Comin)!, Home^173ments. They were ther efore accustom ed to the strange, surreal dimensions
of his life among them. One day, Muhammad came to them and, though
no envoy had come from the north and they had received no information
about the expedition, started to recount the battie as if he had been pres-
ent among the fighters. \'(lith tears in his eyes and painful emotion, he told
tilelll about the deaths of Zayd, Jafar, and Abdullah. He praised Khalid's
feat and called him "st9f al-isum," (the sword of I slam), but he could not
conceal his deep sorrow when mentioning the dead who \vere so dear to
him. H c went to Asma, Jafar's wife, and her children to tell them the news
and comfort them; he began to weep before he could speak, and Asma
burst into tears when she heard of her husband's death. The Prophet then
went to Um Ayman and Usamah and told them about Zayd's death, his eyes
full of tears: he had loved him like a son, and his family was particularly dear
to him. Just after he left their dwelling, Zayd's youngest daughter came out
of her home and rushed into the Prophet's arms; he tried to comfort her
while rears were streaming down his face and he was sobbing. One of the
Companions who was passing by, Sad ibn Ubadah, was surprised at this
scene and particularly at the Prophet's tears, and asked him for an explana-
tion. The Prophet answered thar this was " someone who loves weeping for
his beloved."12 T he Prophet had raught his Companions to express love
and tenderness, and at that moment, when faced with the final parting of
death, he taught them about human fragility and the dignity of tears
expressing love and the suffering of those who love.
The Companions returned from Mutah under Khaud's leadership and
can fumed the Prophet's v)sion: things had happened p recisely as he had
told them, and the three Companions had been killed fighting. For the
\vhole community, those visions and that knowledge were additional signs
of Muhammad's prophethood. H e was singular, he acted singularly, his
intelligence and qualities did not resemble anyone else's, and yet he
temained humble and fragile, and like them, he wept.
T he situation remained difficult in the north, and the Arab tribes cer-
tainly thought they could use the Muslims' defeat in Mutah to theit own
advantage. [ ... fuhammad received intelligence that some tribes were prepar-
ing a full-scale expedition against Medina. He decided to mo bilize three
hundred men under the command of Amr ibn ai-As, who had family ties
with some northern tribes; the Prophet asked him to study the situation
and let him know how things stood, and he o rdered him to draw up