Life-of-Muhammad

150Life of Muhammad sasaid, with one voice. The army marched on. As theymarched, they saw the Roman army advancing towardsthem. So at Mauta the Muslims took up their positionsand the battle began. Soon Zaid ra , the Muslimcommander, was killed and the Prophet's cousin Ja‘faribn Abi Talib ra received the standard and the commandof the army. When he saw that enemy pressure wasincreasing and Muslims, because of utter physicalinferiority, were not holding their own he dismountedfrom his horse and cut its legs. The action meant that atleast he was not going to flee; he would prefer death toflight.To cut the legs of one's mount was an Arab customto prevent stampede and panic. Ja‘far ra lost his righthand, but held the standard in his left. He lost his lefthand also and then held the standard between the twostumps pressed to his chest. True to his promise, he felldown fighting. Then ‘Abdullah bin Rawaha ra , as theProphet sa had ordered, grasped the standard and tookover the command. He also fell fighting. The order of theProphet sa now was for Muslims to take counsel togetherand elect a commander. But there was no time to holdan election. The Muslims might well have yielded to thevastly superior numbers of the enemy. But Khalid binWalid ra , accepting the suggestion of a friend, took thestandard and went on fighting until evening came. Thefollowing day Khalid ra took the field again with hiscrippled and tired force but employed a stratagem. Hechanged the positions of his men—those in frontchanged with those in the rear and those on the rightflank changed with those on the left. They also raisedsome slogans. The enemy thought Muslims had receivedreinforcements overnight and withdrew in fear. Khalid rasaved his remnants and returned. The Prophet sa hadbeen informed of these events through a revelation. Hecollected the Muslims in the mosque. As he rose toaddress them his eyes were wet with tears. He said:I wish to tell you about the army which left here forthe Syrian border. It stood against the enemy and