At this blasphemy, the Prophet ordered Umar to reply. He cried out: 'Allah is the Most High; the Most Majestic!' Recognising Umar's voice, Abu Sufyan asked him: 'O Umar! I conjure thee, inform me if we have killed Mohammad.'—'No, by my faith! He is even now listening to thee.' Abu Sufyan, disappointed, rejoined: 'Evidently, I am bound to believe thee in preference to Ibn Qamiah who boasts of having killed him. But I swear to meet you next year at Badr.'—'That is understood!' replied Umar. 'We pledge our word to meet thee there.'
The Prophet despatched Ali to track the Infidels. 'Take heed how they carry themselves,' Mohammad impressed upon his scout. 'See if they ride their camels and lead their horses by the bridle. That will certainly denote that they give up all hope of battle and are going to Makkah. If, on the contrary, they mount their steeds and drive their camels before them, it is a sure sign that they are bound for Al-Madinah with the intention of cutting us off. In that case, there is but one thing to be done: to hurl ourselves upon them without loss of time, so as to attack them and hack our way through.'
A few minutes later, Ali returned. He had seen the Quraish alight from their horses, bestride their camels and set out in the direction of Makkah.
Reassured as to the enemy's intentions, the Believers busied themselves with the burial of the martyrs. First of all, the Prophet sought to find the body of his uncle Hamzah. Mohammad discovered it in a hollow of the Wadi, the belly ripped open; and with ears and nose cut off. 'Were it not that I feared to grieve Safiyah (Hamzah's sister), and to set an example which perhaps would become law, I would leave these remains unburied, until they should disappear in the entrails of jackals and vultures; thus keeping alive the hope of revenge. If the Almighty should ever deliver into our hands the wretches who have thus treated thee, I swear to exercise most terrible reprisals.'
The Prophet then received this Revelation: "If ye make reprisals, then make them to the same extent that ye were injured: but if ye can endure patiently, best will it surely be for the patiently enduring." (The Qur'an, xvi, 127.) Thus warned, Mohammad relinquished his ideas of retaliation, and earnestly urged the Faithful to abstain from mutilating their enemies.
The news of the disaster having reached Al-Madinah, all the women, and Safiyah among them, came in crowds to attend to the wounded and mourn for the dead. The Prophet charged Safiyah's son, Zubayr ibn Awam, to send his mother away, to prevent her seeing her brother's corpse, so atrociously disfigured. 'I have been told that my brother was mutilated for the cause of Islam,' she replied, 'and I shall be resigned no matter how horrible the sight, please Allah!' She went straightway to where Hamzah was lying and after having prayed over him with fervent firmness, she departed.
Funerals then began. After having led that of his uncle Hamzah, the Prophet, so as not to fatigue the Believers who were already exhausted, had the dead bodies buried two by two, or three by three, in the same grave, and without being washed according to custom. 'For I bear witness for these martyrs,' he declared. 'Those who have been struck down on Allah's Road will be resuscitated on the Day of Resurrection when their wounds will appear fresh and bloody; smelling sweetly of musk.' When it came to his ears that several families had carried their dead to Al-Madinah to bury them there, he upbraided them and ordained: 'Henceforward, ye shall bury your dead where they fall.'
The battle of Uhud did not result fatally for Islam as might reasonably have been feared. There were grievous losses; but several advantages accrued from the fight. The defeat was due to having disregarded the Prophet's first idea, and to disobeying his orders on the field. In future, the Believers submitted entirely to him; they were resolved to carry out his commands to the letter even in case he should be killed, according to the verse alluding to the momentary despondency of Ali, Abu Bakr, and Umar: "Mohammad is no more than an Apostle; other Apostles have already passed away before him; if then he die, or be slain, will ye turn upon your heels?" (The Qur'an, iii, 138.)
Moreover, defeats, when faith is fervent, serve only to sharpen energy: "And how many a Prophet hath combated an enemy on whose side were many myriads? Yet were they not daunted at what befell them on the path of Allah, nor were they weakened, nor did they basely submit! And Allah loveth those who endure with steadfastness." (The Qur'an, iii, 140.)
Clemency henceforward was not to be shown to the idolaters: the savage mutilation of the seventy martyrs proved that compassion was inadmissible.