The duel at Badr

The opening duel of the battle of Badr on 17 Ramadan 2 AH: three of Quraysh's nobles against three Muslims; it ended with all three Qurashis dead and a mortal wound to one of the Muslims ¹.

The first death to ignite the battle was al-Aswad ibn Abd al-Asad al-Makhzumi, who swore to drink from the Muslims' cistern or demolish it; Hamza killed him at the cistern ². Then three of Quraysh's choicest horsemen from a single family — Utba and Shayba the sons of Rabi'a, and al-Walid ibn Utba — came out calling for single combat ².

Three young men of the Ansar went out to them first — Awf and Mu'awwidh the sons of al-Harith, and Abdullah ibn Rawaha — and they asked who they were; when they said a party of the Ansar, they answered: worthy men and noble, but we have no need of you — and called out: Muhammad, send out to us our equals from our own people. So the Prophet ordered Ubayda ibn al-Harith, Hamza and Ali to rise ².

In Ibn Ishaq's account Ubayda — the eldest — duelled Utba, Hamza duelled Shayba and Ali duelled al-Walid; in the account of Ahmad and Abu Dawud, Ubayda duelled al-Walid, Ali duelled Shayba and Hamza duelled Utba ^{1 3}.

Hamza and Ali gave their opponents no time before killing them; as for Ubayda, he and his opponent exchanged two blows that each crippled the other, then his two companions turned on Utba and killed him, and carried Ubayda off with his leg cut off. Ubayda died at al-Safra four or five days later ⁴.

Ali used to swear that the verse "these two adversaries who dispute about their Lord" (al-Hajj 19) was revealed about the duellists ⁴. The duel's end was an ill beginning for the polytheists: they had lost three of their finest horsemen and leaders in a single stroke ⁴.