APPEARANCE AND REALITY

I fought till God sent down His succour And Saad clung to the door of the Qadisiyya. Then we returned and many women had been widowed, Yet not one of Saad’s wives was widowed, Saad Ibn Abi Waqqas had been one of the early converts, and was with the Prophet in all battles. He was, in fact, reckoned to be one of the greatest and bravest Companions of the Prophet. But when we think of him holding himself aloof from the battle, we receive the impression that he must indeed have been a coward, allowing other women to be widowed while he himself preferred to remain in safety at the fort with his wife. We feel that he cuts a sorry figure if the story so far is all that we have to judge him by. But when we have the complete picture, we realize that there were extenuating circumstances. It seems that he suffered from sciatica (a disease of the nerve, causing severe pain above the knee) and succumbed periodically to long bouts which almost totally incapacitated him. At the beginning of the campaign he was in perfect health and had participated in the initial skirmishes, but at the outset of the final decisive encounter at Qadisiyya, he again fell prey to this recurring malady. Unable even to move, he found it impossible to launch himself into the fray. But thanks to his military experience and superior intellect, he was not relieved of his post by Caliph Umar, and it is an undeniable fact that if the battle was finally won it was because of his masterly planning and direction. One obvious proof of his military acumen is that he found the solution to the menace of the elephants before the entire Muslim army was crushed. When everyone else was at his wits’ end to find a means of averting this catastrophe, Saad sent for two Iranian converts, Zakhm and Salm, and found out from them that the only way to arrest the onslaught was to aim at the eyes and trunks of the elephants. Once injured in these places, the elephants would become uncontrollable. Saad then sent for a group of young stalwarts and entrusted them with this difficult and hazardous task. They then picked out the two largest and strongest elephants, who were the leaders, Abyaz (The White) and Ajrab, and, at the risk of their own lives, injured their eyes and slashed off their trunks. Crazed and in agony, the two elephants turned back Saad Ibn Abi Waqqas cuts a sorry figure if the story so far is all that we have to judge him by.