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<strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Muhammad</strong> sa 65<br />
Meccan general ‘Amr bin al-‘As ra , and asked him to have<br />
a look at the pass behind. ‘Amr ra did so, and thought it<br />
the chance <strong>of</strong> his life. Both generals stopped their men<br />
and climbed on to the hill. They killed the few Muslims<br />
who were still guarding the pass and from the eminence<br />
started an attack upon the Muslims. Hearing their war<br />
cries, the routed Meccan army collected itself again, and<br />
returned to the field. The attack on the Muslims was<br />
sudden. In their pursuit <strong>of</strong> the Meccan army they had<br />
dispersed over the whole <strong>of</strong> the field. Muslim resistance<br />
to this new attack could not be assembled. Only<br />
individual Muslim soldiers were seen engaging the<br />
enemy. Many <strong>of</strong> these fell fighting. Others fell back. A<br />
few made a ring round the Prophet sa . They could not<br />
have been more than twenty in all. The Meccan army<br />
attacked this ring fiercely. One by one, the Muslims in<br />
the ring fell under the blows <strong>of</strong> Meccan swordsmen.<br />
From the hill, the archers sent volleys <strong>of</strong> arrows. At that<br />
time, Talha ra , one <strong>of</strong> the Quraish and the Muhajirin<br />
(Meccan Muslims who had taken refuge in Medina), saw<br />
that the enemy arrows were all directed to the face <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Prophet sa . He stretched out his hand and held it up<br />
against the Prophet's sa face. Arrow after arrow struck<br />
Talha's ra hand, yet it did not drop, although with each<br />
shot it was pierced through. Ultimately it was completely<br />
mutilated. Talha ra lost his hand and for the rest <strong>of</strong> life<br />
went about with a stump. In the time <strong>of</strong> the Fourth<br />
Khalifah <strong>of</strong> Islam when internal dissensions had raised<br />
their head, Talha ra was tauntingly described by an<br />
enemy as the handless Talha ra . A friend <strong>of</strong> Talha ra<br />
replied, "Handless, yea, but do you know where he lost<br />
his hand? At the Battle <strong>of</strong> Uhud, in which he raised his<br />
hand to shield the Prophet's sa face from the enemy's<br />
arrows."<br />
Long after the Battle <strong>of</strong> Uhud friends <strong>of</strong> Talha ra asked<br />
him, "Did not your hand smart under the arrow shots<br />
and the pain make you cry?" Talha ra replied, "It made<br />
me smart, and it almost made me cry, but I resisted<br />
both because I knew that if my hand shook but slightly,
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