Or do they say: We acting together can defend ourselves? Soon will their multitude be put to flight, and they will show their backs. Nay, the Hour {of Judgement} is the time promised them {For their full recompense}: And that Hour will be most grievous and bitter. [Surah Al-Qamar verses 44-46]. The importance of the Battle of Badr cannot be over-estimated. In the long chain of significant events in the history of our Beloved Nabee Muhammad Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallams struggle against the Makkan oppressors, it was an event after which the early Muslim community felt itself free to make rapid advances. Badr represented the first major test to the new and nascent organization founded by our Beloved Nabee Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam at Madinah. The causes that led to the battle have been variously explained by western writers. According to European scholars, the apparent cause was the murder of Amr bin Hadrami, a Makkan businessman. Another reason for the march of the Makkan force on Madinah was, as the critics allege, the Prophet Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallams plan to intimidate the Quraysh into submission through waylaying their caravans returning from Syria. If this were accepted to be true, the whole of the Islamic movement launched by Almighty Allahs Beloved Nabee Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam and his illustrious companions would then be misunderstood, as has been the case with biased historians. Let us here try to save real history from being ignored and falsified and bring together the ingredients of the story of the battle as well as its causes and effects. The primary cause of the contest of the second year of the Hijrah, lay in the determination of the Quraysh to destroy the resettled Muslim community. It will be recalled that the Makkan tyrants had not only confined themselves to mere opposition to our Beloved Nabee Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallams message but also chastised his followers, boycotted him and his family, persuaded the Nagus of Abyssinia to extirpate the Muslim refugees and then made an attempt on the life of Rahmatul Liel Alameen. As is known, our Beloved Nabee Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam shifted to Madinah from where an invitation had been served to him and to which place the faithful had gone to seek shelter with the Ansar [the helpers]. Subsequently, the stalwarts of Makkah, including the accursed Abu Jahl and others, had decided not to permit them to live in peace. In fact, ever since the Emigration, they were anxiously looking for an opportunity to cause trouble and extirpate Islam with the sword. Moreover, they were united in seeking the extinction of Nabee Muhammad Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallams mission and his devotees, who were reported to have prospered in a congenial atmosphere. If allowed to continue, the Makkans apprehended the Muslims would pose a serious threat to the prestige of the Quraysh, their gods and goddesses. They started issuing intimidating letters, sending raiding detachments and then making preparations for actual war. The first in the series of their acts was to address letters to Abdullah ibn Ubay, later called the hypocrite, asking him to kill the Muslims or expel them or otherwise be ready to face an invasion and the enslavement of the Medinite women. Ibn Ubay, however, was unable to fulfil the demand due to various reasons. In about the same period, Saad bin Muaz, the chief of the tribe of Aws visited the Kabah to perform the customary circuit. He was seen by Abu Jahl in the company of Umayyah bin Khalf. Abu Jahl informed Saad that had he not been with Umayyah, he would not have been permitted to come there and return alive for he and his people had given refuge to the Sabis [meaning apostates as the Muslims were called by the Quraysh. Saad retorted that if this were the attitude of the Makkans, their caravans plying between Makkah and Syria would no longer enjoy the right of free passage between Madinah and the coast. As for directing well- armed raiders, the chief instance is that of Karz bin Jabir Fahri, a Qurayshite leader, who attacked Madinah and lifted the livestock belonging to the Prophet Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam and the people. He was pursued but could not be caught. Thus, small parties of the Quraysh used to go out on marauding expeditions and scour the country right up to Madinah. Nourishing aggressive designs from the very beginning, the Quraysh aimed to give a decisive blow to the thriving body of Islam. They needed military equipment, material strength and friendly environs. At first they approached their old rivals, Banu Kananah, to get an assurance from them that they would not attack Makkah and to seek their support. One of the Banu Kananah chiefs, Suraqa bin Malik by name, promised the Quraysh both peace and assistance. They also enlisted mercenaries from the Ahabish living near the Habshi mountain adjacent to Makkah. As for the expenses of the war, it was hoped that these could be met with the income accruing from the seasonal caravan to be sent with Abu Sufyan as its leader. The sharers in the present enterprise were not only the usual participants in trade but also men and women not interested in commercial feats. It was thereby aimed that all the profits received from the transactions in Syria would be employed in planning and effecting the destruction of Islam. This much should reveal the mind of the Makkan perpetrators working against Nabee Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam and his companions. Right from the inception of the Islamic movement, the Prophet Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam and his followers were on the defensive. What they had been aiming at throughout was to peacefully propagate Rabbul Alameens message and to save their own lives from molestation. They migrated to Abyssinia and to Madinah, while the Nabee Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam and Hazrat Abubaker Radhiallahu Taala Anhu was the last to move. There was no doubt that the Muslims felt comfortable at Madinah but soon they discovered that opposition was brewing within and outside the city. At home, the hypocrites led by Abdullah bin Ubay and the Jewish conspirators were meaning mischief. Outside the town, the Quraysh were inciting the population living between Madinah and Makkah. Simultaneously, they were preparing themselves for the fateful contest.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:06:30 +0000