Episode 40: The Quraysh Sets Out for War
The Quraysh Caravan and Intelligence:
The leaders of the Quraysh gave Abu Sufyan their possessions and wealth for him to take to Syria for trade.
Abu Sufyan heard about the plan of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to ambush the caravan and he got scared, and sent a man to go to Makkah to tell the Quraysh about this plan.
Dhum-Dhum’s Plan:
The man named Dhum-Dhum ripped his shirt and cut off the nose of his camel and put the blood over himself, and he told the Quraysh that the Muslims had attacked the caravan.
Leaders of the Quraysh:
The Quraysh had an army of nine hundred and fifty armed men, seven hundred camels and two hundred horses.
All of the leaders of the Quraysh were part of this army apart from Abu Lahab.
Al A’as ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughirah owed Abu Lahab four thousand dirhams, but could not repay him so Abu Lahab proposed to Al A’as that he take his place in the army.
One of the leaders of the Quraysh, Utbah ibn Rab’iah went to Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the previous owner of Bilal, with some perfume.
Umayyah originally did not want to participate in any fighting and Utbah said to him: you should have a good perfume because you are a woman!
Umayyah ibn Khalaf was embarrassed by this so he went out with the army.
The Quraysh were worried because there was a tribe called Kinana and they thought that if the leaders of the Quraysh all left Makkah for this battle, Kinana would take over the city.
The Appearance of Shaytan in the Form of Suraqah ibn Malik:
Shaytan appeared in the appearance of Suraqah ibn Malik and told the Quraysh: Don’t worry, I am a leader of the tribe of Kinana and I will make sure your position is safe.
Preparation of the Muslim Army:
Abu Sufyan then managed to change the direction of the caravan to avoid confrontation with the Muslims.
Originally, the Muslims only planned to ambush the caravan and did not have any intention to start a battle. They had three hundred and thirteen men, seventy camels and two horses, but did not have much weaponry or armour in comparison to the Quraysh.
The Muslims did not know about Abu Sufyan changing his direction or about the huge army of the Quraysh that was planning to fight them.
However, Allah SWT revealed this to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
The Prophet Discussing Strategic Options with his Companions:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ then gathered his companions and asked what they had to say about it.
Abu Bakr was the first to stand up and told the Prophet: We will support you in whatever you do.
The Prophet ﷺ praised and thanked Abu Bakr and again asked his companions what they had to say.
Umar ibn al-Khattab said: Whatever you tell us to do, we will follow and obey you.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ then asked his people again and Al Miqdad ibn Al-Aswad said: Go forward with whatever Allah SWT tells you to do. You follow him and we will follow you. And we will not be like the Bani Israel who said to Musa: you and your Lord go fight, we are sitting here. Rather we will say, you and your Lord go fight, we are with you fighting.
Al-Miqdad continued: If you take us all the way to Bark-al-Ghamad (near Yemen, between Badr and Bark-al-Ghimad, there were fourteen tribes that were against Islam), we will fight them one by one, all of these tribes.
After hearing this statement, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ asked again: O my people, what do you think?
Sa’d ibn Mu’adh, a leader of the Ansar, realised that all the members that stood up before him were from the Muhajirin and the Prophet was waiting for a member of the Ansar to speak. He said to the Prophet: it seems as if you want someone from the Ansar to speak.
Sa’d ibn Mu’adh told the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: you came to Madinah and we believed in you and we made a promise that we will always support you, so take us wherever Allah tells you to take us and we will follow you. By the One who raised you in truth, if you take us into the red sea, we will all follow you into the sea.
The Promise of Allah SWT:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ then said: We will move forward In sha Allah and Allah has promised me that one of the groups (either the caravan being raided or the army being defeated) will be for the Muslims.
A few of the Muslims did not want to fight and they were hoping that the promise of Allah would be the caravan. However, Allah SWT wanted the truth to be manifested and falsehood to be destroyed.
The Muslims Capture Two Men from the Quraysh:
The disbelievers of the Quraysh then sent two young men to look for water.
The Muslims then captured the two young men and began to interrogate them, who replied that they were with the army of the Quraysh.
Because some of the Muslims wanted them to be from the caravan, they did not believe the young men and decided to beat them to the point that the two young men lied and said they were from the caravan to avoid being punished further.
While this was happening, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was praying and when he finished his prayer, he told his companions: When they were telling the truth you punished them, and when they lied, you let them go. Rather, it was true what they are saying, they are from the army of the Quraysh.
Advice from Al-Hubab ibn Al-Mundhir:
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stopped in a certain place and a companion called Al Hubab ibn Al-Mundhir asked him: is this place that you stopped a revelation from Allah or is it your own strategy?
The Prophet ﷺ replied that it was his own strategy, so Al Hubab ibn Al-Mundhir told the Prophet that they should move forward past all of the wells and to head towards the first well.
This was because, all of the wells would now be behind the Muslim army or on their side, which meant that they would have control over all of the wells and the disbelievers would have no access resulting in no water being available to them.
The Night Before Badr:
On the night before the Battle of Badr, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ spent the night in prayer and asked Allah: O Allah, if you allow this group of Muslims to be defeated, then you will not be worshipped on this Earth.
He raised his hands high in the air, begging Allah SWT for victory and Abu Bakr hugged him from behind and said: Ya Rasoolullah, this is enough. You have asked Allah SWT and He will definitely give what He promised you.
Allah SWT then sent rain down to clean and purify the believers.
The Morning of Badr:
On the morning of the Battle of Badr, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was pointing at locations and telling his believers exactly where each member of the leaders of the Quraysh would be killed.
After the Battle of Badr, Umar ibn al-Khattab said: Wallahi, after the Battle of Badr was over, we saw the bodies of the leaders of the Quraysh on the ground and everyone that the Messenger of Allah named was in the exact location that he mentioned.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ then sent a companion to see how many members the Quraysh had.
The man was not sure so the Prophet asked them how many camels they sacrificed when they would eat and the man replied: nine or ten.
From this answer, the Prophet ﷺ knew that the army of the Quraysh consisted of between nine hundred and one thousand members.
Umayr ibn Wahb Warns the Quraysh about the Muslim army:
The disbelievers of the Quraysh sent Umayr ibn Wahb, a man who later became a Muslim, to provide a report on the status of the Muslim army.
Umayr went back to the Quraysh and told them that there were roughly three hundred members but they didn’t have any backup or armour.
Umayr said about the Muslim army: they are people who are ready to fight and are dependent on Allah SWT. For every one of them, they will at least kill one of you.
Umayr ibn Wahb warned the Quraysh that even if they won the battle, they would lose at least three hundred men and suffer heavy casualties.
Despite this warning, the Quraysh out of their pride and arrogance decided to fight the Muslims.