The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 3 of 4

IMAM ABU AL-FIDA' ISMA'IL IBN KATH~R 77
'Ihn al-Zihacn got carried away by a battle in which we had the advantage; if only
he had been fair!
We damaged you and you us; warfare sometimes goes in cycles like that.
We put our swords to your shoulders and there we drank your blood time and
again.
We made your backsides flow, as happens to old camels eating 'a$aP6 for medicine!
You took to your heels in flight in the defile, following along like sheep.
Then we attacked you fiercely, forcing you down to the foot of the mountain;
Our groups of warriors were like ashhq" in the desert wastes, terrifying whomever
came across them.
The defile pressed in upon us and we crossed through it and filled its heights and
low places alike,
With men whose equal you are not and who were aided by Gabriel who came down.
It was our piety that won the day at Badr, our obedience to God and our belief in
the prophets.
We killed every one of their chieftains and all their nobles in flowing robes.
At the battle of Badr we left shame upon Quraysh and exemplary tales to be told.
The Messenger of God (SAAS) in truth was witness to the battle of Badr, while
the short, corpulent men
Of Quraysh assembled there were like unattended camels gathering in a pasture.
It is we, not people like you born to your mothers' arses, who face up to the fray
when warfare comes!"'
Ibn Ishnq stated, "Ka'b recited the following verses honouring Hamza and those
Muslims, may God be pleased with them all, killed with hi at Uhud,
'You wept. And was it another who made you do so, when it was you who cried
when remembering?
Your memory was of a people about whom stories have reached me in this
tortuous time.
To think of them your heart throbs in longing and tear-filled sadness.
But those they killed are in pleasant gardens, honoured therein both when they
enter or leave
For what they endured beneath the flag, the flag of the prophet at Dhii al-Ad~uj'~
That day when all of Aws and Khazraj gave answer with their swords.
Along with Ahad's men following the truth, its path so well illuminated.
They kept on striking the warriors as they traversed through the swirling dust.
So it was until the King summoned them to a garden whose entrance was shielded
by much foliage.
All of them died heroically, in God's faith, and received no punishment,
Like Hamza when he held true, wielding a sharp sword, cutting deep.
16. A word with various connotations, i.e. honey, date juice, flowers, gum from trees etc.
17. The word shidq, pl. ashMg means according to the dictionaries, the sides or ends of valleys.
It also has a connotation of the sides of the mouth and of being large-mouthed, or talkative and
eloquent. Its precise meaning here is unclear.
18. A site near Uhd.