Quraysh had no such goals or ambitions.
6. WHAT WERE THE MAIN RESULTS OF BADR?
Badr represented the sweetest of the Muslims’ victories. It represented a turning point in the history of Islam, when the hard times experienced by the Muslims began to change for the better. It was a battle with the most far-reaching consequences.1
a. Quraysh military might was largely destroyed!
b. Their image in Arabia, especially among the power-conscious Bedouins, was considerably tarnished.
c. The Muslims of Madīnah gained tremendously in recognition and prestige, and were put in a much stronger position to pursue further the task of building a community and Ummah dedicated to the worship of God alone, as well as the realization of the ideals of brotherhood, justice and equality.
d. Although Badr did not mark the end of the military power of the Quraysh, nor even the end of their capacity to start fresh military hostilities, yet it considerably weakened their resolve and morale. The weakening of their general military strength would become apparent in their coming offensives against the Muslims.
e. The loss of such prominent Quraysh leaders such as Abū Jahl and ʿUtbah would be keenly felt, when the Quraysh planned the next expedition against the Muslims. Abū Jahl represented the motive force for the Quraysh whereas ʿUtbah represented their brainpower.
f. Moreover, the life-line of Quraysh trade was cut by the battle of Badr. No caravan could, after Badr, venture outside of Makkah. Yet the trade with Syria and the Mediterranean ports constituted the bulk of the Quraysh trade, an eventuality which also meant that their economic power was considerably weakened in the wake of Badr.
g. One of the important lessons of Badr is that the sheer number of troops is not the decisive factor in achieving victory. The Quraysh troops were three times as many as the Muslim troops. They were by far the better equipped and the better trained in the arts of warfare.
h. Although supernatural phenomena attended Badr, and God and His hosts and His angels were clearly on the Muslims’ side, yet that divine help and succour was not arbitrarily given. It was, in some sense, a consequence of the total dedication and steadfastness of the Muslims. It was a contingent of their faith, trust and total dependence upon their Lord. Their offerings, obedience and the love of God and His Messengers were important reasons why God’s help and victory, promised in the Qur’ān, were quite at hand, once the Muslims managed to come forward to the battleground of jihād.
i. Last but not least, Badr provides an example of a situation when war, ugly as it is, becomes absolutely justifiable. It becomes the ultimate measure and ultimate escape for the oppressed and the downtrodden. It provides them with their last chance to emancipate themselves, and get rid of their enemies and oppressors. A justifiable war is both a natural2 and decisive way to resolve a long drawn out struggle, when that struggle has reached an impasse and resists every attempt to resolve it peacefully.
7. THE AFTERMATH OF BADR
As the dust of the Battle of Badr settled, the astounding victory of the Muslims became clear, and the terrible defeat of the Quraysh was a material reality. The Muslims rejoiced, while the Quraysh wept profoundly over the demise of their best fighting force and the death of some of their most cherished leaders:
• ʿAmr ibn Hishām, leader of Banū Makhzūm.
• ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, leader of Banū ʿAbd al-Dār, the father of Hind and father-in-law of Abū Sufyān.
• Al-Walīd ibn ʿUtbah, brother of Hind.
• Shaybah ibn Rabīʿah, brother of ʿUtbah.
• Umayyah ibn Khalaf, an outstanding leader and elder statesman of the Quraysh.
• And many others.
The total number of those killed on the side of the Quraysh was seventy, according to Al-Wāqidī3 including the two men executed on the orders of the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself. Others fell captive to the Muslims, because they had committed the heinous crime of cursing the Messenger of God. The executed men were ʿUtbah ibn Abī Muʿādh and al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith.
ʿUtbah ibn Abī Muʿādh was the immediate neighbour of the Prophet (peace be upon him) at Makkah, before the Hijrah. He was the source of constant harassment to the Prophet(peace be upon him), and his Muslim Companions. He even forced his sons to divorce the daughters of the Prophet. He used to put dirt on the threshold of the Prophet, and one day, finding the Prophet (peace be upon him) prostrating in prayer, he put the afterbirth from a sheep on his head. He was generally active in the campaign to persecute and oppress the Muslims at Makkah. Likewise, al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith did a lot to hurt the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions at Makkah, before the Hijrah. He was a poet-propagandist who composed vile and vicious verses about the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions.
7.1 The Captives Well-Treated
Apart from these two cases, the Prophet (peace be upon him) ordered the Muslims to treat the captives well, especially his uncle al-ʿAbbās. Al-ʿAbbās, a long time friend of the Muslims and chief of Banū Hāshim, the traditional protectors of the Muslims at Makkah, had been forced to join the army of the Quraysh, marching to Badr. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb asked the Prophet’s permission to break the front teeth of Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, another vicious propagandist, who had given the Muslims a very hard time at Makkah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) refused to give such permission, saying: ‘I shall not mutilate anyone under any circumstances, lest God should mutilate me, even though I am His Prophet.’
7.2 Controversy Over the Captives of Badr
What to do about the captives of Badr, numbering about seventy, developed in an open controversy. On the one hand, the Prophet (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq favoured the view that the captives should be spared and ransom money accepted for their release. On the other hand, ʿUmar advocated that they should be killed. They were combatants of considerable strength, and if they were set free, what was the guarantee that they would not take the field against the Muslims once more, argued ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. But the tender-hearted Prophet (peace be upon him), and his principal minister and friend Abū Bakr, being of a very similar disposition himself, both abhorred the possibility of bloodshed. Further, many of the captives were related to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his larger family Banū Hāshim. There were al-ʿAbbās, his uncle, and Abū al-ʿĀṣ ibn al-Rabīʿ his own son in-law, the husband of his beloved Zaynab. The Prophet’s compassion towards the Hashimites was not
primarily a matter of nepotism or favouritism, it was prompted and dictated by such factual considerations as:
a. The favour which the Muslims owed to Hashimites who had protected and sided with them during their difficult and prolonged ordeal at Makkah.
b. The Prophet (peace be upon him) knew very well and appreciated the potential of the Quraysh, both as a military and as a diplomatic force in Arabia. He hoped and prayed that one day he would be able to use that potential in the battlefield to pacify Arabia and defend it once it swung under the control of Islam. The Prophet (peace be upon him) prophesied that the emergence of the political power of Islam in Arabia would provoke the enmity and opposition of the two superpowers of the day, ‘The Romans and the Persians.’ When that happened, as it was destined to happen, he would be in need of the power and the human resources of the Arab elite of the Quraysh.
c. Moreover, the money that they would get as a ransom was much needed and could be put to some very useful purposes.
d. Kind treatment and sparing the captives of the Quraysh was more conducive to the pacification of the Quraysh than their slaughter.
e. Having decided to spare the captives, the Prophet (peace be upon him) put them to the useful purpose of teaching the Muslims how to read and write. He accepted money as ransom from some