the muslims showed unprecedented rare heroism and marvellous sacrifices. abu talha — for instance — shielded the messenger of allâh [pbuh] by his body and used his chest to protect him against the enemy arrows. anas related that on uhud day when people dispersed off the prophet [pbuh], abu talhah was a skillful sort of archer who would pull arrows so much that he broke two or three bows that day. when a man passed along with a quiver full of arrows, the prophet [pbuh] would say: "spread the arrows to abu talhah!" then when the prophet [pbuh] watched people shooting, abu talhah would say: "i sacrifice my father and mother for your safety. do not go too close lest an arrow of theirs should hit you. i would rather die than see you hurt."[sahih al-bukhari 2/581]

abu dujana stood before the messenger of allâh [pbuh] and used to protect him from the arrows by his back. hatib bin balta‘a followed ‘utbah bin abi waqqas — who broke the honourable incisor (of the prophet [pbuh]) — struck him with the sword, cracked his head and took his mare and sword. sa‘d bin abi waqqas was so keen to kill his brother ‘utbah, but he could not; however, hatib could.

sahl bin haneef — a hero archer — who had pledged to die in the cause of allâh, also played a prominent part in uhud hostilities.

the messenger of allâh [pbuh] himself was involved in shooting arrows. in a version by qatadah bin an-nu‘man that the messenger of allâh [pbuh] shot so many arrows that the two ends of his bow were flattened. so qatadah bin an-nu‘man took it to remain with him for good. on that day his eye was so hurt that it fell down onto his cheek; but the messenger of allâh [pbuh] reput it in its socket with his hand and it became the better and the more sharp-sighted of the two.

on that day ‘abdur rahman bin ‘awf kept on fighting till his mouth was hurt and got broken. he sustained over twenty wounds, some in his leg, and that lamed him.

malik bin sinan, the father of abi sa‘eed al-khudri sucked the blood out of the prophet [pbuh]’s cheek till he cleaned it. the prophet [pbuh] said: "spit it!". but malik said: "by allâh, i will never spit it". then he set out to fight. the prophet [pbuh] then said: "he who wants to see a man of the people of paradise, let him look at this one." no sooner had he resumed fighting than he was martyred in the thick of the battle.

umm ‘amarah participated in the fight too. she encountered ibn qami’a in combat, and sustained a slight wound on her shoulder, but she herself also struck him with her sword several times but he survived because he was wearing two armours. she, however, went on striking until her wounds counted twelve.

mus‘ab bin ‘umair, in his turn, fought fiercely and violently defending the prophet [pbuh] against the attacks of ibn qami’a and his fellows. he was carrying the standard with his right hand. in the process of fighting, it was cut off, so he grabbed the standard in his left hand till this was also amputated so he knelt down and shielded it with his chest and neck. ibn qami’a then killed him, mistaking him for the messenger of allâh [pbuh] on account of resemblance in appearance. only then did ibn qami’a shout ‘muhammad [pbuh] has been killed.’[ibn hisham 2/73; za'd al-ma'ad 2/97]