It occurred in Jumada al Uwla 8 hijri. It was army of 3000 headed by Zaid bin Harithah. They headed for al Balqa in al Shaam. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave his instructions to the army: if Zaid is killed then Jaafar bin Abi Talib takes charge and if he is killed then Abdullah bin Rawahah leads.
When they reached Ma’aan in present day Jordan they heard that the Roman emperor has mobilized an army of 100,000 Roman soldiers in addition to another 100,000 Arab tribesmen. Due to the sheer numbers of the enemy some Muslims suggested writing to the Messenger of Allah (P.B.U.H) to maybe send them reinforcements or give them a different order. But Abdullah bin Rawahah said: “O people, what you are fearing is what you came for in the first place: Martyrdom. We do not fight our enemy with our numbers or our equipment but we fight them with this religion, which Allah honored us with. So lets fight! Both our options are great: It is either going to be victory or martyrdom!” This encouraged the Muslims and they decided to go ahead and meet the enemy. 3000 faced 200,000.
Abu Hurairah (R.A) said: “When the enemy’s army approached we saw what none of us could imagine in numbers and arms. My eyes quivered. Thabit bin Aqram told me: “Abu Hurairah it seems that you are staring at a huge army?” I said: “Yes” He said: “You were not with us at Badr. We did not win due to our numbers” A violent battle erupted. The head of the Muslim army – Zaid -was killed.
The leader following him was Jaafar. His right hand carrying the banner was cut off so he carried it with his left hand which was then cut. He then hugged it with what was left of both arms until he was killed. The third leader Abdullah bin Rawahah took charge. A cousin of his gave him a piece of dried meat to eat and told him: “Strengthen yourself with this. You have went through a lot this day!” He grabbed it and took a bite. Then he told himself: “You are still in this world!” and threw the piece of meat away and fought until he was killed. The three successive leaders appointed by the Messenger of Allah(P.B.U.H) fell dead.
So Zaid bin Aqram held the banner and told the Muslims to agree on a leader. They said: “You” He said: “No. Find someone else” They chose Khalid bin al Waleed. He fought for a while and then planned a retreat and decided to go back to Madinah.
While the battle was still running, hundreds of miles away the Messenger of Allah (P.B.U.H) said: “Zaid held the banner and was killed. Then the banner was carried by Jaafar who was also killed and then it was carried by Abdullah bin Rawahah who was also killed. Then the banner was carried by a sword from Allah and opening would occur on his hands” Was Mu’tah a defeat or a victory?
Some considered it to be a defeat, some considered it to be neither a defeat nor a victory, while many scholars considered Mu’tah to be a victory for the Muslims. Among these are al Waqidi, al Bayhaqi, and Ibn Kathir. Al Waqidi says when Khalid became the leader he fought for the rest of the day and then during their rest at night he had the Muslim army reconfigure so he had the left flank move to the right and vise versa. So the next day when the Romans saw the change they thought that the Muslims had received reinforcements. They then retreated and Khalid took advantage of that and retreated as well.
In Bukhari Khalid bin al Waleed says: “During the battle of Mu’tah nine swords broke in my hand. Only a Yemeni firm sword had survived on that day”
Note: Muslims are allowed to retreat if the ratio is 1 to 2. In Mu’tah the ratio was almost 1 to 67!
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