Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 151fought. First Zaid ra , then Ja‘far ra and then ‘Abdullah binRawaha ra held the standard. All three fell, one after theother, fighting bravely. Pray for them all. After them thestandard was held by Khalid bin Walid ra . He appointedhimself. He is a sword among the swords of God. So hesaved the Muslim army and returned (Zad al-Ma‘ad, Vol.1, and Zurqani ).The Prophet's sa description of Khalid ra becamepopular. Khalid ra came to be known as ‘the sword ofGod'.Being one of the later converts, Khalid ra was oftentaunted by other Muslims. Once he and ‘Abdur Rahmanbin ‘Auf ra quarrelled over something. ‘Abdur Rahmanbin ‘Auf ra reported against Khalid ra to the Prophet sa . TheProphet sa chid Khalid ra and said, "Khalid ra , you annoyone who has been serving Islam from the time of Badr. Isay to you that even if you give away gold of the weightof Uhud in the service of Islam, you will not become asdeserving of divine reward as "‘Abdur Rahman ra"But they taunt me," said Khalid ra , "and I have toreply."Upon this the Prophet sa turned to others and said,"You must not taunt Khalid ra . He is a sword among theswords of God which remains drawn againstdisbelievers."The Prophet's sa description came to literal fulfilmenta few years later.On Khalid's ra return with the Muslim army, someMuslims of Medina described the returning soldiers asdefeatist and lacking in spirit. The general criticism wasthat they should all have died fighting. The Prophet sachid the critics. Khalid ra and his soldiers were notdefeatist or lacking in spirit, he said. They were soldierswho returned again and again to attack. The wordsmeant more than appeared on the surface. They foretoldbattles which Muslims were to fight with Syria.