Hanzalah RA and Jamilah RA.

assalamu alaikum :)
bismillah.

i wanted to share with you guys excerpts from 'Muhammad: his life based on the earliest sources' by Martin Lings (Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din). i specifically chose the story of Hanzalah RA and his wife Jamilah RA:

Chapter L: Preparations for Battle (Uhud):
...After the prayer two men waited behind to speak to the Prophet, each having an urgent decision to make.One of them was Hanzalah, the son of the self-styled Abrahamist Abu'Amir, who was even now, unknown to his son, in the enemy camp below Uhud. It was Hanzalah's wedding day - a day which had been chosen weeks in advance. He was bethrothed to his cousin Jamilah, the daughter of Ibn Ubayy, and he was loth to postpone the marriage, yet determined to fight. The Prophet told him to celebrate his marriage and spend the night in Medina. There could be no fighting before sunrise, and Hanzalah would have ample time to join him on the battlefield early the next morning. He could find out by inquiry which way tthe army had passed.

the story carries over to the next chapter:

Chapter LI : The March to Uhud:
In Medina that night Hanzalah and Jamilah had consummated their marriage; and in her sleep, during the small hours, Jamilah had a dream in which she saw her husband standing at the outside of Heaven; and the door opened for him and he entered through it, whereupon it closed behind him. When she woke, she said to herself: "This is martyrdom." They performed their ablutions and prayed the dawn prayer together, after which he bade her farewell. But she clung to him, and would not let him go, and again he lay with her. Then he tore himself from her embrace, and not even staying to repeat his ablution, he put on his coat of mail, seized his weapons, and hastened from the house.

Hanzalah reached the camp and joined the ranks of the Army, and went off to fight in the Battle of Uhud:

Chapter LII: The Battle of Uhud:
...Abu Sufyan narrowly escaped the sword of Hanzalah, who was fighting valiantly near the centre and who was about to cut him down, when a man of Layth came in from the side and thrust Hanzalah through with his spear, felling him to the ground and killing him outright with a second thrust.
The battle had gradually moved down the slope away from the Prophet as the Meccans were driven back towards the camp. He could no longer discern in any detail what was happening, though he could see that so far his men were winning the day. But now his attention was drawn upwards from the battle and his eyes were raised as one who watches the flight of the birds. After a moment he said to those beside him: "Your companion - he meant Hanzalah - "The Angels are washing him." And afterwards he said to Jamilah, as if seeking an explanation: ""I saw the Angels washing Hanzalah between heaven and earth with water from the clouds in vessels of silver." Then she told him of her dream, and how through fear of being late for battle, he had not made the ablution he would normally have made.

Later after the battle when the muslims were burying their dead, every person that came into contact with Hanzalah's body dared not to touch him. He lay there as the Angels had laid him, with his hair still wet with water upon the noon-dry earth. His beauty and peace were as a sign from heaven, to inform the rest of them of the condition of their martyred kinsmen.

subhanallah, a story resplendent with the sacrifices the sahaba RA made for Islam. subhanallah.

and Allah Almighty knows best.

sheik speare.