3 of 3 · Shawwal 3 AH · March 625 CE · Uhud
Hamzah ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib رضي الله عنه
The Master of Martyrs
At Uhud, Hamzah fought at the front. Wahshi, an Abyssinian slave promised his freedom if he killed him, hid behind a rock and struck him with his spear; Wahshi himself later told the story (Sahih al-Bukhari 4072). The historians report that Hamzah's body was mutilated, and that the Prophet ﷺ grieved over him as over no one else that day.
Returning to Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ heard the women of the Ansar weeping for their dead, and said that Hamzah had no women to weep for him; the women of the Ansar then came to weep for Hamzah (Sunan Ibn Majah 1591). Hamzah was buried at Uhud, where his grave is visited to this day.
A hadith reported by al-Hakim names him the master of the martyrs: "The master of the martyrs is Hamzah ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib, and a man who stood before an unjust ruler, commanded him and forbade him, and was killed for it."
Hamzah gave his life early, before the victories he helped make possible; the first rank of martyrs belongs to those who give before they see the fruit.
What would you give for something whose success you might never see?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 4072 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sunan Ibn Majah 1591 Graded by Al-Albani: Hasan Sahih · Muhammad Fouad Abd al-Baqi: Hasan Sahih · Shuaib Al Arnaut: Hasan · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad HasanSahih
- al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak 'ala al-SahihaynHistorical report
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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