Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 65Meccan general ‘Amr bin al-‘As ra , and asked him to havea look at the pass behind. ‘Amr ra did so, and thought itthe chance of his life. Both generals stopped their menand climbed on to the hill. They killed the few Muslimswho were still guarding the pass and from the eminencestarted an attack upon the Muslims. Hearing their warcries, the routed Meccan army collected itself again, andreturned to the field. The attack on the Muslims wassudden. In their pursuit of the Meccan army they haddispersed over the whole of the field. Muslim resistanceto this new attack could not be assembled. Onlyindividual Muslim soldiers were seen engaging theenemy. Many of these fell fighting. Others fell back. Afew made a ring round the Prophet sa . They could nothave been more than twenty in all. The Meccan armyattacked this ring fiercely. One by one, the Muslims inthe ring fell under the blows of Meccan swordsmen.From the hill, the archers sent volleys of arrows. At thattime, Talha ra , one of the Quraish and the Muhajirin(Meccan Muslims who had taken refuge in Medina), sawthat the enemy arrows were all directed to the face of theProphet sa . He stretched out his hand and held it upagainst the Prophet's sa face. Arrow after arrow struckTalha's ra hand, yet it did not drop, although with eachshot it was pierced through. Ultimately it was completelymutilated. Talha ra lost his hand and for the rest of lifewent about with a stump. In the time of the FourthKhalifah of Islam when internal dissensions had raisedtheir head, Talha ra was tauntingly described by anenemy as the handless Talha ra . A friend of Talha rareplied, "Handless, yea, but do you know where he losthis hand? At the Battle of Uhud, in which he raised hishand to shield the Prophet's sa face from the enemy'sarrows."Long after the Battle of Uhud friends of Talha ra askedhim, "Did not your hand smart under the arrow shotsand the pain make you cry?" Talha ra replied, "It mademe smart, and it almost made me cry, but I resistedboth because I knew that if my hand shook but slightly,