The Lion of Allah

Among the seventy martyrs of Uhud was the dearest loss of all: Hamzah ibn Abdul-Muttalib (ra), the Prophet's ﷺ uncle and milk-brother, the Lion of Allah, who had fought at Badr and torn through the enemy at Uhud until he fell.

His killing had been bought. Hind bint Utbah, wife of Abu Sufyan, whose father and kin had died at Badr, had promised her Abyssinian slave Wahshi his freedom if he killed Hamzah (ra) in revenge. Wahshi, a master of the javelin, did not face him; he stalked him, waited, and threw from hiding, striking him down. And Hind, in a rage of grief and vengeance, mutilated his body and bit into his liver.

When the battle ended and the Prophet ﷺ searched the field, he came upon his uncle so disfigured, and the man who forgave the people who broke his own face stood over Hamzah (ra) and was overcome. The Companions said they never saw him grieve as he grieved that day. He covered him with a cloak too short to hide both head and feet, and resolved at first a terrible retaliation, until revelation came: if you punish, then punish with the like of what you were afflicted with; but if you are patient, it is better for the patient. And he chose patience, and forbade mutilation forever.

Hamzah (ra) was buried in his bloodied clothes, unwashed, as a martyr, the Prophet ﷺ praying over the martyrs of Uhud. Years later, at the conquest of Makkah, Wahshi would come to him as a Muslim, and the Prophet ﷺ would accept his Islam but ask him, gently, to keep his face away, for the sight reawakened the grief. Even Hind would one day stand before him a believer. The Lion of Allah was given the title Sayyid ash-Shuhada, the master of martyrs, and his uncle's love for him never left the Prophet's ﷺ heart.