The Expedition to Hamra al-Asad

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Concerned that the retreating Quraysh might regroup and turn back to finish what they started, the Prophet (ﷺ) announced, the very day after the battle, that he needed volunteers to pursue and shadow them. He set a specific condition: only those who had fought at Uḥud itself could volunteer, explicitly excluding the three hundred Munāfiqūn who had turned back with ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy. Seventy wounded veterans stepped forward anyway, with ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib placed at their head as the advance guard, ordered to camp at a location called Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad and wait for the Prophet (ﷺ) to join them.

Before they set out, the Prophet (ﷺ) gave ʿAlī a simple instruction for reading the Quraysh's intentions from a distance: if they were riding their camels and had left their horses behind, it meant a long journey home to Mecca; if they were mounted on their horses instead, it meant they intended a quick strike back at Madinah. Dr. Qadhi highlights this as an example of instinctive tactical clarity rather than any formal military training, the Quraysh were indeed found riding their camels, confirming they were headed home.

The Prophet (ﷺ) joined the seventy the following day and the group camped at Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad for three days, until scouts confirmed the Quraysh had genuinely withdrawn. Allah (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) praised this contingent directly in Sūrah Āl ʿImrān (3:172): "Alladhīna istajābū lillāhi war-rasūli min baʿdi mā aṣābahumul-qarḥ", those who answered the call of Allah and His Messenger after they had already been wounded.

ʿĀʾishah later recited this verse to her nephew ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr and told him it was revealed concerning both his father and his grandfather, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām and Abū Bakr aṣ-Ṣiddīq, both of whom marched out to Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad despite their wounds from the day before.