and brought the first victory to Islam in armed encounters with its enemies.

The Battle of Uhud

The second most important battle was that of Uhud. Quraish and their leader, Abu Sufyan were
smarting under the defeat of Badr and had sworn to retaliate. The idolaters were burning for
revenge. They made formidable preparations for another encounter and succeeded in obtaining
assistance of Tahama and Kinama tribes. Abu Sufyan's wife, Hinda, mother of Muawiyah, took
keen interest in all arrangements and preparations. She had written poems to excite Quraish
against Islam and had organized a band of women minstrels who accompanied the army of
Quraish to the battlefield. Thus they had mobilized an army of 3000 infantry and 2000 cavalry.
The Holy Prophet (s) could muster on 700 Muslims to face this horde. They faced each other in
the battlefield of Uhud. The battle took place on the 11th Shawwal, 3 A.H. The command of
Muslim army was divided between Imam Ali (a) and Hamza, and Abu Sufyan had appointed
Khalid bin Walid, Ikrima ibn Abu Jahl and Amr ibn Aas as the three commanders to command the
right and left ranks and the front respectively.
The first encounter took place between Imam Ali (a) and Talha ibn Abi Talha. This encounter
carries with it an incident of marvellous chivalry by Ali. Talha suffered defeat at the hands of Ali
and died. He was the standard-bearer of Quraish's army. His death brought his four sons and
one grandson to face Ali, and each one of them was killed by him, and other standard-bearers
followed them and were in turn killed by Ali, then a general encounter took place in which Ali and
Hamza carried the day and Muslims came out victorious. But eagerness for spoils threw the
ranks of Muslim army into disorder. Ali (a) however tried to keep them in order, but they were out
of control. Khalid bin Walid immediately attacked them from the rear and the flank, he wounded
the Holy Prophet (s) with a javelin; and had also stoned hi, the face of the Prophet (s) was also
wounded and he had fallen down from the horse. Khalid bin Walid started shouting with a loud
voice, "The lying Prophet is slain", upon which without stopping to ascertain, the followers of
Islam fled panic-stricken.
The wounded Prophet (s) was left in the battlefield with only, Ali, Hamza, Abu Dujana and
Zakwan to defend him. These brave warriors fought fiercely and during this encounter, Hamza
was martyred, Zakwan and Abu Dujana lay seriously wounded and Imam Ali (a) was left alone in
the battlefield. He had received 16 wounds but he searched and found the Holy Prophet (s) lying
wounded and surrounded by enemies under the command of Khalid who were trying to kill him.
Imam Ali (a) fought against these six men, killed two of them and scattered the rest. Then he
lifted the Holy Prophet (s) and carried him to a mount; and continued attacking the rallying armies
of the enemy; and kept on shouting that, the Holy Prophet is alive, and calling Muslims to come
back. Those Muslims who had not fled very far came back, saw the wounded Prophet (SA, saw
his daughter Fatima (who had come out of Medina hearing the rumour of her father's death)
attending him. The Muslims took heart and gathered again under the command of Imam Ali (a)
and started fighting again and victory was gained. The most peculiar aspect of this battle was
that the greed of the Muslim warriors had converted a hard-earned victory into an ignominious
defeat and Ali had reconverted this defeat into a glorious victory. He thus once again saved the
day, saved the face of the fleeing Muslims and the most important of all, saved the life of the
Holy Prophet (s) without whom the Holy Prophet would have been killed.
Twenty eight famous warriors of Arabia were killed by Imam Ali (a) in this battle, of whom
seventeen were standard-bearers of Quraish. The Holy Prophet (s) declared that the angel
Gabriel was extolling Ali and had said,
"There is no braver youth than Ali and no better sword than his Zulfiqar."

The Battle of Khandaq

The third momentous armed encounter of Muslims with Quraish is called the Battle of Clans
(Ahzab) or the Battle of the Moat or Ditch (Khandaq). It is so called because many clans of Arabs
were persuaded by Abu Sufyan to help him to annihilate Islam and the Muslims; and because
when these forces invade Medina, the Holy Prophet (s) was obliged to dig a ditch around his
army. This battle also proved that the Holy Prophet (s) was forced to take up arms in defence of
his followers and his mission. It took place on the 23rd Zil Qada, 5 A.H.
The defeat at Uhud was a great blow to Quraish and their leader Abu Sufyan. While retreating
from Uhud, he had promised that he will come back again to avenge the defeat. He instigated the
clans of Bani Nazir, Bani Ghatafan, Bani Salim and Bani Kinana and also succeeded in
persuading Bani Khuza'a, who till then had not sided with any party, to join their forces against
Islam. Abu Sufyan was very sure of his success. He specially relied upon the fame of Amr ibn
Abdiwad, who was as famous in Arabia as Rustam was in Persia. He had gathered an army of
about nine to ten thousand soldiers under the command of this famous warrior.
They marched upon Medina. The Holy Prophet (s) could barely muster 2000 Muslims to face this
army. For nearly a month, the armies stood facing each other and one day Amr jumped over the
ditch, faced the Muslim army and challenged them for an encounter. He was accompanied by
Ikrima ibn Abu Jahl, Abdullah ibn Mugheera, Zirar ibn Khattab, Nuwfal ibn Abdullah and others.
His bravery, his valour and courage were so well-known in Arabia that none of the Muslims
except Ali dare face him. The assemblage of famous warrior tribes and the presence of Amr ibn
Abdiwad as their commanders had made the Muslims so nervous that even the Holy Quran says:
"Their eyes were petrified and their hearts were beating violently and they were thinking of
running away" (Surah al-Ahzab, 33:11)
Thrice Amr ibn Abdiwad challenged them to come out and every time none but Imam Ali (a)
stood up and asked the permission of the Holy Prophet (s) to face him. Twice the Prophet
refused him that permission, but in the end, he allowed him, saying that, "Today faith in
embodiment is facing embodied infidelity"; then he raised his hands in supplication saying, "Lord!
I am sending Ali alone in the battlefield, do not allow me to be left alone, you are the best
companion and the best guardian". The Muslims were so certain of Ali being killed by Amr,
hence, some of them came forward to have a last look at his face.
The encounter ended in Ali's success and Amr's death. After Amr, he faced Abdullah ibn
Mugheera and Nuwfal ibn Abdullah and killed them both. Thus a victory was won without any
Muslim, except Ali, coming out of the ranks.
In the encounter with Amr, and the defeat and death of this great warrior, Imam Ali (a) again
exhibited such a chivalrous attitude that the sister of Amr composed a poem in praise of the man
who faced her brother, fought bravely against him and paid such a noble and chivalrous tribute to
his victorious enemy. In it she said, "If anyone else than Ali had killed her brother, she would
have wept over the infamy throughout her life, but not now". The death of Amr had completely
demoralized the various clans gathered and they started leaving the army and going back to their
homes. Quraish and Abu Sufyan felt that they cannot carry on the battle without the help of other
clans and went back to Mecca, sad and dejected.
Thus Ali, brought an end to the hostilities of Quraish in three encounters of Badr, Uhud and
Khandaq. Their best warriors were killed, their unity against Islam was crushed, their pride was
humiliated and their prestige before Arab clans was lowered by him.
He further raised the status of Muslims among the haughty, merciless and wild tribes of Arabia.
In all these three battles not more than sixty Muslims were killed, and he alone had killed more
than seventy enemies of Islam, everyone of whom was the head of some clan or a subclan, a
warrior famous for his bravery or an enemy of the Holy Prophet (s) and Islam.
In their struggle for existence, Muslims had to face a very serious opposition from Jews. In the
beginning they tried to help Quraish against Islam surreptitiously and then openly. But when Ali
broke through the enmity of Quraish, and when the Holy Prophet (s) was forced to banish the
Jews from Medina, they decided to try their fate against Islam with the help of various tribes of
Bani Asad, Bani Kinana and Bani Ghatafan.