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EARLY MILITARY
EXPEDITIONS AND THE BATTLE OF
BADR
The circumstances
in the early days in Madina
With the arrival of
God’s Messenger, upon him be peace
and blessings, in Madina, the struggle
between Islam and unbelief entered a
new phase. In Makka, the Prophet
devoted himself almost exclusively to
expounding the basic principles of
Islamic faith and to the moral and
spiritual training of his Companions.
After the Emigration, however, people
belonging to different tribes and
regions of ‘Arabia, who had embraced
Islam, began to concentrate in Madina.
Although the Muslims held only a tiny
piece of the land, the whole of
Arabia, under the leadership of the
Quraysh, moved against them, bent upon
their extermination.
In these
circumstances, the very survival, let
alone the success, of this small group
of believers depended upon several
factors. First, that they should
propagate their beliefs with the
utmost conviction in order to convert
others. Second, that they should
demonstrate the falsity of their
opponents’ standpoint so
convincingly that there could remain
no justifiable ground for any
intelligent person to entertain any
doubt on the question. Third, that
they as the followers of the Prophet
should not become disheartened because
they had been driven out of their
homes and were faced, through the
hostility and opposition of the whole
country, with economic stringency,
hunger, and constant insecurity and
danger, but that they should confront
the situation with patience and
fortitude. Fourth, that they should be
able to find a way to retake all their
wealth and goods usurped by the
Makkans during Emigration. Fifth, that
they should be prepared to resist with
both courage and the force of arms the
violent assault by which the enemy
intended to frustrate their movement,
and that in this resistance they
should not heed the enemy’s
superiority in either numbers or
material resources.
In addition to the
threats coming from Makka and its
allied tribes, there were, in Madina
itself, three tribes of the Jews. As
explained earlier, the Jews held the
control of the economic life of the
city. Although they had been waiting
for the emergence of a Prophet, they
severely opposed God’s Messenger
because he did not appear from among
them, among the descendants of the
Prophet Isaac. They felt constrained
to sign a pact with God’s Messenger
but, entertaining feelings of hatred
against him, they never refrained from
conspiracies to exterminate Islam. For
example, among their poets, Ka’b ibn
Ashraf composed poems to satirize God’s
Messenger and instigate his enemies
against him.
In Madina, another
element of enmity against Islam also
began to emerge in the form of
hypocrisy. One group of hypocrites
consisted of those who had no faith in
Islam but had entered the ranks of the
Muslim community merely in order to
create mischief. Another group of
hypocrites, conscious of the political
dominance of the Muslims in Madina,
considered it advantageous to gain
acceptance as fellow-Muslims. At the
same time, they maintained contacts
with the enemies of Islam so that they
could secure all the advantages of
friendship with the two opposite camps
and thus remain safe from any
hostilities. There was still another
group of hypocrites - those who were
in a state of ambivalence and
indecision between Islam and Ignorance
but who had accepted Islam because the
majority of their tribe or family had
done so. The final group consisted of
those who, although they believed
Islam to be true, found it difficult
to forsake their inherited way of
life, their superstitions, their
customs and usages, and to discipline
themselves to observe the moral
restraints and fulfill the obligations
prescribed by Islam.
Military
expeditions
In such severe
circumstances, God’s Messenger, upon
him be peace and blessings,
dispatched, as military measures,
expeditions into the heart of the
desert. In dispatching them, he had
several aims, some of which are as
follows:
Unbelievers
tried to extinguish the Light of God
‘with their mouths’ but,
although they were averse, God
willed to perfect His Light (al-Saff,
61.8). So, God’s Messenger desired
to demonstrate that it was
impossible for unbelievers to
exterminate Islam, and to show that
Islam was a reality that could not
be ignored.
Makka
enjoyed a central position in the
heart of the Arabian peninsula. It
was the most formidable power of the
time in Arabia and all the other
tribes felt some sort of adherence
to it. By dispatching military
expeditions to neighboring areas,
God’s Messenger, upon him be peace
and blessings, also desired to
demonstrate the power of Islam and
to break the dominance of the
Quraysh in Arabia.
During human
history, the concept of ‘might is
right’ has usually been a norm.
This has been so because ‘right’
has usually not had enough power to
hold the dominance of the world. The
case was the same fourteen centuries
ago in Arabia. Since the Quraysh
enjoyed might and wealth, the
neighboring tribes obeyed them.
However, Islam came to make right
might, and, in order to demonstrate
this and to break the pressure of
the Makkan polytheists on
neighboring tribes to prevent them
from embracing Islam, God’s
Messenger dispatched military
expeditions through the desert one
after the other.
The
mission of God’s Messenger was not
restricted to a fixed period, nor to
one nation only; rather, he was sent
as a mercy for all the worlds. So,
he was charged to communicate the
Message of God as far as the
remotest corners of the world.
However, since he began his mission
in Arabia, he had, certainly, to
know the conditions surrounding him.
These expeditions were, therefore,
vanguards to be acquainted with
those conditions and pave the way
for the preaching of Islam in the
peninsula.
One
of the most effective ways of
crushing the enemy is to stir them
to unpremeditated, premature
movements and thereby to always have
the initiative. God’s Messenger
was surely informed of the contacts
the Quraysh established with ‘Adbullah
ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, the head of the
hypocrites in Madina, to frustrate
him in his mission, and he was alert
to their possible attacks on Madina.
Meanwhile a military force of the
Quraysh was able to penetrate as far
as the suburbs of Madina and, after
a plunder, returned to Makka. So, by
dispatching military expeditions,
God’s Messenger, upon him be
peace, also desired to agitate the
Quraysh to an unprepared,
unpremeditated action against Madina
to nip their plots in the bud.
The
Quraysh lived on international
trade. They sent trade caravans to
Syria and to the Yemen. So, it was a
vital importance for them that their
trade routes should be absolutely
secure. However, thanks to the
situation of Madina, God’s
Messenger was able to threaten their
trade and, therefore, while
strengthening his position in Madina
on the one hand, he was, on the
other, dispatching military
expeditions to paralyze the hopes
and plans of the Quraysh to deal him
any blow.
Islam
guarantees security of life and
property. Its commandments aim to
guarantee the security of life, the
security of property, the security
of, in addition to physical health,
mental and spiritual health, the
security of chastity, and the
security of belief. Therefore, it
strictly prohibits murder, theft,
robbery and plundering, and also
usurpation and interest or usury and
gambling, alcohol, every kind of
illicit sexual intercourse, anarchy
and propagation of atheism. The
Arabic original of ‘belief’ is iman
and means giving security. Therefore
a mu’min (believer) is the
one who never cheats and from whose
tongue and hand all people are in
utmost security. He never lies,
never breaks his word, and never
breaches a trust. Also, he never
conceives of earning his life by
stealing or other un-Islamic ways
like usurpation and
interest-involving transactions. He
is convinced that the one who has
killed a man is as if he killed the
whole of humankind.
When God’s
Messenger was raised as a Prophet,
there was in Arabia no security,
neither of life or property, nor of
chastity or health, nor of belief,
nor indeed in the rest of the world.
However, he had to establish
absolute security in every aspect of
life. Once, he had said to Adiy ibn
Khatam:
A day will
come when a woman will travel,
riding in a litter, from Hira to
Makka and fear nothing except
God and wolves.1
By dispatching
military expeditions through the
desert, God’s Messenger also
aimed to establish security
therein and wanted to show to
everyone, friend and foe, that
security was not possible but by
Islam.
Expeditions
The first military
expedition sent after the Emigration
was toward Sif al-Bahr. When Hamza,
the commander of the expedition,
reached Sif al-Bahr, a trade caravan
of the Quraysh was returning from
Damascus. The Quraysh had usurped all
the possessions of the Emigrant
Muslims left in Makka, and used them
in trade. In order to threaten their
trade, and weaken them economically,
God’s Messenger, upon him be peace
and blessings, desired to make a show
of power in the desert. No clash took
place in this first confrontion with
the Quraysh, but the desert tribes
witnessing the incident showed an
inclination to acknowledge a second
power in the peninsula besides the
Quraysh.
This first
expedition was shortly followed by the
second sent under the command of ‘Ubayda
ibn Harith. With the same purpose as
in the first expedition, ‘Ubayda
went as far as Rabigh, a valley on the
route to Makka. The Muslim expedition
of sixty cavalrymen met there with a
force of the Quraysh consisting of two
hundred armed men. An exchange of
arrows took place between the parties;
in the end, fearing a possible defeat,
the Makkan troops withdrew towards
Makka.2
Military
expeditions followed one another, some
of them commanded by God’s Messenger
himself, upon him be peace and
blessings. In two of the expeditions
he commanded, he went to Abwa and
Buwat respectively and aimed to
threaten the trade caravans of the
Quraysh and intimidate them.3 In the
former, he also had the purpose of
signing a treaty with Banu Damra.
According to the conditions of the
treaty, neither of the sides would
take up arms against the other, and
the tribe of Banu Damra would not help
any aggressive force against the
Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings.
Shortly before the
Battle of Badr, God’s Messenger sent
an expedition of about ten persons
under the command of ‘Adbullah ibn
Jakhsh to Nakhla, a place between
Makka and Ta’if, a few miles away
from Makka. He ordered them to follow
the movements of the Quraysh and
gather information about their plans.
While they were staying in Nakhla, a
trade caravan of the Quraysh coming
from Ta’if halted there. Something
happened unexpectedly and the Muslims
killed one of the Makkans and captured
the rest except one, and their
belongings, and took them to Madina.
They did this at a time when the month
of Rajab was approaching its end and
Sha’ban about to begin. It was,
therefore, doubtful whether the event
took place in Rajab, one of the sacred
months, or not. But the Quraysh, and
the Jews who were secretly in league
with them, as well as the hypocrites,
made great use of this as a weapon in
their propaganda campaign against the
Muslims. They claimed that the Muslims
shed blood in a sacred month, when
bloodshed is forbidden.
Since the incident
had taken place without his approval,
God’s Messenger expressly pointed
out to those who had participated in
the campaign that he had not ordered
them to fight. Also the other Muslims
reproached them for doing something
not commanded. However, the verses
revealed consoled them on account of
their purity of intention with hope
for the mercy of God:
They question
you concerning the holy month, and
fighting in it. Say: ‘Fighting
in it is a heinous thing, but to
bar from God’s way, and unbelief
in Him, and denying entry into the
Holy Mosque, and to expel its
people from it - that is more
heinous in God’s sight; and
persecution is more heinous than
killing.’ They will not cease to
fight with you till they turn you
from your religion, if they are
able; and whoever of you turns
from his religion and dies
unbelieving - their works have
failed in this world and the next;
those are the inhabitants of the
Fire; therein they shall dwell
forever. But the believers, and
those who emigrate and struggle in
God’s way - those have hope of
God’s Mercy; and God is
All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate. (al-Baqara,
2.217-8) 4
The verses aimed to
answer the objections raised by the
Quraysh and the Jews and hypocrites.
The essence of the matter is that
fighting during the holy months is an
evil act. However, those people who
had continually subjected the
believers to indescribable wrong for
thirteen years merely because they
believed in the One God could have no
right and justification to make such
an objection. They had not only driven
the Muslims from their homes, they had
closed to them the way to the Holy
Mosque, a bar which had not been
imposed by anyone during the course of
some two thousand years. With this
record of mischief and misconduct it
was not for them to raise such an
outcry at a small incident, and
especially so when the incident had
taken place without the approval of
the Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings.
A general
evaluation of the expeditions
Until the Battle of
Badr, which took place two years after
the Emigration, God’s Messenger
arranged around twenty military
expeditions. By these expeditions he
seized control of the desert and
paralyzed the morale of the Makkan
polytheists. Second, most of the
desert tribes began to acknowledge the
power of Islam and take the side of
God’s Messenger. In none of the
expeditions, except one, did the
Muslim warriors shed blood, nor did
they wound anyone. They neither
plundered the caravans nor usurped
something from desert peoples. They
showed in practice that Islam is the
guarantee of security.
God’s Messenger,
upon him be peace and blessings,
formed an intelligence network and was
informed of everything happening in
the desert and in Makka itself. So
sophisticated a system did he
establish that probably none of his
Companions in Madina even knew that,
for example, his uncle, ‘Abbas, was
left in Makka as a member of his
intelligence service. When he set out
on a military campaign, no one knew,
up to a certain point, his real
intention and where they were going.5
Besides, he used couriers in
communication with his soldiers
fighting at the front. A courier
carried the news to some certain
point, where he trusted it to another
one waiting to carry it to the other
station. With this system, he got the
news of his expeditions in the
shortest time possible.
All the expeditions
he dispatched until the Battle of Badr
consisted of the Emigrants
exclusively. For first of all, the
Quraysh were at war with the
Emigrants. They did not want them to
be sheltered in Madina. Besides, those
who were driven from their homes with
everything they had left behind were
the Emigrants. Second, the Helpers had
sworn allegiance to God’s Messenger
so that it was expected that the
Helpers should perceive by themselves
the necessity of taking part in any
military action in the way of God.
The military genius
of God’s Messenger, upon him be
peace and blessings, showed itself
also in his choice of commanders of
the expeditions. His uncle, Hamza, was
appointed the commander of the first
military expedition. Besides his
courage and strength, Hamza was a man
of sound judgment, good opinion and
high administrative ability. In
addition, until the whole of his
community appropriated his ideas and
adopted his opinions, God’s
Messenger chose to practice them in
the persons of his relatives. Since
the military dimension of his mission
showed itself for the first time in
Madina, God’s Messenger, upon him be
peace and blessings, was to put his
own relatives on the front line until
everyone was wholly accustomed to it.
It should, however, also be noted that
all of the commanders he chose were
able and eminent generals and highly
qualified for the job. They were, in
addition, very upright persons wholly
devoted to the cause of Islam.
Hamza was martyred
in Uhud after having killed more than
twenty soldiers of the enemy. ‘Ubayda
ibn Harith was martyred because of the
wounds he received in the Battle of
Badr. Before his martyrdom, he asked
God’s Messenger: ‘O God’s
Messenger, I did not die in fighting
at the front. Am I regarded then as
having died a martyr?’6
Hamza was the uncle
of the Prophet; ‘Ubayda his cousin.
The commander of the expedition he
sent to Nakhla, ‘Adbullah ibn Jakhsh,
was the son of his paternal aunt. In
the second stage of the Battle of Uhud,
he fought heroically. He came across
Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas and told him:
‘Come; you pray and I’ll invoke
‘Amen’ for your prayer. Let me
pray, and you invoke ‘Amen’ for my
prayer.’ Sa‘d prayed: ‘O God,
make me encounter one of the strongest
soldiers of the enemy, and let me
overcome him!’ Ibn Jakhsh invoked
‘Amen’ for this prayer, and then
himself prayed: ‘O God, let me
encounter one of the strongest
soldiers of the enemy. After I wounded
him severely, let him kill me, and cut
my ears and nose and lips so that I
shall come to Your Presence bleeding
profusely. You ask me, “‘Abd
Allah, where are your ears, nose and
lips?” and I’ll answer You: “O
God, I was ashamed to come to Your
Presence with my members with which I
had sinned, and I sacrificed them
while fighting in the way of Your
Beloved One.”‘ When the battle
ended, ‘Adbullah was found lying
with his ears, nose and lips cut off
and his abdomen lanced.7
Lastly, by sending
military expeditions one after the
other, God’s Messenger, upon him be
peace and blessings, agitated the
Quraysh to an unpremeditated action,
and, as will be explained below, on
the pretext of securing the return of
their trade caravan, they formed an
army of one thousand and left Makka
for Badr some ninety miles to the
south of Madina.
The
Battle of Badr
The Quraysh always
felt their trade route to Syria under
serious threat because of the Muslim
concentration in Madina. They first
threatened the Madinans, in a letter
addressed to ‘Adbullah ibn Ubayy ibn
Salul, to kill their males and enslave
their females unless they expelled God’s
Messenger from Madina. The Prophet,
upon him be peace and blessings, put a
timely end to the mischief which Ibn
Ubayy inclined to cause. Besides, when
Sa‘d ibn Mu’adh went to Makka to
perform minor pilgrimage (Umrah), he
was stopped at the entrance of the Ka’ba
and prevented from performing
circumambulation. Also, the Makkans
quite regularly sent invading parties.
In such circumstances, the Muslims
were left no choice but to gain and
consolidate control over that trade
route in order to force the Quraysh
and other tribes unfriendly to the
Muslims to reconsider their hostile
policy. It was also time for the
Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, to give a lesson to the
Quraysh and the tribes allied to them,
as well as the Jews and hypocrites in
Madina, that it was impossible for
them to bar the spread of Islam, let
alone eradicate it from the hearts of
people and the surface of the earth.
The front or pact of polytheism and
unbelief would undoubtedly surrender
to the light of Islam.
It was, at last, at
the beginning of 624, two years after
the Hijra that a large caravan of the
Quraysh, escorted by no more than 40
security guards en route to Makka from
Syria, arrived at a place within reach
of the Muslims. Fearing that the
Muslims would attack their caravan,
Abu Sufyan, the leader of the caravan,
rushed a messenger to Makka and sought
help and reinforcements.
This caused an
uproar through Makka. The leading
chiefs of the Quraysh decided to wage
war on the Prophet, upon him be peace
and blessings, and about 1000 fighters
moved out of Makka with much pomp and
show. They had decided to deal a
crushing blow to the rising power of
the Muslims. They also wanted, as
always, to terrorize the neighbouring
tribes so as to ensure the safety of
their trading caravans in the future.
God’s Messenger,
upon him be peace and blessings, who
always kept himself abreast of
developments which had any bearing on
his mission, realized that if an
effective step was not taken right
then, the preaching of Islam might
suffer a blow from which it might be
very difficult for it to recover. Had
the Quraysh taken the initiative and
launched an attack on Madina, it might
have put an end to the existence of
the small Muslim community in that
town. Even if the Quraysh restricted
themselves to taking their caravan to
Makka safely by dint of their military
strength, this would have adversely
affected the political and military
prestige of the Muslims. Once their
prestige had been undermined, their
lives, property and honour would have
been jeopardized.
Having decided to
use the resources available to him,
the Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, left Madina. Although he
may have been intent upon a decisive
battle with the Quraysh, most of the
Muslims desired to capture the
caravan. In order to inform his
Companions of the situation, the
Prophet gathered them and told them
that the trading caravan of the
Quraysh was in the north whereas the
invading Quraysh army was in the south
and moving towards Madina. He also
informed them that God had promised
the Muslims that they would be able to
seize any of the two parties they
wished (al-Anfal, 8.7) Now it
was for them to make the choice
whether they wished to attack the
trading caravan or the approaching
army. Aware of the Prophet’s
intention, Miqdad ibn ‘Amr, one of
the Emigrants, replied as follows:
O Messenger of
God! Proceed as God has commanded
you to. We are with you wherever
you go, even as far as Bark al-Ghimad.
We shall not say as the Children
of Israel said to Moses: ‘Go
forth, you and your Lord, and
fight, We shall remain here
sitting!’ We rather say: ‘Go
forth, you and your Lord, and
fight, and we shall fight on your
side as long as the eyelid of any
one of us keeps moving.’8
Until the Battle of
Badr, God’s Messenger had not sought
help from the Helpers in military
expeditions. This was the first
occasion when the Helpers would prove
their commitment to support Islam.
Without addressing them directly, God’s
Messenger, upon him be peace and
blessings, again put the same two
alternatives before his audience.
Realizing that God’s Messenger aimed
to ascertain the views of the Helpers
on the question, Sa‘d ibn Mu‘adh
rose and spoke as follows:
O Messenger of
God! I think your question is
directed to the Helpers. We have
believed in you, affirmed the
veracity of your claim to be the
Messenger of God, and borne
witness to the truth of your
teachings. We took the oath of
allegiance to you that we would
hear and obey you. O Messenger of
God! Do as you wish! By the One
Who has sent you with the truth,
if you were to take us to the sea
and plunge into it, none of us
should remain behind. So take us
along to the battlefield with God’s
blessings.9
The decision was
given in favor of fighting. This was
also the decree of God:
God promised
you that one of the two hosts
would be yours, and you wished
that the one with no power should
be yours. But God willed to
establish the truth through His
words and to annihilate the
unbelievers to the last remnant,
that He might prove the truth to
be true and falsify falsehood,
even if the sinful are averse. (al-Anfal,
8.7-8)
The Makkan army
consisted of 1000 fighters, including
600 soldiers in coats of mail, and 200
cavalry. They were accompanied by
singers and dancers. Whenever the army
halted, dancing and drinking parties
were held. Also the army arrogantly
vaunted its military power and
numerical strength before the tribes
and localities which fell on the way,
and boasted of its invincibility.10
What was even worse was that they were
not fighting for any lofty ideal. They
aimed to defeat the forces of belief,
truth, justice and good morals.
Against the force
of the Makkan army, the Muslim army
was made up of 313 fighters. Of these,
86 were Emigrants and the rest, the
Helpers. Such was the scarcity of
resources that only two or three
Muslims had horses. The number of
camels was no more than 70 so that
three or four persons took turns on
each camel. God’s Messenger himself
took turns with two persons. When they
asked him to ride the camel to exclude
themselves from the turns, God’s
Messenger, upon him be peace and
blessings, answered: You are no
better in strength than me. Concerning
the reward, I am not in less need of
it than you.11
The Muslim soldiers
were fully devoted to the cause of
Islam and were fired with the zeal to
sacrifice their lives for their cause.
In order to accomplish what He had
already decreed, God made the Makkan
army appear as small in number in the
dream God’s Messenger had, just as
He made the number of the Muslims
appear smaller in the eyes of the
Makkans (al-Anfal, 8.44).
The two armies
finally encountered each other at Badr.
The Makkan army outnumbered the
Muslims by three to one. Moreover, the
Muslims were scantily equipped.
However, they would fight for the most
sublime of causes, to establish God’s
religion based on belief, good morals
and justice. They were deeply
convinced of the truth of this cause
and accordingly ready to sacrifice
their lives. They had reached the
battlefield earlier than their
opponents and been positioned around
the wells. Apart from that, the heavy
downpour which had come the previous
night, was to the advantage of the
Muslims. It had provided them with an
abundant water supply which they
quickly stored in large reservoirs.
Rain had also compacted the loose sand
in the upper part of the valley where
they had pitched their tents. This
helped the Muslims plant their feet
firmly and facilitated their movement.
But in the lower part of the valley,
where the Quraysh army was stationed,
the ground had turned marshy. In
addition to all those Divine
blessings, God brought on them
drowsiness and gave them a feeling of
peace and security (al-Anfal,
8.11).
God’s Messenger,
upon him be peace and blessings,
positioned his army in the upper part
of the valley overlooking the whole of
the battlefield, and divided them into
three parts, one centre and two
flanks. The central force consisted of
the leading figures among the
Emigrants and Helpers, who were
foremost in devotion to God’s
Messenger. Mus‘ab ibn ‘Umayr was
carrying the standard of God’s
Messenger. Mus‘ab belonged to one of
the richest families of Makka. He had
accepted Islam as an adolescent. He
was very handsome, and when he used to
go out, before his conversion, in
silken clothes, the Makkan girls used
to stare at him from the windows of
their houses. However, after he
embraced Islam, he became a
whole-hearted follower of God’s
Messenger. He sacrificed whatever he
had in the way of God and finally died
a martyr at the Battle of Uhud, during
which he was again the standard-bearer
of the Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings. When he lost his right arm,
he took the standard in his left hand,
and when a blow of an enemy sword took
it away too, he was left with a ‘head’
to protect God’s Messenger, before
whom he was finally martyred.12
The flanks were
commanded by ‘Ali and Sa‘d ibn Mu‘adh.
‘Ali was famous for his courage and
deep devotion to God’s Messenger. He
was only nine or ten years old when he
answered God’s Messenger, ‘I will
help you’, when the Messenger
gathered his kinsmen to call them to
Islam at the outset of his mission and
asked them: ‘Who among you will help
me in this affair?’13 Again, on the
night of the Prophet’s Emigration,
he slept on the Prophet’s bed in
order that God’s Messenger, upon him
be peace and blessings, might be able
to leave Makka in safety.14 Those who
surrounded the house of the Prophet
had thought that it was God’s
Messenger who was sleeping in the bed
and waited until daybreak. By the time
they rushed into the house only to
find ‘Ali in the Prophet’s bed,
God’s Messenger had already reached
the Cave of Thawr outside Makka. ‘Ali
was a man wholly dedicated to the
cause of God.
God’s Messenger,
upon him be peace and blessings, had
not neglected to take all the
necessary precautions and perfect all
the preparations for the war. He had
mobilized all the resources available
to him and chosen his best and most
qualified men as commanders. He had
stationed his army at the upper part
of the valley and pitched his tent at
a place from where he would be able to
see the whole of the battlefield and
have all his commands conveyed to his
soldiers instantaneously. And, as the
final prerequisite, for the desired
result, he outstretched his arms and
prayed with great earnestness and
humility:
O God! Here are
the Quraysh who in their vainglory
seek to deny and cry lies against
Your Messenger. O God! Support us
with the help You promised me. O
God! Were this small group of
Muslims to perish, none in the
whole earth would remain to
worship You.15
After the prayer,
he threw a handful of dust at the
enemy saying: May their faces be
scorched!16
The Battle of Badr
was a severe test for all the Muslims.
They would either gain the victory or
be martyred. They were not to flee the
battlefield. Although they were not
forbidden to retreat in orderly
fashion under strong pressure from the
enemy provided the retreat was
resorted to as a stratagem of war -
for example, seeking reinforcements or
regrouping with another party in the
rear (al-Anfal, 8.15) - any
disorderly flight because of cowardice
and defeatism was strictly forbidden.
That kind of retreat takes place
because the deserter holds his life
dearer than his cause, and such
cowardice has been characterized as
one of the major deadly sins.
The battle began.
In the first frontline of the Quraysh
were ‘Utba ibn Rabi‘a and his
brother, Shayba, and his son, Walid.
They challenged the Muslims to single
combat. Three young men of the Helpers
went forward against them. ‘We will
not fight with the farmers and
spherherds of Madina,’ ‘Utba
shouted out of an arrogance which
would cause their perishing. This was,
in fact, what God’s Messenger
expected. He ordered ‘Ali, Hamza and
‘Ubayda ibn Harith to go forth for
single combat. Hamza, may God be
pleased with him, advanced against ‘Utba
and killed him. ‘Ali killed Walid
with two blows. ‘Ubayda, who was
old, marched against Shayba. They
exchanged blows, and the sharp edge of
Shayba’s sword struck ‘Ubayda’s
knee and cut it. However Hamza and ‘Ali
rescued him from Shayba. They killed
Shayba and carried ‘Ubayda away.17
The Quraysh were
shocked at the beginning of the war.
The belief and sincerity of the
Muslims won them God’s help. The
Quraysh, who had exulted in their
power, suffered a decisive defeat at
the hands of the ill-equipped Muslims.
Seventy of the Quraysh were killed.
The two young brothers, ‘Awf and Mu‘awwidh,
from the Helpers, together with ‘Adbullah
ibn Mas‘ud, killed Abu Jahl, who had
been described by God’s Messenger as
the Pharaoh of the Muslim Ummah.18
Almost all the leaders of the Quraysh,
including Abu Jahl, Walid ibn Mughira,
‘Utba ibn Rabi‘ah, ‘As ibn Sa‘id,
Umayyah ibn Khalaf, and Nawfal ibn
Khuwaylid were killed. Prior to the
battle, God’s Messenger, upon him be
peace and blessings, had indicated the
spots where they were killed, saying: ‘Utba
will be killed here; Abu Jahl here,
Umayyah ibn Khalaf here, and so
on.19
Another seventy of
the Quraysh were taken as war
prisoners. God granted the Muslims
permission to accept ransom for them.
God’s Messenger released some of
them in return for ransom, and the
others who knew how to read and write,
on the condition that they should
teach the unlettered Muslims how to
read and write.
Such treatment of
the captives proved very beneficial
for the Muslims. For those people who
had expected execution welcomed the
chance to pay ransom and paid it.
Second, the rate of literacy in Madina
was very low, and, in order to
propagate Islam, the Muslims had to
know how to read and write. Besides,
the Muslims had to be culturally
superior to the polytheists. Third,
those who were kept in Madina to teach
the Muslims how to read and write
would be able to learn Islam better
than before and find the opportunity
to be in close contact with the
Muslims. This was certain to soften
their hearts toward Islam and
accelerate their conversion, together
with that of their families. Fourth,
the families and relatives of those
captives had despaired of their lives.
But, when they saw them before them
unexpectedly, their enmity to Islam
was considerably lessened or broken.
The decisive
victory gained at Badr made Islam a
force to reckon with across all of
Arabia, and many hardened hearts were
inclined to accept the message of
Islam.
1.
Bukhari, “Manaqib,”
25.
2. I.
Hisham, Sira, 2.241;
I. Sa‘d, Tabaqat, 2.7.
3. I.
Hisham, 2.241, 248. “ “
4. I. Hisham, 2.252.
5. I.
Hisham, 4.39-42; I. Kathir, al-Bidaya,
4.332-5.
6. Hakim, Mustadrak, 3.188;
I. Kathir, 3.334.
7. I.
Hajar, al-Isaba,
1.286-7.
8. I. Sa‘d, 3.162.
9. Muslim, “Kitab al-Jihad wa
l-Siyar,”
30; Waqidi, Maghazi, 1.48-9.
10. Tabari, Tarikh al-Umam wa
l-Muluk, 2.430.
11. I. Hanbal, 1.411, 418.
12. I. Sa‘d, 3.120.
13. I. Hanbal, 1.159.
14. I.
Hisham, 2.127.
15. I.
Hisham, 1.621.
16. I. Hisham, 1.668; I. Hanbal,
1.368.
17. I.
Hisham, 2.277.
18. I. Hisham, 2.280-7; I.
Kathir,
3.350.
19. Abu Dawud, 2.53; Muslim, 5.170.
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