The Road to Badr

For thirteen years in Makkah, the Muslims had been commanded only to be patient under persecution and not to fight back. Then Allah revealed the first verses permitting them to fight, Surah al-Hajj, verses 39 and 40. The first says: "Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory." The next describes them as "[They are] those who have been evicted from their homes without right, only because they say, 'Our Lord is Allah.'" The permission was framed entirely around defending people who had been wronged and driven from their homes because of their faith. It was not an unconditional license to fight. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi divides jihad in the seerah into four stages. In the first, throughout the Makkan years, any military response was forbidden. In the second, which these verses began, fighting was permitted but not yet obligatory. This was immediately after the Hijrah. In the third, which covered most of the Madinan period, fighting became obligatory against the Quraysh only. In the fourth, it was extended against the polytheists of Arabia generally.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 35 opens the road to Badr here: "Verses 39 to 40 of Surah al-Hajj provide the first concession for jihad." No month is given; placed first as the precondition of everything that follows.

In 1 AH, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, a leading figure among the Ansar of Madinah, visited Makkah, perhaps on business. He stayed with his old business partner, Umayya ibn Khalaf. People in Makkah knew that Sa'd was protecting and helping the Muslims, although his own Islam was not yet known. So when Sa'd asked when he could perform tawaf around the Ka'bah, Umayya advised him to go at noon, in the heat of the day, when no one would be there. Even so, the two of them met Abu Jahal. He asked who Umayya's companion was, and became angry when he learned it was Sa'd. Abu Jahal accused Sa'd of sheltering and helping "the renegades," the name the Quraysh used for the Muslims. He threatened that if Sa'd were not Umayya's guest, he would not have returned home in one piece.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 36 tells the tawaf confrontation as background to the caravan raids, roughly a year before Badr; no month is given.

Al-Abwa appears to have been the first military expedition of the Muslims. It took place in Safar of the 2nd year after the Hijrah, about 11 months after the Prophet ﷺ emigrated to Madinah. The Prophet ﷺ heard of a caravan of the Quraysh and led the Muslims out to intercept it. They could not reach it in time, so no battle took place. During this expedition, the Prophet ﷺ made the first of many alliances with neighbouring tribes, with the Banu Damra. This extended the reach of the young Muslim state about 100 miles beyond Madinah.

Placed here because: Ep. 35: "It appears the first military expedition that the Muslims engaged in was that of al-Abwa ... This took place on the 12th of Safar, 2nd year of the Hijrah, i.e., 11 months after the Emigration."

The Prophet ﷺ's cousin Ubaydah ibn al-Harith led this expedition against the Quraysh. Arrows were exchanged between the two sides but no blood was shed, and a neutral party intervened to broker a truce before the Quraysh and the Muslims went their separate ways. It was during this encounter that Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas became the first person to shoot an arrow fi sabilillah (in the Way of Allah). Afterward, the neutral tribe that had intervened formed an alliance with the Muslims.

Placed here because: ~ Dated 1 AH in the sources, but Ep. 35 presents al-Abwa as the first expedition; the two are placed side by side and this order is not settled.

The Prophet ﷺ led around 150 to 200 sahaba out to intercept the most important caravan of the Quraysh, their large annual caravan to Syria. It had at least 70 to 80 camels and carried around 70 to 80 percent of the wealth of Makkah, because almost everyone in the city who had money invested in it. It was led by Abu Sufyan ibn Harb. By the decree of Allah, the two sides never met. A man from the caravan happened to stray and saw the Muslims coming in the distance. He rushed back to warn the others, and Abu Sufyan quickly took the caravan along a different route. The caravan reached Syria safely, and the Muslims returned to Madinah.

Placed here because: Ep. 36: "the Ghazwa al-Ushayra, which took place in Jumada al-Awwal of the 2nd year of the Hijrah ... camped there until the very first few days of Jumada al-Thani."

Some allies of the Quraysh slipped into Madinah at night, stole a number of camels, and killed one or two herders. When the Prophet ﷺ found out, he gathered 70 of the Muhajirun and went after them. The chase brought the Muslims to the Plain of Badr for the first time, which is how this expedition got its name. The raiders were only four or five men and much faster, so they escaped, and the Prophet ﷺ was unable to catch them. As a result, the Prophet ﷺ decided he needed scouts to keep track of the movements of the Quraysh and their allies, including their caravans to Yemen. This led directly to the Sariyya Nakhla.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 35 narrates it after al-Ushayra and before Nakhla ("One of the consequences of the First Battle of Badr was ... spies for reconnaissance"); no month is given.

In Rajab of 2 AH, the Prophet ﷺ handpicked eight of the Muhajirun, the emigrants from Makkah, and put his cousin Abdullah ibn Jahsh in charge. He gave Abdullah a sealed letter and told him to travel northeast for two days before opening it. This kept the mission secret and misled anyone watching. When Abdullah opened the letter, it told the group to go instead to Nakhla, a grove of date palms outside Makkah, and watch the movements of the Quraysh. It also said that any companion who wished could turn back. All eight chose to go on. On the way, the camel shared by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Utbah ibn Ghazwan went missing. The two stayed behind to search for it, and the other six went on. They reached Nakhla on the 30th of Rajab, the last day of a sacred month in which fighting was forbidden. There they saw a small trade caravan of the Quraysh, loaded with goods and guarded by only three men. The six debated what to do. Only an hour or two remained before sunset, when the sacred month would end. If they waited, the caravan would be gone. If they attacked now, they would be fighting in the sacred month. In the end they attacked. One of the caravan's men was killed and two were taken prisoner, among them al-Hakam ibn Kaisan. When the group returned to Madinah and the Prophet ﷺ heard that they had killed a man, he told them, "I didn't command you to fight." He refused to accept any of the booty. The Quraysh spread the news across Arabia that the Muslims had shed blood in a sacred month. According to Ibn Ishaq, the Prophet ﷺ felt great distress, because the criticism was valid. Then Allah revealed Qur'an 2:217. The verse agreed that fighting in the sacred month was a serious sin. But it declared that what the Quraysh had done was even worse in the sight of Allah. They had turned people away from His path, disbelieved in Him, barred the way to the Sacred Mosque and driven its people out of Makkah. After this, the Prophet ﷺ accepted the booty and the two prisoners. He asked the Quraysh to send a ransom for them, but said they would not be released until Sa'd and Utbah reached Madinah safely. The two eventually found their camel and returned a week or two later, and the prisoners were then released.

Placed here because: Ep. 35: "It took place in the month of Rajab, 2 AH ... they arrived at Nakhla on the 30th of Rajab. The last day of Rajab."

At first, Allah commanded the Prophet ﷺ to pray facing Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), and he did so throughout his time in Makkah. Some books report that he would stand so that the Ka'bah was also in front of him, a kind of "double qibla." The qibla is the direction Muslims face in prayer. After he emigrated to Madinah, this was no longer possible. Madinah lies due north of Makkah, and Bayt al-Maqdis lies further north still. So to face Jerusalem from Madinah, he had to turn his back to the Ka'bah. When he first arrived, the Prophet ﷺ was hopeful about the Jews of Madinah. They believed in the same God and the same line of prophets, and in Paradise, Hell and the Day of Judgment. Their chief rabbi, Abdullah ibn Salam RA, had even accepted Islam. But as the Jews began to show open hostility, the Prophet ﷺ began to wish that he could face Makkah instead. He could not change the qibla by his own choice. It is narrated that he once said to Jibril AS, "O Jibril, I wish to pray facing Makkah." Jibril AS replied that he was only a servant who came by Allah's command, and that the Prophet ﷺ should ask Allah through du'a. So the Prophet ﷺ began to make du'a earnestly, by night and by day. He even looked up to the sky as he prayed, something he did only at times of great distress. Allah then revealed Qur'an 2:144, which told him to turn towards Masjid al-Haram in Makkah. Further verses on the change followed, and they now open the second juz (part) of the Qur'an. The change confused the Jews, some Muslims and the pagans of Makkah alike. This was the first time Allah had replaced one ruling with another, a concept called abrogation (naskh), so the idea itself was new. Some of the Jews openly mocked the change. Allah answered that true piety is not about which direction a person faces (2:177). He also told the Prophet ﷺ that no amount of proof would make the People of the Book follow the Muslims' qibla, and that the Muslims would not follow theirs (2:145). The Companions also asked about those who had died while praying towards Bayt al-Maqdis. They wanted to know whether those prayers would be accepted. Allah revealed that He would never let their faith go to waste (2:143). Imam Bukhari later pointed out that in this verse Allah called their prayer "faith." Scholars used it as evidence that prayer (salah) cannot be separated from faith (iman).

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 34 places it "before the Battle of Badr [which will happen in a few months]"; the sources put it fifteen to sixteen months after the Hijrah, so after Nakhla and before Ramadan.

Badr is a well on a plain about 130 km south-west of Madinah, where the road to Syria runs. It was named after the man of the Banu Damra who dug it. The battle fought there on Friday, 17 Ramadan 2 AH, was never meant to be a battle. In the year since the Hijrah, permission to fight had come down. The Muslims had begun to strike at the one thing that made the Quraysh what they were. That was their caravan road, which ran past Madinah. First came the expedition to al-Abwa, then the raid that saw the first arrow shot in the way of Allah, then al-Ushayra. At al-Ushayra, the Prophet ﷺ missed Abu Sufyan's great caravan, on its way north, by a single day. Then came Nakhla, where eight men killed a man of the Quraysh in the sacred month. That handed the Quraysh a grievance. Abu Jahl had once threatened Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA at the Ka'bah for sheltering the Muslims. Sa'd had then sworn in front of the Ka'bah to cut the Quraysh off from their trade, which was dearer to them than tawaf. Shortly before the battle, the qibla turned from Jerusalem to Makkah. Ibn Ishaq places this in Sha'ban. In Ramadan the same caravan was due back from Syria, led by Abu Sufyan. By some reports it had a thousand camels. It carried the money and goods of the Quraysh, and Ibn Ishaq says that thirty or forty men guarded it. The Prophet ﷺ sent out scouts. According to Muslim, one scout, Busaysah, brought his report to a house where only the boy Anas RA was present. Other reports name Talha ibn Ubaydillah RA and Sa'id ibn Zayd RA as the scouts, and Ibn Ishaq names Basbas ibn Amr and Adiy ibn Abi al-Zaghba' as the two sent ahead to Badr. The Prophet ﷺ then told the people that anyone whose mount was ready should ride with him at once. He would not wait for those whose animals were grazing outside the town. In Ibn Ishaq's telling, he named the Quraysh caravan as the target when he called them out. It was meant to be a quick seizure, so the men came as they were. There were around 313 or 315 of them. Of these, 83 were Muhajirun, 62 were from the Aws and 170 were from the Khazraj. By one report they had two horses, which belonged to Zubayr RA and al-Miqdad RA. Ali RA said that al-Miqdad was their only horseman. They had seventy camels, with three men sharing each one. In Ibn Mas'ud RA's report, the Prophet ﷺ shared his camel with Ali RA and Abu Lubaba RA. Ibn Ishaq names Ali RA and Marthad ibn Abi Marthad RA instead. His two companions begged him to ride. He answered that they were no stronger than he was, and that he needed the reward no less than they did. He judged al-Bara' ibn Azib RA and Abdullah ibn Umar RA too young to fight. Hudhayfah RA and his father were held back for another reason. The Quraysh had once made them swear never to fight against Muhammad ﷺ, and an oath is an oath, even to an enemy. A pagan of Madinah, famous for his courage, asked three times to join. He was refused twice, because the Muslims do not seek help from an idolater, until he took the shahada. The blind Ibn Umm Maktum stayed behind in Madinah. By one report, Abu Lubaba RA was sent back from the road to take charge of the city. Abu Sufyan had been on his guard since al-Ushayra. He found the scouts' campsite and broke open the camel droppings. Inside he recognised the date stones of Yathrib. He turned the caravan down to the coast road, and sent Damdam ibn Amr al-Ghifari racing to Makkah. Three days before Damdam arrived, Atikah bint Abdul Muttalib had a dream. In it, a crier on a camel called the Quraysh traitors and promised them death in three days. Then a rock rolled down from Abu Qubays and shattered against every house in the city. Her brother al-Abbas told her to keep the dream to herself. But he told one friend about it, and before long Abu Jahl was sneering at the Banu Abdul Muttalib for producing a prophetess. On the third day Damdam rode in. His camel's nose was slit and his shirt was torn, and he was crying out that Muhammad ﷺ was upon the caravan. Makkah raised an army at speed. Every household sent a man or hired one to go. By some reports the army set out 1,300 strong, with a hundred horses and six hundred coats of mail. Umar RA's report in Muslim and Ahmad says that it stood at Badr about a thousand strong. Abu Lahab stayed behind and paid a man who owed him money to go in his place. By some reports Utbah ibn Rabi'ah did not want to fight his own kin, until his brother Shaybah shamed him into it. The same reports say that Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt had once spat in the Prophet ﷺ's face and had been promised death outside Makkah. He did not dare to go until a kinsman lent him the fastest camel in the city. Umayyah ibn Khalaf, fat and fearful, meant to stay at home. According to al-Bukhari, Abu Jahl told him that if the chief of the valley stayed, the people would stay too. According to Ibn Ishaq, Uqba brought him an incense burner and told him to perfume himself, because he belonged with the women. Umayyah then bought the best camel in Makkah. He told his wife that he meant to go only a short way. Every one of these men was on the list the Prophet ﷺ had named in his prayer on the day the entrails were thrown on his back. By one report, before they marched, the Quraysh held the curtains of the Ka'bah. They asked Allah to give victory to the better of the two parties. The Qur'an says that this prayer was answered, against them. Outside Makkah the army nearly turned back. They were afraid that the Banu Bakr would raid the empty city. Then Iblis himself came to them in the shape of Suraqa ibn Malik, a chief of Kinanah. He promised them his protection and rode with them. At Juhfa, Juhaym ibn al-Salt of the Banu al-Muttalib had a dream. In it a crier named Utbah, Shaybah, Abu Jahl and Umayyah among the dead. He also saw a camel stabbed in the chest, whose blood spattered every tent. Abu Jahl scoffed that here was another prophet from the Banu al-Muttalib. Then a messenger arrived from Abu Sufyan. He said that the caravan was safe and that the army should go home. Abu Jahl said they would go on to Badr anyway. They would camp there for three days, drink and be sung to, and let all Arabia hear that the Quraysh feared no one. Al-Akhnas ibn Shariq told the Banu Zuhrah to lay the charge of cowardice on him and go home. They did, and so did Talib ibn Abi Talib with some others. Meanwhile the Muslims had begun to hear of an army. The Prophet ﷺ had been shown in a dream that he would fight. By some reports he asked them twice what they thought of meeting the Quraysh instead of the caravan. Twice they answered that they had come for a caravan, with no armour and no supplies. The Qur'an records this reluctance, yet still calls them nothing but believers. The Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr RA went scouting themselves. They met an old Bedouin and got from him the exact positions of both the Muslims and the Quraysh. All they told him about themselves was that they were "from water". Then two water carriers of the Quraysh were caught. When the boys said they were from the army, the Companions beat them. The beating went on until the boys said they were from the caravan. The Prophet ﷺ finished his prayer and told the Companions that they had beaten the boys for telling the truth, and let the lie stand. He asked the boys how many camels the Quraysh slaughtered each day. They said nine or ten, and he said the army was nine hundred to a thousand strong. The boys then named its leading men, Utbah, Shaybah, Abu Jahl and Umayyah. The Prophet ﷺ told the Companions that Makkah had thrown them the pieces of its liver. He also pointed to the places on the ground where each of those men would fall. Earlier, at Dhafiran, news had come that the Quraysh had marched, and he had asked the army for its advice. Abu Bakr spoke and sat down. Umar RA spoke and sat down. Then al-Miqdad said that they would not speak as the Children of Israel had spoken to Musa. Instead they would fight at his right and his left, in front of him and behind him. Still the Prophet ﷺ asked again. At last Sa'd ibn Mu'adh understood that he was waiting to hear from the Ansar. In Muslim's report it was Sa'd ibn Ubadah. The Ansar's pledge at Aqaba had been to defend him in Madinah, not to march out to war. Sa'd told him to go wherever he wished. If he rode them into the sea, they would follow him, and perhaps Allah would show him through them something to comfort his eyes. The Prophet ﷺ was delighted. He told them to go forward, because Allah had promised him one of the two parties. It was as though he could already see the enemy lying slain. The Muslims reached the water of Badr before the Quraysh. Al-Hubab ibn al-Mundhir RA asked whether this campsite had been chosen by revelation, or was simply a soldier's choice. He was told it was a soldier's choice. So he proposed camping beyond the wells, so that the water lay behind the Muslims and the enemy had only what they carried. The Prophet ﷺ took his advice. The other wells were stopped up, and a cistern was built and filled for the Muslims. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh had a shelter built, from which the Prophet ﷺ could watch the field. That night a light rain fell. It firmed the sand on the Muslim side and, by some reports, drenched the Quraysh. Ali said that all the Companions slept except the Prophet ﷺ. He prayed under a tree until dawn: "O Allah, if this band perishes, You will not be worshipped on earth." While he dozed, he was shown the enemy as few in number. The Qur'an says that this spared the Muslims from quarrelling and despair. At dawn on the 17th he drew the army up in ranks. He straightened the lines with an arrow in his hand. When he prodded Suwad RA in the belly, Suwad demanded his right to retaliate. The Prophet ﷺ bared his own stomach, and Suwad kissed it. Suwad said that if he was to die, he wanted his skin to have touched the Prophet ﷺ's. He had given the flag to Mus'ab ibn Umayr RA. Two black banners were carried, one by Ali and one by a man of the Ansar. He put Qays ibn Abi Sa'sa'a RA in charge of the rearguard. He also ordered that certain men were not to be killed. These were al-Abbas and the Banu Hashim who had been dragged out to fight, and Abu al-Bukhturi, who had helped to break the boycott. Across the plain the Prophet ﷺ saw a man on a red camel riding up and down the lines of the Quraysh. He said that if there was any good in them, it was in that man. The man was Utbah. He was offering to pay the blood money for Amr al-Hadrami, the man killed at Nakhla. He pleaded with the Quraysh not to kill their own sons and brothers, but to leave Muhammad ﷺ to the other Arabs. Hakim ibn Hizam carried the offer to Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl mocked Hakim as Utbah's errand boy. He stirred up al-Hadrami's brother, and called Utbah a coward who had lost his nerve at the sight of the Muslims. Utbah had told them they could blame him for cowardice, but he could not bear to hear it from Abu Jahl. He called for his brother and his son. The Quraysh scout Umayr ibn Wahab reported three hundred men with nothing but their swords. He warned that not one of them would die without taking a man of the Quraysh with him. By one report, Abu Jahl told him that no one had asked his opinion. As the armies closed in, Abu Jahl prayed aloud. He asked Allah to destroy whichever army had cut the ties of kinship and brought a strange religion. It was another prayer against himself. Al-Aswad ibn Abd al-Asad swore to drink from the Muslims' cistern or die trying. Hamzah RA cut him down at the water. He was the first man killed at Badr. Then Utbah, Shaybah and al-Walid ibn Utbah stepped out and called for champions to face them. Three young men of the Ansar answered. They were Awf and Muawwidh, the sons of Afra', and Abdullah ibn Rawahah RA. The Quraysh waved them away. They said they had no quarrel with them, and asked for their equals instead. So the Prophet ﷺ sent Ubaydah ibn al-Harith RA, Hamzah and Ali. In Ibn Ishaq's account, Hamzah and Ali killed Shaybah and al-Walid at once. Ubaydah and Utbah struck each other down, and Utbah cut off Ubaydah's leg. Then the other two turned and killed Utbah. Ali RA's own report in Abu Dawud pairs them differently. In it Hamzah faced Utbah, Ali faced Shaybah, and Ubaydah and al-Walid wounded each other. Ubaydah died of his wound at al-Safra on the way home. This duel is the Qur'an's "two adversaries who dispute about their Lord". The Prophet ﷺ faced the qibla and raised his hands to the sky. He pleaded for the help he had been promised, until his cloak fell from his shoulders. Abu Bakr put it back on him. He told him that it was enough, and that his Lord would give what He had promised. According to Muslim, Allah then revealed that He would help them with a thousand angels. Ibn Ishaq says that the Prophet ﷺ dozed in the shelter and then woke. He told Abu Bakr to be of good cheer. He said that Jibril was there, holding a horse by the rein and leading it, with dust on his front teeth. A thousand angels were coming in file. The Prophet ﷺ recited the verse "the host will be routed and turn their backs". Umar is reported to have said that he had not understood this verse until that morning. Then the Prophet ﷺ took up a handful of pebbles. He threw them at the Quraysh, saying "may these faces be disfigured". By reports in the tafsir, every one of them got grit in his eyes. The Qur'an says that it was not he who threw, but Allah. What happened next can only be told through the dozen stories the Companions left behind. The Prophet ﷺ called on them to rise up to a Paradise as wide as the heavens and the earth. Umayr ibn al-Humam RA was chewing dates at the time. He said that if he lived long enough to finish them, that would be too long a life. He threw them down and fought until he was killed. The Muslims held back their arrows until the enemy was in range. They kept their swords sheathed until the enemy was upon them. Ali said that the Prophet ﷺ was the closest of them all to the enemy. By another report, Ali said he found the Prophet ﷺ three times in his shelter, in prostration, crying "O Living, O Sustaining", with Abu Bakr at his side. The Prophet ﷺ moved between the two. Iblis saw the angels and ran. Al-Harith ibn Hisham grabbed at the man he took for Suraqa, and was thrown onto his back. A mursal report in the Muwatta' tells what the Prophet ﷺ said about this. Satan is never more humiliated than on the day of Arafah, he said, except for what Satan was shown on the day of Badr. On that day he saw Jibril arranging the angels in ranks. Some Companions heard a rider above them urging on his horse, Haizum. They saw the pagan in front of them lose his head before their own blow landed. The man who captured al-Abbas was a slightly built man of the Ansar. Al-Abbas insisted that he had been taken by a handsome horseman on a piebald horse. The Prophet ﷺ told the Ansari to be quiet, because an angel had helped him. By one report the angels wore yellow turbans like Zubayr's, while Ibn Ishaq's report from Ibn Abbas RA says their turbans were white. Ukasha ibn Mihsan RA broke his sword. He was handed a stick of wood, and found a blade in his hand. By a report with a broken chain, Abu Ubaydah RA kept away from his father, Abdullah ibn al-Jarrah. In the end the old man came at him, and Abu Ubaydah killed him. The closing verse of Surah al-Mujadilah came down about him. It says that no believer loves those who fight Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, even if they are his father. Abu al-Bukhturi refused to be taken prisoner without his friend. He was killed by a man of the Ansar who had tried to spare him. The three men of the duel were the father, uncle and brother of Abu Hudhayfah RA. He said aloud that the Muslims were killing their own kin while the Prophet ﷺ's uncle went untouched. He regretted those words until he died at Yamamah. Two boys of the Ansar had each asked Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf RA to point out Abu Jahl. One was Mu'adh ibn Amr ibn al-Jumuh RA. The other was a son of Afra', called Mu'adh in al-Bukhari and Muawwidh in Ibn Ishaq. When Abd al-Rahman pointed him out, the boys went through the crowd like hawks. Mu'adh leapt and cut off Abu Jahl's leg. It cost him his own arm to Ikrimah's sword, so he tore the arm off and fought on without it. Muawwidh struck the second blow. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud RA was the shepherd whom Abu Jahl had despised. He found Abu Jahl dying and put a foot on his neck. To the end, Abu Jahl said that a man killed by his own people was not disgraced, and that Ibn Mas'ud was standing on a high place. Ibn Mas'ud's own sword had been blunted by the day's fighting, so he took Abu Jahl's sword and finished him with it. By a report with a weak chain in Ahmad, the Prophet ﷺ made Ibn Mas'ud swear three times before going to look for himself. He called Abu Jahl the Pharaoh of this community. Umayyah ibn Khalaf begged his old friend Abd al-Rahman to take him and his son prisoner. He said he was worth more than the coats of mail Abd al-Rahman was carrying. Then Bilal RA saw the man who had tortured him on the sand of Makkah. He called out to the Ansar, and Umayyah and his son died under their spears. Abd al-Rahman was wounded in the foot trying to shield them. Umayyah's body was the only one that could not be moved to the well. It came apart when they lifted it, so they covered it with stones where it lay. Seventy of the Quraysh were dead and about seventy were taken prisoner. That was one man in seven of their army. Fourteen or fifteen Muslims had been killed, and none were taken. The Quraysh fled by the one road the Muslims had left open. The Prophet ﷺ stayed on the field for three days, to bury the martyrs and to make it plain who had won. The Quraysh dead, all except Umayyah, were thrown into a dry well and covered over. On the third day, before leaving, the Prophet ﷺ stood at the mouth of the well. He called the dead by name, Utbah, Shaybah, al-Walid, Abu Jahl and Umayyah. He asked whether they had found their Lord's promise true, for he had found his Lord's promise true. Umar asked how he could speak to bodies without souls. He answered that they heard him no worse than the living did, though they could not reply. While still on the field, the Companions had already started arguing over the spoils. The men who gathered the spoils, the men who chased the enemy and the Prophet ﷺ's bodyguard each claimed the better right. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas RA asked for the sword he had won. Then the opening verses of Surah al-Anfal came down there, saying that the spoils belong to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. Every man received an equal share. Shares also went to some who had been kept away on duty. Among them was Uthman RA, who was nursing his dying wife Ruqayyah. Looking over the prisoners, the Prophet ﷺ spoke of Mut'im ibn Adi, who had recently died. He said that if Mut'im had asked him for these prisoners, he would have freed every one of them. This was because of the shelter Mut'im had given him after Ta'if. Abu Bakr advised taking ransom, since the prisoners were their kin. Umar advised giving each Companion his own kinsman to kill. The Prophet ﷺ compared the first to Ibrahim and Isa, and the second to Nuh and Musa. He chose ransom. The next day Umar found him and Abu Bakr weeping under a tree, because of verses that had come down. The verses said that no prophet should take captives before he has subdued the land. They also said that but for a prior decree, a punishment would have touched them. Two prisoners were executed on the road home. One was al-Nadr ibn al-Harith, who had mocked the Qur'an as old fables that he could improve on. The other was Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt. Uqba asked who would look after his children, and the answer he was given was the Fire. Their execution was the only time captives of Badr were put to death. Zayd ibn Harithah RA carried the news to Lower Madinah, naming the dead one by one. Abdullah ibn Rawahah RA took it to Upper Madinah. By some reports Zayd was riding the Prophet ﷺ's own camel, and people thought he was mad. Abdullah ibn Ubayy heard him and said that the matter was now settled. The hypocrisy of Madinah dates from that day. Uthman heard the shouting just as he finished burying Ruqayyah. The prisoners were lodged with the men who had captured them. The captors were ordered to treat them well. They gave the prisoners their bread, and ate dates themselves. Suhayl ibn Amr was kept in the Prophet ﷺ's own house. There Sawda RA saw the chief of the Quraysh tied up in a corner, and cried out that he should have died a noble death. When the Prophet ﷺ rebuked her, she said she could not contain herself. Each man's ransom was set according to his means. The poor were freed for nothing. According to Ahmad, some who had nothing to pay with were freed for teaching the children of the Ansar to write. Al-Abbas protested that he was a Muslim. He was told that Allah knew his heart, but he had fought. Then he was told where he and Umm al-Fadl had set money aside when no one else was present. So he paid for himself, and for Aqil and Nawfal too. By one report, he used to say that Allah had given him twenty merchants in return for those twenty ounces. Abu Sufyan refused to pay for his son Amr, having already lost another son on the field. Later he kidnapped an old Ansari pilgrim in Makkah to force an exchange. Abu al-As ibn al-Rabi' was ransomed with a necklace. Khadija RA had given it to her daughter Zaynab RA as a wedding gift. When the Prophet ﷺ saw it, his face changed. At his word the captors returned it, and Abu al-As went home on his promise to send Zaynab to Madinah. In Makkah, the first survivor to arrive was al-Haysaman al-Khuza'i. He listed so many dead nobles that Safwan ibn Umayyah tested him by asking about himself. Al-Haysaman told him that he had watched Safwan's father and brother die. The Quraysh banned wailing for the dead, so that the Muslims would take no pleasure in it. Al-Aswad ibn al-Muttalib, who had lost three sons, was overjoyed to hear a woman wailing. Then he learned that she was weeping for a camel. Abu Lahab heard from his nephew, Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, about men in white on piebald horses whom no one could withstand. Al-Abbas's slave Abu Rafi' said they were angels, and Abu Lahab beat him for it. Then Umm al-Fadl split Abu Lahab's head open with a tent pole. Within days he died of a foul sickness. According to a report in al-Tirmidhi, on the same day, far away, Rome defeated Persia, as Surah al-Rum had foretold. Years earlier, Abu Bakr had made a bet with a Makkan, Ubay ibn Khalaf, that this would happen within six years. The six years had passed, so Abu Bakr had already lost the bet. Within weeks, Umayr ibn Wahab came to Madinah with a poisoned sword to kill the Prophet ﷺ, and went home a Muslim. The Banu Qaynuqa told the Prophet ﷺ that he had beaten only men who knew nothing of war. They were besieged and sent out of Madinah. Jibril asked how the Muslims regarded those who had fought at Badr. He was told that they were the best of the Muslims. Jibril said that the angels regard the angels who were there in the same way.

Placed here because: Ep. 36: "the Prophet ﷺ left Madinah on the 12th of Ramadan in 2 AH." Ep. 38: "thus began the 17th of Ramadan in the 2nd year of the Hijrah ... And it was a Friday."

After the Battle of Badr, the Muslims took 70 prisoners back toward Madinah. Two of them were executed on the way. They were al-Nadr ibn al-Harith and Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt. The early biographer Ibn Ishaq calls them the "devils" (shayatin) of the Quraysh. Al-Nadr had mocked the Qur'an more than anyone, telling people he could tell them better stories. Uqba was the man who had thrown a camel's entrails on the Prophet ﷺ while he prayed, and who had tried to choke him. When Uqba was brought out, he asked why he had been singled out from all the others. Ali ibn Abi Talib RA told him it was because of his hostility to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. It is said that Ali RA carried out the execution.

Placed here because: Ep. 41 tells the two executions on the march back, before the army reaches Madinah.

Ruqayyah RA, the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ and wife of Uthman ibn Affan RA, passed away in Madinah. The Prophet ﷺ had told Uthman RA to stay behind from the Battle of Badr to nurse her. Uthman RA had just finished burying her at Baqi' al-Gharqad when he heard cries of takbir ("Allahu akbar") in the city. It was Zayd ibn Harithah RA arriving with news of the victory at Badr.

Placed here because: Ep. 41: "As Zayd ibn Harithah was coming into the city chanting takbir, Uthman ibn Affan was burying Ruqayyah RA ... And the Prophet ﷺ arrived back the same day, with the 70 prisoners."

When survivors of the Quraysh army began returning to Makkah with news of the crushing defeat at Badr, Abu Lahab refused to believe them. He had not fought at Badr himself. He insisted on hearing the account from Abu Sufyan ibn Harb. The two met at the house of Abu Lahab's brother al-Abbas, who was being held as a prisoner of war in Madinah. Al-Abbas's wife, Umm al-Fadl, and his household were at home. Abu Sufyan described how the Muslims had overpowered the Quraysh, killing and taking prisoners as they pleased. He said he had seen men with white faces on black-and-white horses, hovering between heaven and earth, whom no one could overpower. A slave of al-Abbas overheard this. He cried out with joy that these had been angels helping the Muslims. Abu Lahab was enraged to see the slave rejoicing at the defeat of the Quraysh. He threw him to the ground and beat him almost to death. When Umm al-Fadl tried to stop him, he began beating her too. She rebuked him for treating her husband's household this way while al-Abbas was away. Ashamed, Abu Lahab fled. Soon afterwards he was struck by a disease, and he died shortly after.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 42: Abu Lahab heard Abu Sufyan's account at al-Abbas's house, "and he was not seen after this; he died shortly after." Days, not weeks; exact date unknown.

In the weeks after Badr, Safwan ibn Umayyah sat in the Hijr, the open area beside the Ka'bah, with his cousin Umayr ibn Wahab al-Jumahi. Safwan's father and brother had both been killed at Badr. Umayr had been the scout of Quraysh on the morning of that battle. He had warned Abu Jahl that the Muslims would each kill at least one of the Quraysh before they fell. Now Umayr's own son was a prisoner in Madinah, and Umayr had not paid his ransom. Safwan cursed the new religion and the harm it had done them. Umayr said that if it were not for a debt he owed and a family he had to look after, he would go to Madinah himself and kill Muhammad ﷺ. Safwan came from a wealthy family, and he took Umayr up on it. He promised to pay Umayr's debt and to provide for Umayr's family just as he provided for his own. Umayr agreed, and asked him to keep the plan secret. Umayr went home, sharpened his sword and soaked it in poison. He rode to Madinah alone without telling anyone, not even his wife. He entered the city with his face covered like any traveller and his sword hanging from his neck, and went straight to the mosque. Umar recognised him by his eyes. He said aloud that this enemy of Allah had come with evil intent, and he went to warn the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ told Umar to bring the man in. Umar took his sword and escorted Umayr inside. The Prophet ﷺ told Umar to watch Umayr's every move, and Umar stood by with his hand on his sword. Umayr greeted the Prophet ﷺ with the old Arab greeting, "Good morning." The Prophet ﷺ told him that Allah had given the Muslims a better greeting, the salam, which is the greeting of the people of Paradise. He then asked Umayr why he had come. Umayr said he had come to ransom his son. The Prophet ﷺ asked what the sword around his neck was for. Umayr answered that swords had done them no good at Badr. The Prophet ﷺ asked him again to tell the truth, but Umayr stuck to his story. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, "Rather, you and Safwan were sitting alone in the Hijr and you mentioned your losses at Badr, and you said, were it not for your debt and your family, you would personally go and kill Muhammad ﷺ. So Safwan offered to take care of your debts and your family so that you may come to kill me. But Allah has come between you and your plans." No one else had been in the Hijr. Umayr had told no one, and he had taken the fastest road, so no rider could have reached Madinah before him. He realised there was only one way the Prophet ﷺ could know this. At once he said, "I testify that you are the Messenger of Allah ﷺ." He added that they used to reject the Prophet ﷺ when he said revelation came from the sky, but no one had known of this plan except him and Safwan. The Prophet ﷺ said to Umar, "Teach your brother about the religion, help him to memorize the Quran, and free his captive." Umayr stayed in Madinah for a while to learn. Before he left, he asked permission to go back to Makkah and call people to Islam, just as he had once pushed them away from it. He also wanted to defend the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions, as he had once harmed them. Ibn Ishaq says that many people became Muslim at his hands. Meanwhile in Makkah, Safwan had spent two weeks telling Quraysh that good news was coming. When he learned that Umayr had become Muslim, he vowed never to look at him, speak to him or sit under the same roof with him again. Umayr later made Hijrah to Madinah. Six years later, at the conquest of Makkah, Safwan fled the city, sure that he would not be forgiven. It was Umayr who went after Safwan with the Prophet ﷺ's promise of protection and brought him back. Safwan then said the shahada (the declaration of faith) in front of the man the two cousins had once plotted to kill.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 43 opens with Safwan and Umayr "whose father and brother had just died in Badr"; no date is given beyond shortly after the battle.

The Banu Qaynuqa were the largest of the three Jewish tribes of Madinah, with some seven hundred men. They were goldsmiths, and they had the biggest market in the city. They were also the first tribe to break with the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Ishaq gives the affair less than a page, as the early historians did with every such falling-out. He records only that after Badr they became openly hostile, and that the Muslim victory upset them. The Prophet ﷺ went to their market and gathered them together. He reminded them of the Constitution they had signed, under which each side would protect the other against outsiders. One of their leaders answered him to his face. He told the Prophet ﷺ not to be fooled by beating a handful of nobodies at Badr. If he had fought real men, men like them, he said, he would have seen a different result. Then a crude incident lit the fuse. An Ansari woman had sold her goods in the market, and sat down at a goldsmith's shop to buy something. The goldsmith kept pestering her to uncover herself, and she refused. He signalled to a man behind her, who pinned her garment so that it would fall away when she stood up. When she rose, she was left uncovered, and the men of the market laughed. She screamed for help. A Muslim man who was there drew his sword and killed the goldsmith. The Banu Qaynuqa, who were on their own ground, surrounded him and killed him. The Prophet ﷺ sent them word that the treaty was at an end. Islam does not break a treaty in secret. The Qur'an says that if you fear betrayal from a people, you should throw their treaty back to them openly. They did not expect him to do any more than that, because they trusted in their numbers and their walls. But he marched against them at once, and they shut themselves inside their fortress. The Muslims had no way of breaking in, so they cut off its supplies. After fifteen days the Banu Qaynuqa surrendered. The Prophet ﷺ had the men tied up while their fate was decided. Before Islam, the tribe had had two allies among the Khazraj, and they appealed to both of them. The first was Ubadah ibn al-Samit. He went straight to the Prophet ﷺ and renounced the alliance. He said that his protectors now were Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, and that he had cut his ties with the Banu Qaynuqa. The second was Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. He went to the camp where they were being held. He told the Companion guarding them to release them, or else he would do it himself. The guard told him that if he tried, he would be killed. So Ibn Ubayy went to find the Prophet ﷺ. He called him by his bare name, Muhammad ﷺ, as he always did, and asked him to be generous to his allies. The Prophet ﷺ said nothing. Ibn Ubayy asked again, and the Prophet ﷺ turned away. Then Ibn Ubayy pushed his hand into the neck of the Prophet ﷺ's armour and held on to him. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Let go of me." Ibn Ishaq says the anger showed in his face. Ibn Ubayy held on tighter, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Woe to you, let go of me." Ibn Ubayy swore that he would not let go until the Prophet ﷺ promised to treat them well. He said they were seven hundred men, three hundred of them in armour. They had protected him from every enemy, white and black, and was the Prophet ﷺ going to cut them down in a single morning? He said he was afraid of a turn of fortune. The Prophet ﷺ answered, "I give them to you." The Prophet ﷺ had never said he would kill them. But he gave Ibn Ubayy their lives in public, and there was wisdom in that. Ibn Ubayy was still the most respected chief of old Yathrib, and there was still hope for him. The verdict was that they had three days to leave Madinah. They begged for more time. They tried asking Ubadah, who told them he would not even have given them three. Ibn Ubayy tried again to have the sentence lifted, and failed. Ubadah escorted them out of the city. They took their gold and whatever else they could carry, and left the rest behind. What they left passed to the Muslims. Allah then revealed the verses of Surah al-Ma'idah about not taking Jews and Christians as protectors. The verses quote Ibn Ubayy's fear of a turn of fortune, putting it in the mouths of those with sickness in their hearts. They also praise the choice Ubadah had made, saying that your only protectors are Allah, His Messenger ﷺ and the believers. It was the lightest of the three punishments that the Jewish tribes of Madinah brought on themselves. And the true colours of the hypocrites had begun to show.

Placed here because: Ep. 43: "The Banu Qaynuqa, according to al-Waqidi, they were expelled on the 15th of Shawwal in the 2nd year of the Hijrah. Thus 3½ weeks after the Battle of Badr."

Abu al-As ibn al-Rabi' was the husband of Zaynab, the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ. Zaynab was a Muslim, but Abu al-As was not, and he had been taken prisoner at Badr. He was freed on condition that he send Zaynab back to her father. About a month after Badr, the Prophet ﷺ sent two companions to wait outside Makkah to receive her. Rumors spread in Makkah that Zaynab was about to leave. Hind bint Utbah, the wife of Abu Sufyan, visited her and offered to help her pack. Hind hoped to keep the Prophet ﷺ's daughter in Makkah as a hostage. Zaynab sensed that something was wrong and did not tell her of her plans. Zaynab's brother-in-law, Kinana, then led her out of Makkah on a camel in broad daylight. The news spread, and a party of the Quraysh caught up with them. One of them, Habbar ibn al-Aswad ibn al-Muttalib, thrust a spear at the camel. The camel reared, and Zaynab, who was pregnant, fell about 15 feet to the ground and miscarried. Kinana stood over her and threatened anyone who came near with his sword and his bow. The standoff lasted until Abu Sufyan ibn Harb arrived and calmed the situation. He told Kinana he had acted foolishly by taking her out so openly, and told him to wait a while and then take her quietly. A few days later, Kinana took her out in the middle of the night and handed her over to the two companions sent by the Prophet ﷺ. They brought her safely to Madinah.

Placed here because: Ep. 41: "One month after the Battle of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ sent two Companions to a certain place outside of Makkah ... And it turns out Zaynab RA was that visitor."

Several months after Badr, an elderly man of the Ansar named Sa'd ibn al-Nu'man travelled to Makkah to trade and to perform Umrah. He had nothing to do with the battle. Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the leader of the Quraysh, had refused to pay a ransom for his son Amr ibn Abi Sufyan, who had been captured at Badr. Now Abu Sufyan kidnapped Sa'd in broad daylight inside the Haram, the sacred precinct of Makkah, where even the Quraysh had always forbidden such acts. He said he would not release Sa'd until the Muslims released his son. Sa'd's tribe brought the matter to the Prophet ﷺ, who released Amr without ransom so that Sa'd could go free.

Placed here because: ~ The sources place it several months after Badr, once Abu Sufyan had refused to ransom his son; no closer date is given.