Hadith 396

re not recognised with regret in any place from the places, and you are chiefs of your cities, and honourable tribes among your people. And do not do anything during this day which would be narrated after today. Fear the handing down of the narrations tomorrow, and be truthful of the battling your enemies, for Allah-azwj is with the patient. By the One-azwj in Whose Hand is my soul! There is no one from these’ – and he gestured by his hand toward the people of Syria – ‘any man having any religion in him like the wing of a mosquito. By Allah-azwj, you have not done good today. Polish the darkness of my face, to return my blood to my face, and upon you is to deal with this large multitude, for if Allah-azwj had Broken it, I would have pursued the one by his-asws side just as I pursued the flood (of soldiers) in front of him-asws’. They said, ‘Take with us to wherever you like’. He persevered with them around their determinations, and a bunch from Hamdan faced him, and they were approximate eight hundred fighters who had defeated another people, and they had been combating among the right flank of Ali-asws until one hundred an eighty men from them had been killed, and eleven chiefs from them had been killed. Every time a chief from them was killed, another one had grabbed the flag. They left and they were saying, ‘If only there were for us from the Arabas, the number of our adversaries, then we would have advanced, us and them, and we would not have left until we were either killed or be victorious’. Al-Ashtar said to them, ‘I have swearing to you all and making a pact upon that we will not retreat, ever, until either we are victorious or we are killed’. They harmonised with him upon this intention and determination, and he marched around the right flank and some people leapt to him. They retreated from the people of combat, and the loyalty, and the dignity, and he did not take hold (to fight) a battalion except he exposed it, nor any crowd except he exceeded it and returned it’’. [18]
It is reported from a slave of Al-Ashrar who said, ‘When they gathered to Al-Ashtar, the ones who had been defeated from the right flank, he attacked upon the rows of the people of Syria until he exposed them and joined them with the tents of Muawiya, and what was between Al-Asr and Al-Maghrib’’. [19]