IMAM ABU AL-FIDA' IsMIITQL IBN KATHIR^285
he appeared again; he was dusty all over and he was saying, "God's aid did come
to you when you prayed to Him!""'
Al-Bayhaqi related from Aba Um-a h. Sahl who quoted his father as saying,
"My son, I saw for myself at Badr that all any of us had to do was to point to the
head of a polytheist and it would fall from his body before a sword even touched
it!"
Ibn bhaq stated, "My father related to me, quoting some men of the Bann
Main, quoting Aha Wxqid al-Laythi, as saying, 'I was pursuing one of the
polytheists, wishing to strike hi, when his head came off - before my sword
reached him! I realized that someone other than myself had killed him.'"
Ynnus b. Bukayr stated, from 'is% h. {Abd Allah al-Taymi, from al-Rabic b.
Anas, who said, "Our men could &fferentiate the ones the angels had killed from
those they had struck by the blow having occurred above their necks, and by
their finger-tips looking as if they had been burned by a branding iron."
Ibn Ishnq stated, "A reliable source related to me, from Muqsim, from Ibn
'Abbas, who said, 'The distinguishing dress of the angels at Badr was the white
turbans they wore that hung down over their hacks. Except for Gabriel, that is;
he had on a yellow turban."'
Ibn 'Abbas stated, "The only battle in which the angels participated was at
Badr. At the other battles they constituted auxiliaries and reinforcements that
did not actually fight."
Al-Waqidi stated, "CAbd Allah h. Masa b. Aba Umayya related to me, from
Mus'ab b. 'Abd Allxh, from a freed-man of Suhayl b. 'Amr, who quoted Suhayl
b. 'Amr as saying, 'At the battle of Badr, I saw white men on piebald horses rid-
ing between heaven and earth, bearing banners, killing and taking prisoners.'
"And Aba 'Ubayd used to say, he being by then blind, 'If I were there at Badr
with you now and had my sight back, I could show you the defile from which the
angels came without any doubt or confusion."'
Al-Waqidi went on, ''Khsija h. Ibr&im related to me, quoting his father as
saying, 'The Messenger of God (SAAS) said to Gabriel, "Which one of the
angels was it who said at Badr, 'Giddy up, Hayzam?"' Gabriel answered hi,
"0 Muhammad, I am not familiar with every denizen of the heavens!"'"
I comment that this is a hadith rnu~sal;~~ it refutes those, like al-Suhayli and
others, who maintain that Hayznm is the name of Gabriel's horse. But God
knows best.
Al-Waqidi stated, "Ishitq b. Y&ya related to me, from Hamza b. Suhayb,
from his father, who said, 'I can't tell you how many were the severed arms and
deep wounds I saw at the battle of Badr that did not bleed!'"
Muhammad b. Yabya related to me, from Aba Wqayl, from Abii Burda b.
Niyar, who said, "I gathered up three heads at Badr and placed them before the
- One in which the Prophet is quoted without mention of the Companion who narrated the
statement.