The battle of Abu Ubayd (may Allah be pleased with him) at Mihran and how it went

Abu Amr al-Shaybani said: The battle against Mihran took place at the beginning of the year and the Battle of Qadisiyyah at the end of the year. Rustam said that Mihran used to act like a child.

Qays said: Sayyiduna Abu Ubayd bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) crossed the Euphrates to go against Mihran. After he had crossed, the enemy destroyed the bridge and martyred him and his companions. He left his final instructions to Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him). Abu Mihjan al-Thaqafi composed an elegy for him, the translation of which is: "The homes of Abu Jabr have become desolate, which hungry widows used to visit. By the bridge, Abu Amr lies on the banks, stripped of everything. I am the last of those who survived, and righteous men were martyred around me. My horse bled near the elephant, with blood flowing from its breast and flanks."

Qays said: Sayyiduna Abu Ubayd bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) was with his companions in the Battle of Mihran. After they had crossed, the bridge was cut and they were martyred. Qays said: In the Battle of Mihran, some people, among whom was Sayyiduna Khalid bin Urfutah (may Allah be pleased with him), said to Sayyiduna Jarir (may Allah be pleased with him): "O Jarir! We will never leave our position." He said: "O Jarir! We should cross this river." I said: "Do you want them to do to us what they did to Abu Ubayd? We are a people who do not know how to swim. We will not leave our territory until Allah Almighty judges between us and them." Then the polytheists crossed it, and on that day Mihran was killed while he was at a place called Nukhaylah.

Qays said: Sayyiduna Jarir (may Allah be pleased with him) said to me: "Come with us to Mihran." So I went with him to the place where they had fought. He said to me: "I remember myself here, in what was like a blazing fire, with them piercing me from every side with their short spears. When I saw destruction before me, I began to call out: 'O my horse! O Jarir!' They heard my voice and the men of Qays came, and nothing could turn them back until they had rescued me." I said: "I spent a month unable to raise my side because of the wounds of the spears." He said: Qays said: "I remember us wading through the Tigris while the gates of al-Mada'in were shut."

Abu Uthman said: When Sayyiduna Abu Ubayd (may Allah be pleased with him) was martyred and his companions were defeated, Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I am your rallying party (the group you may fall back on)."

Ibn Sirin said: When the news of the martyrdom of Abu Ubayd al-Thaqafi (may Allah be pleased with him) reached Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: "I would have been his rallying party (the group one may fall back on), had he fallen back to me."

Hanash bin al-Harith reports from the elders of the Nakha' tribe that when Sayyiduna Jarir (may Allah be pleased with him) killed Mihran, he set his head up on a spear.

Sa'd bin Ibrahim said that on the day of the martyrdom of Sayyiduna Abu Ubayd (may Allah be pleased with him), they passed by a man whose hands and feet had been cut off. He was reciting this verse of the Qur'an: "with those upon whom Allah has bestowed favour, among the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous; and how excellent are those as companions!" [Al-Nisa: 69]. One of those passing by him asked: "Who are you?" He said: "I am a man of the Ansar."