The Messenger of Allah (s) besieged Khyber for more than twenty days. At that time the standard was held by Amirul Momineen (a). He was suffering from sore eyes which kept him from the battle (for a time). The Muslims used to attack the Jews in front of their forts and at the sides. One day they overcame the gate but they had dug a trench around themselves. Marhab came out on foot to oppose them in battle.
The Messenger of Allah (s), summoned Abu Bakr and said to him: “Take the standard.”
He took a number of Emigrants and they fought without achieving anything. He returned vigorously denouncing the people who had followed him while they were just as vigorously blaming him.
The next day he gave it to Umar. The latter went a little way with it and then came back accusing his followers of cowardice while they were also accusing him of cowardice. Then the Prophet (s) said: “This standard is not for anyone to carry whom they can accuse of cowardice to me. It is for Ali Ibne Abi Talib (a).” “He has sore eyes,” he was told.
“Show him to me and you will show me a man who loves Allah and His Apostle and whom Allah and His Apostle love. He takes things up in the right way and he will not flee,” he said. They brought Ali Ibne Abi Talib (a) to him. “What is troubling you, Ali?” the Prophet (s) asked. “Sore eyes which prevent me from seeing and a pain in my head,” he answered. “Sit down,” he told him, “and put your head on my thigh.”
Ali (a) did that and the Prophet (s) prayed for him. He spat some saliva into his hand and rubbed it on his eye and his head.
His eyes opened and the pain in the head which he had had was eased. He had said in his prayer: “O Allah, make the heat and the cold obedient.” He gave him the standard; it was white. He said: “Take the standard and set forth with it. Jibraeel is with you. Victory is in front of you and terror is spread into the hearts of the enemy. Be aware, Ali, that they have found in their Book that the name of the one, who will destroy them is Iliya. When you meet them, say: I am Ali, then they will forsake (the field) if Allah, the Exalted, wishes.”
Amirul Momineen (a) reported: I set out with it until I came to the fortress. Marhab came out. He was wearing a helmet in which a stone had made a hole showing the white of his head. He was reciting:
Khyber knows that I am Marhab – the carrier of arms, a hero who has been tested.
I answered:
I am he whom my mother called a lion.
Like a lion of the forests, fierce in strength,
With my sword I will make you weigh the weight of an ear torn off.
We exchanged blows. I came quickly against him and struck him. I cut through (the place where) the hole (was) in the helmet and through his head till my sword reached his teeth. He fell dead.
In the account it is reported that when Amirul Momineen (a) said: “I am Ali Ibne Abi Talib (a),” one of the rabbis called out to his people: “I swear by what was revealed to Musa that you are defeated.” As a result such terror entered their hearts that they were not able to bear it.
When Amirul Momineen (a) killed Marhab, those who had gone out with Marhab withdrew and barred the gate of the fortress to keep him out. Amirul Momineen (a) advanced against it. He worked on it until he opened it. However, most of the people from the other side of the trench did not come across
against him. Thus did Amirul Momineen (a) capture the gate of the fortress. Then he used it as a bridge across the trench so that to go across and conquer the fortress. They seized booty. When they withdrew from the fortress, Amirul Momineen (a) took the gate in his right hand and spread it out many meters over the ground. It used to take twenty men to lock that gate.
After Amirul Momineen (a) had brought about the conquest of the fortress and had killed Marhab and Allah had granted their property as booty to the Muslims, Hassan bin Thabit Ansari sought permission from the Messenger of Allah (s) to recite a poem about him.
He told him: “Recite it.”
He recited:
Ali was ashen-eyed, needing medicine, even then he did not find (the help of anyone) to nurse him.
The Messenger of Allah (s) healed him with saliva. He blessed the healer and He blessed the healed.
He said: I will give the standard today, to a dauntless man, brave, one who loves the Prophet as a follower. He loves Allah and Allah loves him. Through him Allah will overcome the fortress, returning it to Allah. He distinguished Ali by that apart from all other creatures and he named him his helper and his brother.1
The above couplets are narrated through eleven companions of the Prophet through authentic chains of narration.
1 Irshaad, Shaykh Mufeed, Pg. 65-67; Biharul Anwar, Vol. 21, Pg. 14, Tr. 11; Rahaab Ahle Bayt, Vol. 1, Pg. 243; Al-Kharaij, Rawandi, Vol. 1, Pg. 160 & 217; the above couplets are quoted on the authority of eleven companions of the Holy Prophet (s).
3- Shaykh Tusi in Amali has mentioned through his chains of narrators: When the Muslim army went to confront the Jews of Khyber, a fighter named Marhab emerged from the fort. He was very tall and huge and also possessed a big skull. He was a well known Jew warrior.
The Muslims were terrified and they retraced their steps and came to the Prophet and told him they could not fight Marhab. Marhab had a nurse who was a soothsayer and who liked and admired Marhab and often used to say that he should fight whoever he likes but one whose name is Haider would be
victorious on him. Marhab would be killed if he confronts him. He fought and defeated many Muslims; at last people complained to the Prophet to send Amirul Momineen (a) to confront him. So the Holy Prophet (s) summoned Imam Ali (a) and asked him to get rid of Marhab.
Amirul Momineen (a) turned to the fort of Jews, recited the name of God and came out to confront Marhab. Marhab returned frightened and then came again and said: “I am one, whose mother has named him Marhab.” Imam Ali (a) rushed upon him saying: “I am the one whose mother has named him Haider.”
As soon as Marhab heard this name, he recalled the advice of his nurse and fled from there. At that moment Shaitan appeared in the form of a Rabbi, who came in his way and asked: “Where are you running away?”
He said: “This youth says that he is Haider.”
Shaitan said: “So what?”
He said: “I have heard from my nurse many times that one who is named thus would kill me.”
Shaitan said: “May you be disgraced, is there only one person by the name of Haider? In spite of such a huge body you are running away from this youth on the words of a woman, while most of what women say is wrong. Even if she was right, there are many Hyders in the world. Go back, perhaps you will be able to slay him and earn prestige among your people, and I will support the Jews to encourage you.”
Marhab was deceived and he returned to fight. Imam Ali (a) attacked him on his head and he fell down on his face. Other Jews started to run, screaming that Marhab has been killed.
Hazrat Kumayt bin Zaid Asadi composed the following verse in the honor of Ali (a):
Ali is the one, who routed Talha bin Uthman, Walid and Marhab.
We should know that Walid bin Utbah was the maternal uncle (mother’s brother) of Muawiyah and Talha bin Uthman was also from Quraish. Ali (a) slain both of them in the Battle of Badr, whereas Marhab was a Jew, whom Ali (a) killed in the Battle of Khyber.1
1 Amali, Shaykh Tusi, Vol. 1, Pg. 402; Biharul Anwar, Vol. 21, Pg. 9, Tr. 3; Al-Kharaij, Vol. 1, Pg. 217, Tr. 61.