Lessons from the Battle of Badr

On 17^th Ramadan, 2 A.H., two armies – those of the Quraysh and the Muslims – encountered each other at a place called Badr. As they stood face to face, the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) noted that the Quraysh outnumbered the Muslims by three to one. Moreover, the Muslims were scantily equipped. Observing this, the Prophet outstretched his arms and prayed with great earnestness and humility:

O God! Here are the Quraysh who in their vain glory seek to call the lie to Your Messenger. O God! Support us with the help You promised me. O God! Were this group (Muslims) to perish, none in the whole earth shall worship You.
[Ibn-Hisham, vol. 1. P. 621]

So much did He pray, that, finally Aboo-Backer Siddique, one of his companions, had to say to the Prophet, "Enough have you prayed. Allah is sure to help us." Muhammed prayed here for the survival of a race, that, if perished would be the end of those who worshipped Allah. He prayed for the survival of Islam, the way of life that was revealed and commanded by Allah. A question we have to ask ourselves, everyday, what have we/I done that in turn deserves Allah's protection and bounties? Am I worthy enough to be in His good graces?

Ever since Prophet Muhammed started preaching Islam to the Makkan unbelievers, he had been receiving strong opposition and resistance. He and his followers were humiliated, coarsely treated, tortured and put through severest of persecutions. Not once did the Muslims go up in arms against them not did they repay back in the same manner. They were patient. They endured. They kept their faith in Allah. For 13 years did they suffer at the hands of the Quraysh, only because they professed their faith in Allah and His Messenger. They did not persecute Muhammed and his believers because they did not believe in his message, on the contrary, they knew what he was speaking was the truth, but if everyone believed and stood by it, then they would have to change their old ways of life and get rid of all the baseless superstitions and rituals. They were not ready to give up worldly gains.

During the last four years or so of the Prophet's stay at Makkah, the voice of Islam had been proving effective at Yathrib and the people for various reasons had been accepting the message more readily than other clans of Arabia. So much so that in the twelfth year of Prophethood on the occasion of Hajj a deputation of 75 people met the Holy Prophet in the darkness of night. These people not only accepted Islam, but also offered to give him and his followers a home. As this was a most epoch making opportunity provided by Allah, the Holy Prophet welcomed it.

They welcomed the prophet not as a refugee, but as the Messenger of Allah and hence as their leader and ruler. Likewise they knew that they were not inviting the Muslim refugees to give them shelter from persecution but to assemble them from all over the country for their integration with themselves to form an organized community. Thus the offer of the people of Yathrib was to make Yathrib the "City of Islam." Accordingly the Holy Prophet accepted their invitation and made it the first Dar-al-Islam "Domain of Islam" in Arabia.

This didn't stop the Quraysh from scheming against the Prophet and his followers. A few days before his migration, the Quraysh held a council to consider the matter. After a good deal of argument; they decided that one person should be taken from each of the families of Quraysh other than that of Banu Hashim to put an end to the life of the Holy Prophet. This was to make it difficult for the family of the Holy Prophet to fight alone with all the other families of the Quraysh and thus to force them to accept blood-money for his murder-instead of taking revenge from them, but by the grace of Allah their plot against the life of the Holy Prophet failed because of his admirable foresight and full trust in Allah, and he reached Medina safe and sound.

When they could not prevent his emigration, it occurred to them to exploit Abdullah bin Ub`ai who had begun to cherish a grievance against the Holy Prophet since his arrival at Medina. He was an influential chief of Medina and the people had agreed to make him their king. But when the majority of Aus and Khazraj clan became Muslims and acknowledged the Holy Prophet as their leader, guide and ruler, all his hopes of becoming a king came to an end. Therefore the Quraysh wrote to him, "As you have given shelter to our enemy, we tell you plainly that you should either fight with him yourself or exile him from your city otherwise we swear by God that we will invade your city, kill your males and make your females our slave girls." This letter added fuel to the flames of his jealousy and he was inclined to do some mischief, but the Holy Prophet took timely precautions and defeated his evil designs. They even prevented the supporters of the prophet from performing pilgrimage at the Ka'bah.

The Medinans returned the threat by making it known that if they did that the route to Syria could be rendered perilous for the Makkans. In fact, the Muslims had no choice but to gain and consolidate their control over that trade route so that Quraysh and other tribes hostile to the Muslims would reconsider their inimical policies. As soon as he was free from making the preliminary arrangements for organizing the newly formed Muslim Community and settling peace terms with the neighboring Jewish habitations, he adopted two measures in this connection:-

First, he entered into treaties and alliances with those clans who lived in and around Medina.

Secondly, he successively sent small bands of his men on this route to serve as a warning to the Quraysh, and himself accompanied some of them. The main objective of these campaigns was to only scare the trade caravans, not attack or loot them. All of these expeditions are noteworthy for two reasons.

• No blood was shed, nor was any caravan looted. This clearly shows that the main intention behind these was to just warn the Quraysh.
  
• Not a single man from the people of Medina was involved in these expeditions. All the bands consisted purely of the immigrants from Makkah so that the conflict should remain between the people of the Quraysh themselves and should not further spread by the involvement of other clans.
  

In Sha'aban, 2 A. H. ( March, 623 A. D.) a big trade caravan of the Quraysh, carrying goods worth $50,000 or so, with only a guard of thirty to forty men, on its way back from Syria to Makkah, reached the territory from where it could be easily attacked from Al-Medina. As the caravan was carrying trade goods worth thousands of pounds, and was scantily guarded, naturally Abu Sufyan, who was in charge of it, from his Past experience, feared an attack from the Muslims. Accordingly, as soon as he entered the dangerous territory, he dispatched a camel rider to Makkah with a frantic appeal for help. When the rider reached Makkah, he, following an old custom of Arabia, tore open the ears of his camel, cut open his nose and overturned the saddle. Then rending his shirt from front and behind, he began to cry aloud at the top of his voice, "O people of Quraysh dispatch help to protect your caravan from Syria under the charge of Abu Sufyan, for Muhammad with his followers is in pursuit of it; otherwise I don't think you will ever get your goods. Help! Help!"

This caused great excitement and anger in the whole of Makkah and all the big chiefs of the Quraysh got ready for war. An army, consisting of 600 armored soldiers and cavalry of 100 riders with great pomp and show marched out for a fight. They intended not only to rescue the caravan but also to put to an end, once for all, the new menace from the Muslims who had consolidated themselves at Al-Medina. They also wanted to crush that rising power and overawe the clans surrounding the route so as to make it absolutely secure for future trade. The battle had thus begun.

The livelihood of all Muslims now stood in the balance. The Quraysh wanted to nip in the bud the threat posed by Muslims, the consequence that would follow once Islam got established. The Prophet had no choice but to resist and attack back. Having made up his mind, he gathered the Ansars and Muhajiruns and informed them of the situation.

He informed them that God had promised the Muslims that they would be able to seize any of the two parties they wished:

Remember the occasion when Allah was holding out to you the promise that one of the two hosts would fall to you: you wished the weaker host should fall to you: but Allah willed to prove by His words the Truth to be truth and to cut across the roots of the disbelievers so that the Truth should come out as truth and falsehood should be proved to be falsehood, even though the evil-doers did not like it.
[8:7]

The choice was theirs. A number of Muslims preferred to attack the trade group. However, since the Prophet had something else in mind, he repeated his question. At this Miqdad bin 'Amr, a Muhajir, stood up and said,

"O Messenger of Allah! Please march to the side to which your Lord commands you; we will accompany you wherever you go. We will not say like the Israelites, 'Go and let you and your Lord fight we will wait'. In contrast to them we say, 'Let you and your Lord fight; we will fight by your side to our last breath'."[Ibn-Hisham, vol. 1, p. 615; Al-Waqiqi, vol. 1, p. 48]

When the Ansars' were inquired about their opinion, Sa'b b. Mu'adh replied,

"We have believed in you and confirmed that what you have brought is the Truth, and have made a solemn pledge with you that we will listen to you and obey you. Therefore, O Messenger of Allah, do whatever you intend to do. We swear by Allah Who has sent you with the Truth that we are ready to accompany you to the sea shore and if you enter it, we will plunge into it. We assure you that not a single one of us will remain behind or forsake you, for we will not hesitate at all to go to fight, even if you should lead us to the battlefield tomorrow. We will remain steadfast in the battle and sacrifice our lives in the fight. We do hope that by the grace of Allah our behavior will gladden your heart. So, trusting in Allah's blessing, take us to the battlefield."[ Al-Waqiqi, vol. 1, p. 48-9]

The Muslim group was a little over 300, ill-armed and under-equipped. Only a couple of them had horses to ride and the others had to take their turn in threes and fours on the back of a camel, out of the 70 they had in all. Above all, they had not got enough weapons for the battle; only 60 of them had armors. They boldly marched onto the battlefield putting all their faith in Allah. So strong was their trust in the All-Mighty.

What happened on the battlefield was a resounding victory for the Muslims, and the Quraysh left to lick their defeat and shame. Never had such a puny group men ever stood up to the most powerful clan in the whole of Arabia, and won, and left them humiliated.

Islam had finally firmly established it foot on Arabia. From then on is history.

Morals:

1. Islam always has advocated peace, war and aggression is only the final straw when all other options have been exhausted.
   
2. Firm faith in Allah, even in the severest of conditions they never gave up on the allegiance with Allah and His Messenger.
   
3. Allah helps those who strives to the best of his abilities and does not falter or give up at times of hardships.
   
4. Trials and affliction are parts of the package. Everyone shall undergo these stages and only the faithful shall prosper.
   
5. Patience is a basic quality of every Muslim. Without patience one is bound to go astray.
   
6. If Allah wills something, it so happens.