This was a rallying signal. Abashed by their own despondency, Ali, Abu Bakr and Umar, followed by a few of the Faithful, copying Umar, rushed to a part of the battlefield where the enemy masses were furiously attacking a few men still standing.
Suddenly, among these heroes resisting with superhuman energy, Kab ibn Malik recognised the Prophet in person whose eyes sparkled under his helmet. 'O Mussulmans! O brothers!' shouted Kab, in stentorian accents. 'Good news! Look at the Prophet of Allah! He is safe and sound!'
This cry awakened fresh courage in the heart of every man. On all sides, the Mussulmans rushed recklessly to the spot whence the glad cry proceeded. After having disengaged the Prophet, they were afire with irresistible ardour and cut a bloody path through the overthrown enemy's ranks as far as the ravine of Ainin, which they never ought to have abandoned. The effort of the idolaters to storm this impregnable position was unavailing. Ubi ibn Khalaf cried out in his fury: 'O Mohammad! where art thou? Shouldst thou be still alive, I swear thou shalt not escape me!'
The Prophet would not allow his partisans to tear Ubi limb from limb as they wished to do, but dragging a spear from the grasp of Al Haris, Mohammad drove its steel into Ubi's throat. He dropped forward on his horse's neck and, after vainly trying to save himself by clutching at the mane, fell heavily to the ground. The idolaters, exhausted, gave up the idea of avenging his death. The fight was finished....
Finding a little water in the hollow of a rock, Ali filled his shield and offered it to the Prophet. But he turned against the smell of this water and refused to drink it. So Ali then used it to wash the wounds of Allah's Chosen One, but in vain, his blood continuing to flow so freely as to give rise to great uneasiness. Fatimah, who in a state of great anxiety, had arrived at the scene of battle with a few of her companions, caused some fragments of a rush-mat to be set on fire and covered her father's wounds with the ashes. This dressing put a stop to the hemorrhage.
The Prophet recited the midday prayer, but remained seated, in consequence of extreme fatigue and the suffering brought on by his wounds. Behind him, also seated for the same reason, all the combatants prayed with him, and gave thanks to the Almighty for having saved them despite their disobedience.
The death-roll numbered three score and ten, equalling the count of the idolatrous prisoners of Badr. Many of the Believers considered that this coincidence formed a punishment for having accepted a ransom in their greed for worldly profit.
The bodies of the martyrs of Uhud were in a parlous state. Athirst for vengeance, the women of the Quraish had thrown away their tabors in order to hurl themselves on the corpses and mutilate them odiously. Hind, their mistress, was the most ferocious of them all. Taking out her earrings, pulling off necklaces, bracelets and ankle-rings, she handed them all to Al-Uhayha, the slayer of Hamzah; and, in place of her gewgaws, adorned herself with necklaces and bangles fashioned with noses and ears sliced from the heads of her foes. Like a filthy hyena, she squatted on Hamzah's remains. With ensanguined finger-nails, she tore his body open and dragged out the liver with fury, making her teeth meet in it. She then climbed to the top of a lofty rock and turning towards the soldiers of Islam, howled with all the strength of her lungs:
"We have paid you back for the day of Badr!—I was tortured by the remembrance of my father—Of my son, and of my uncle, murdered by you!—My soul is now at rest and my vengeance is glutted.—My "uhayha" (grief) hath been softened by thee—O Uhayha! O conqueror of Hamzah! I'll sing thy praises—Until my bones crumble into dust in my grave!"