A giant standing amongst the giants of Islam. A warrior of the Islamic cause. Famous as Asad Allah (the lion of Allah). When one hears the phrase Asad Allah, the mind races to the courageous Companion Hamzah ibn 'Abdul Muttalib ibn Hisham ibn 'Abd Manaf ibn Qusay ibn Kilab radiya Llahu 'anhu. The dauntless leader, perhaps less famous by his teknonyms Abu 'Umarah and Abu Ya'la, the paternal uncle and foster brother of Rasulullah salla Llahu 'alayhi wa sallam. He was born into the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh in Makkah, emigrating later in life to Madinah.

No sooner had he accepted Islam that his life took a drastic turn wherein his concern was defending the Islamic cause from enemies foreign and domestic.

He had immersed himself in the worry of spreading Islam and became a source of pride for the early weak Muslims. Allah subhanahu wa ta 'ala honoured him with Islam just as he honoured Islam with him. He was a symbol of strength for the Muslims and was pivotal in laying the path for da'wah in the beginning stages of the new faith.

The story of his acceptance of Islam is testament to the nobility of his fearless character. Hamzah, a man of deep rooted values, was reputed to be the strongest and most active of the Quraysh, their champion in war. Hamza was skilled in wrestling, archery and swordsmanship. He was fond of hunting.

Hamzah's father was 'Abdul Muttalib ibn Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy from the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. His mother was Hala bint Uhayb from the Zuhra clan of Quraysh. Hamzah was reportedly four years older than Muhammad(PBUH).This is disputed by Ibn Sayyid, who argues: "Zubayr narrated that Hamza was four years older than the Prophet. But this does not seem correct, because reliable hadith state that Thuwayba nursed both Hamza and the Prophet." Ibn Sayyid concludes that Hamza was only two years older than Muhammad, though he adds the traditional expression of doubt, "Only God knows." Ibn Hajar writes: "Hamza was born two to four years before Muhammad."

Hamzah, the uncle of the Prophet of Islam, was one of well-known officers of Islam. It was he, who insisted earnestly that the army of Islam should go out of Madina and fight against Quraysh. It was Hamzah, who protected the Prophet in Makkah during the delicate moments with all his might. Hamzah accepted Islam in the fifth year of the Proclamation. May God be pleased with him, and bless him.

Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), though safe under the protection of his uncle, Abu Talib, was not immune from harassment by the infidels. Whenever they found an opportunity for baiting him, they didn't miss it. On one occasion, Abu Jahl found him alone, and used much offensive and vulgar language toward him. Upon returning to Mecca after a hunting trip in the desert, his slave-girl recounted to him the tale of Abu Jahl's gratuitous insolence toward him (The prophet), and the latter's forbearance, of which she had been an eye-witness.

Hamzah was a warrior, a hunter and a sportsman, and was little interested in the day-to-day affairs of the city. But Abu Jahl's conduct toward his nephew so roused his anger that he seized his bow, went into the assembly of the Quraysh where he (Abu Jahl) was reviewing the events of the day to his compeers, struck him at his head with his bow, causing it to bleed, and shouted: "I too have become a Muslim."

This was a challenge to Abu Jahl but he figured that silence was the better , and did not tangle with Hamzah, even restraining his friends who wished to rise in his defense, telling them, "Leave Abu Umara [Hamza] alone, for, by God, I insulted his nephew deeply."

After that incident, Hamza entered the House of Al-Arqam and declared Islam. "Hamza's Islam was complete, and he followed the Apostle's commands. When he became a Muslim, the Quraysh recognised that the Apostle had become strong, and had found a protector in Hamza, and so they abandoned some of their ways of harassing him." Instead, they tried to strike bargains with him; but he did not accept their offers.

Hamzah was unable, of course, to prevent all the harm alone, but his conversion was a shield that protected the Muslims, and was the first source of attraction to many tribes to embrace Islam. The second source was Umar ibn Al-Khattab's conversion, after which people entered Allah's religion in crowds. Since his conversion, Hamzah devoted all his life and power to Allah and His religion till the Prophet SAW honoured him with the noble title, 'The Lion of Allah and of His Messenger'.

When the Prophet (saw) established a brotherhood of faith between all Muslims during the Meccan period for them to support each other and maintain their integrity, Zayd b. Haritha, the Prophet's adopted son and one of the very first Muslims, became Hamza's brother in faith. Thanks to this brotherhood, the Muslims were able to maintain a steady and unified presence in Mecca until the Hijra (Migration).

After the Hijra, another bond of brotherhood was established between the Immigrants and their Hosts, and this time Hamza's brother was Kulthum b. Hidm (ra).

Hamzah radiya Llahu 'anhu put his teeth into the faith taking a stance worthy to have books of history written in gold dedicated to him. What history has recorded of this warrior is a yardstick for the generations to come. The first raiding party in Islam was led by him. He was, therefore, the first banner bearer in Islam. The battle of Badr too recorded him amongst its great warriors.

Rasulullah ﷺ sent Hamzah Ibn Abd Muttalib RA on his first encounter against the Kuffar Quraish. Hamza led an expedition of thirty riders to the coast in Juhayna territory to intercept a merchant-caravan returning from Syria. Hamza met Abu Jahl at the head of the caravan with three hundred riders at the seashore. Majdi ibn Amr al-Juhani intervened between them, "for he was at peace with both parties," and the two parties separated without any fighting.

There is dispute as to whether Hamza or his second cousin Ubaydah ibn al-Harith RA was the first Muslim to whom Rasulullah ﷺ gave a flag.

Hamza also played an important role in the Battle of Badr, which took place in the second year of the Hijra (624 AD) and was the first major military conflict between the Muslims and the Meccan polytheists. Before the battle itself, there were individual duels between members of the conflicting parties (mubaraza), and Hamza was one of the warriors who were sent by the Prophet (saw) to the arena on behalf of the Muslims.

Hamza's opponent from the polytheist side was Shayba b. Rabi'a, and Hamza defeated him very swiftly. He also helped with the killing of the polytheist leader Utba b. Rabi'a. Among those polytheists who were killed in these pre-battle duels, Abu Sufyan's wife Hind had many relatives: Utba b. Rabi'a was her father, Shayba b. Rabi'a her uncle, and Walid her brother. Holding Hamza directly responsible for the deaths of her closest relatives, Hind developed a deep hatred for him.

He had no object in mind except to defend truth and virtue and to maintain freedom in the lives of human beings.

Saidina Hamzah Ibn Abd Muttalib RA fought at the Battle of Badr, where he shared a camel with Zayd ibn Harithah RA and where his distinctive ostrich feather made him highly visible. The Muslims blocked the wells at Badr.

Al-Aaswad ibn Abdalasad al-Makhzumi, who was a quarrelsome ill-natured man, stepped forth and said, "I swear to God that I will drink from their cistern or destroy it or die before reaching it." Hamza ibn Abdalmuttalib came forth against him, and when the two met, Hamza smote him and sent his foot and half his shank flying as he was near the cistern. He fell on his back and lay there, blood streaming from his foot towards his comrades. Then he crawled to the cistern and threw himself into it with the purpose of fulfilling his oath, but Hamza followed him and smote him and killed him in the cistern.

The defeated remnants of the Quraish army went back to Mecca stumbling in disappointment. Abu Sufyaan was brokenhearted with a bowed head as he left on the battlefield the dead bodies of the Quraish such as Abu Jahl, "Utbah Ibn RabiTah, Shaibah Ibn Rabifah, Umaiyah Ibn Khalaf, 'Uqbah Ibn Abi Mu'ait, Al-Aswad Ibn 'Abdul Al-Asad Al-Makhzumi, Al- Waliid Ibn 'Utbah, Al-Nafr Ibn Al-Haarith, Al-'Aas Ibn Sa'iid, Ta'mah and tens of other great Quraish.

The Quraish would not accept the defeat easily. They started to prepare the army and to pull together all powers to avenge their honour and their dead. They insisted to continue the war. In the Battle of Uhud, all the Quraish went to war together with their allies from the Arabs, under the leadership of Abu Sufyaan once again.

The Quraishi leaders had targeted two persons in the new battle, namely, the Prophet SAW and Hamzah. If one had heard them talking and plotting before the war, one would realize that Hamzah was their second main target after the Prophet SAW.

Before they went to war, they had already chosen the person in charge of assassinating Hamzah: an Abyssinian slave with extra ordinary skill in spear throwing. They planned for him to kill Hamzah, his only role being to hit him with a deadly spear. They warned him not to be busy with any other preoccupation other than Hamzah, regardless of the situation on the battlefield. They promised him the excellent reward of his freedom.

The slave, whose name was Wahshiy, was owned by Jubair Ibn Mut'am. Jubair's uncle had been killed in the Battle of Badr, so Jubair said to Wahshiy, 'Go out with the army, and if you kill Hamzah you will be free.' Afterwards, the Quraish sent Wahshiy to Hind Bint Utbah, Abu Sufyaan's wife, to give him more encouragement to kill Hamzah, because she had lost her father, uncle, brother, and son and it was said that Hamzah had been behind their deaths.

This was the reason why Hind was the most enthusiastic one of all the Quraish to escalate the war. All she wanted was Hamzah's head, whatever the cost might be. She spent days before the battle pouring all her rage into Wahshiy's heart and making the plans for him.

She promised him if he killed Hamzah she would give him her most precious trinkets. With her hateful fingers she held her precious pearl earrings and a number of golden necklaces around her neck and gazed at him saying, 'All these are yours if you kill Hamzah.' Wahshiy's mouth watered for the offer, and his soul yearned for the battle after which he would win his freedom and cease to be a slave, in addition to all the jewellery decorating the neck of the leading woman of the Quraish, the wife of its leader, and the daughter of its master. It was clear then that the whole war and the whole conspiracy were decisively seeking Hamzah.

The Battle of Uhud started and the two armies met. Hamzah was in the middle of the battlefield in battle dress and on his bosom he put an ostrich feather that he used to wear while fighting. He was moving everywhere cutting off the head of each polytheist he reached among the army of the Quraish. It seemed that death was at his command. Whenever he ordered it for anyone it reached him in the heart.

Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas radiya Llahu 'anhu pays testament to his bravery on the Day of Uhud with the following words:

Hamzah fought on the Day of Uhud in front of Rasulullah salla Llahu 'alayhi wa sallam wielding two swords, proclaiming, "I am the Lion of Allah."

The Muslims were about to gain victory and the defeated army of the Quraish started to withdraw in fright, but the Muslim archers left their places on the mountain to collect the spoils of war that the Quraish had left. If they had not left their places, giving the Quraish cavalry the chance to find a way, the battle would have ended as a gigantic grave for all the Quraish, including men, women, horses, and even cattle.

The Quraish attacked the Muslims by surprise from the back and started striking them with thirsty swords. The Muslims tried to pull themselves together, picking up the weapons they had put down upon seeing the Quraish withdrawing, but the attack was too violent. Unbeknown to Hamza there lay in wait Wahshi, a slave, a master of the spear, whose freedom hung in the balance. "Kill him and you are free," promised his master Jubayr ibn Mut'im. Wahshi recounts his encounter with Hamzah:

"I was an Abyssinian man who used to throw the spear in an Abyssinian way that scarcely misses its target. When the armies met I searched for Hamzah till I found him in the middle of the crowd like a huge camel. He was killing everyone around him with his sword. Nothing could stop him. By Allah, I prepared for him. I wanted him. I hid behind a tree so that I might attack him or he might come close to me. At that moment Saba'u Ibn Abd Al-Uzzaa approached him before me. When Hamzah glanced at him he shouted, 'Come to me, you son of the one who circumcises!' and he hit him directly in the head. Then I shook my spear till I was in full control over it and threw it.

The spear penetrated him from the back and came out from between his legs. He rose to reach me but could not and soon died. I came to his body and took my spear and went back to sit in the camp. I didn't want anything else to do with him. I killed him only to be free.

When I returned to Mecca, they set me free. I stayed there till the Prophet SAW entered Mecca on the Day of the Conquest. I fled to At-Taa'if. When the delegation of Al-Taa'if went to declare their conversion to Islam, I heard various people say that I should go to Syria or Yemen or any other place. While I was in such distress, a man said to me, 'Woe to you! The Prophet SAW never kills anyone entering his religion.' I went to Allah's Prophet SAW in Medina, and the moment he first saw me I was already giving my true testimony.

When he saw me he said, 'Is it you, Wahshiy?' I said, 'Yes, Messenger of Allah.' He said, 'Tell me, how did you kill Hamzah?' I told him, and when I finished he told me, 'Woe to you! Get out of my sight and never show your face to me.' From that time, I always avoided wherever the Prophet SAW went lest he should see me, till he died.

Afterwards, when the Muslims fought Musailamah the Liar in the Battle of Al-Yamaamah, I went with them. I took with me the same spear that I had killed Hamzah with. When the armies met, I saw Musailamah standing with his sword in his hand. I prepared for him, shook my spear till I had full control over it, threw it, and it went into his body. If I killed with this spear the best of people, Hamzah, I wish that Allah may forgive me, as I killed with it the worst of people, Musailamah: he, too, did not escape its horror".

Reflect, O reader of these passages. If someone had killed the one you held so dear and after some time came to accept your propagation, would you forget the tears of sorrow shed? Would you forget the pain of heart felt? Would you dare forgive? Subhan Allah, Rasulullah salla Llahu 'alayhi wa sallam forgave Wahshi radiya Llahu 'anhu and accepted his Islam. It was simply human sentiment that he preferred him to stay out of sight and not re-open a wound barely healed.

Thus the Lion of Allah and of His Messenger died as a great martyr. His death was as unusual as his life, because it was not enough for his enemies to kill him. They sacrificed all the men and money of the Quraish to a battle only seeking the Prophet SAW and his uncle Hamzah. With the courage and heroism that he showed both in Uhud and the combats before Uhud, Hamza is considered to be a role model for all the soldiers and warriors that came after him. For the same reason, he was given the titles "the lion of God".

In the battle of Uhud the Muslims were defeated. After their rout, Hinda and the other people she had brought with her from Makka, mutilated the bodies of the slain Muslims. Hinda cut open Hamzah's abdomen, plucked out his liver and chewed it up. Muhammad ibn Umar Waqidi, the historian, says that she made a fire in the battlefield, roasted Hamzah's heart and liver and ate them and then spat them out. Not satisfied with this, she cut the limbs, the ears and the nose of Hamzah, strung them into a "necklace," and entered Makka wearing it as a "trophy" of victory.

The battle ended and the polytheists mounted their camels and led their horses back to Mecca. The Prophet SAW and his Companions examined the battlefield to see the martyrs. There, in the heart of the valley, the Prophet SAW was examining the faces of his Companions who had offered their souls to their Lord and had given their lives as a precious sacrifice to Him. The Prophet SAW opened his shining eyes and looked at the dead body of his uncle saying, 'I will never have a worse loss in my life than yours. I have never been more outraged than I am now.'

Ibn Masoud said, "We never saw the Messenger of Allah cry as much as he cried over Hamzah ibn Abdul-Muttalib. He (peace be upon him) placed him in the position of the prayer direction, then stood over him at his funeral and sobbed until his voice groaned with the tears"

When Umm Zubair Safiyyah bint 'Abdul Muttalib came to look at her brother's mutilated body. The Rasul of Allah salla Llahu 'alayhi wa sallam said to her son Zubair ibn al 'Awwam:

Go and find her, and send her back, lest she see what has happened to her brother.

Zubair radiya Llahu 'anhu said to her:

O my mother, the Rasul of Allah salla Llahu 'alayhi wa sallam is telling you to go back.

She said:

Why? We heard that my brother has been mutilated, but that was for the sake of Allah, so we are content with what has happened, and we will seek reward and be patient, Allah willing.

When Zubair radiya Llahu 'anhu came to the Rasul of Allah salla Llahu 'alayhi wa sallam and told him that, he said: "Let her go." So she went and looked at Hamzah radiya Llahu 'anhu. She prayed for him and said: "Verily to Allah do we belong, and unto Him is our return." She also prayed for forgiveness for him.

The loss of Hamzah was great and nothing could console the Prophet SAW for it. But to his surprise, Allah offered him the best consolation. When he was walking home from Uhud, he saw a woman from the Bani Diinaar whose husband, father, and brother had been killed in the battle. She asked the returning Muslim soldiers about the battle. When they told her of the death of her father, husband, and brother, she soon asked them anxiously, 'What about the Prophet of Allah SAW?' They said, 'He is very well as you wish him to be.' She said, 'Show me, let me look at him.' They stayed beside her till the Prophet SAW came and when she saw him she said, 'If you are safe, all other disasters will be of no importance.'

This was the best condolence for the Prophet SAW. He smiled at this unusual situation which had no similitude in loyalty and devotion. A poor, helpless woman lost her father, brother, and husband. Her reaction to that news – which if it had fallen on a mountain would have made it collapse – was, 'What about the Prophet of Allah SAW?' It was such a well-timed situation that it is evident that Allah planned to console His Prophet SAW for the death of Allah's Lion and martyr of all martyrs.

Rasulullah salla Llahu 'alayhi wa sallam then awarded him with a posthumous title, announcing to the world, Hamzah is Sayed al Shuhada' (the chief of martyrs).

Hamza was buried in the same grave as his nephew Abdullah ibn Jahsh. He was 59 (lunar) years old.

Hamza's greatest service to Islam was his courageous and heroic deeds; his life did not last long enough to allow him to make other religious or scholarly contributions.