Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 308
! ! 308 the army. He promised the comman der of his army, whose name was most likely Haman , that if he succeeded he would marry his daughter to him. In this war, the Muslim army numbered sixty thousand, and the left wing of the army was defeated. First of all , i f the wing of an army is defeated the risk is greatly increased that the enemy may encircle them and destroy the whole army. However, an army which is small to begin with has a low chance of survival, for the enemy c an single out each and every person and kill them. If God’s help had not been with them that day, the survival of even one single Muslim would have been miraculous , for the opposing army was very large and one wing had already been defeated. At th at time, Muslim women saved the army. Ab ū Sufy ā n ra was among the people w ho retreated. Although he was a very brave and high - ranking g eneral and had performed many great deeds for Islam, he had to withdraw when the rest of the army retreated. At that time, his wife Hind, who was looked upon by Muslims with great aversion , moved forward with a stick in her hand and striking her husband’s horse , said, “ Have you no shame? As a disbeliever, you strongly stood against Islam but now as a follower of Islam, you retreat!” Ab ū Sufy ā n ra was a man of good heart. He was certainly a brave man; and he had only been forced to retreat because his companions withdrew. However, when Hind said these words, he called to his companions and shouted, “Come back! The d eath which finds us while retreating is far worse than the death which finds us on the battlefield !” Consequently, the Muslims rushed forward again and co nquered the battlefield. A si ngle phrase uttered by a woman changed the course of battle. It is further recorded that the women themselves fought for half an hour to guard the gap which had been left. They used poles, tent - walls and whatever else they could get a hold of to protect the field, until the Muslim army returned. The Outcome o f Khansa’ s Bravery i n a War Against Iran Similarly, during a battle against Iran, it was predicted that the Muslims would be crushed , because the previous day they had suffered heavy losses and nearly twenty thousand men were martyred. Muslims had never suffered these many casualties before.