with the exception of a few cases, and thus continue to be the target of the aggression of their enemies. Worse still, the malicious, but very powerful and effective propaganda machines of these enemies are portraying them as terrorists and aggressors. So powerful and so effective is this campaign of the anti-Islamic mass media, that the Muslims are cowed into a passive defensive posture. Had they heeded the repeated calls of the Qur’ān to the legitimacy of jihād for the purposes of self-defence, and in defence of justice and liberty, and had they emulated the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him), they could not have found themselves in the pitiful state of affairs in which they are now living.
We end this chapter with the general conclusion to be drawn from the above discussion. Far from being apologetic or polemical, our construal of the Islamic theory of jihād and peace is that it should be considered the normal state of affairs for Muslims to peacefully coexist with the People of the Book in honour, dignity, mutual trust and reciprocated equality and friendship. But should the People of the Book revert to aggression and enmity, then it would be quite cowardly and reprehensible for the Muslims to shy away from the prospects of military engagement and confrontation. To clamour for peace in these circumstances is tantamount to an unconditional and cowardly surrender. It is in the light of such unfavourable conditions that we should understand the Qur’ān’s repeated calls to the Muslims, never to abandon the preparations for the engagement of their enemy under all circumstances of war and peace:
Make ready against them all that you can of (armed) force, and of horses tethered, that you may terrify thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not. [al-Anfāl 8:60]
Thus, jihād, in the broad sense of the word, which means to exert oneself to the utmost of one’s effort and ability, is a way of life for a Muslim community. It is to be followed in times of war and times of peace – particularly times of peace because it is an essential prerequisite of waging jihād in the narrow military sense. It is also a method for successful nation-building, which is based on the solid foundation of totally developed, trained and mobilized individuals. Underscoring this interpretation, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
Whosoever died and he never participated in a military campaign, nor told himself of such participation, he would die and a residue of hypocrisy still in his heart.7
The Prophet (peace be upon him) is also reported to have said:
Whenever a group of Muslims abandoned jihād, and became totally absorbed in cultivating the land and the raising of cattle, then God would impose humiliation and abasement upon them, and would not remove it, until they return to their religion, and be ready for jihād in self-defence.8
The Great Epic of Badr: An Astounding Victory of Islam
1. BADR, THE FIRST TASTE OF DECISIVE VICTORY
Badr, was no ordinary historical incident, nor was it an isolated event in the Prophet’s career. In a sense, no Islamic struggle will be complete or manage to achieve its final goal of victory over the forces of evil and unbelief without finding its Badr. Thus viewed, Badr becomes a permanent feature of the Prophetic paradigm of jihād, or struggle, in the way of God Almighty. In other words, Badr, is an essential stage in any genuine and successful Islamic struggle.
In order to help the reader grasp and appreciate the importance of Badr in the Prophet’s career, we must try to answer the following questions:
a. What were the reasons and causes that led to the Battle of Badr?
b. How did Badr take place?
c. What were the striking features of that fateful encounter with the Quraysh at Badr?
d. Why did the Muslims emerge victorious, and the Quraysh and the unbelievers defeated and humiliated?
e. What were the most decisive consequences of that battle?
f. What lessons and morals can the student of history draw from it?
2. THE CAUSES OF BADR
As to the causes that made Badr inevitable, they are not difficult to seek. Badr was the logical culmination of the Islamic daʿwah and movement, initiated by the Prophet (peace be upon him) some fourteen hundred years ago in Makkah. Every event and development in the struggle that ensued between the Muslims and the Quraysh, because of the inception of Islam, was building in the direction of Badr: the challenge and provocation posed by the new Islamic world-view to the vested interests of the Quraysh, and to their vantage position in pre-Islamic Arabia; the conflict that ensued between the two parties; the eviction of the Muslims from Makkah; together with the appropriation of their wealth and homes; the hijrah to Madīnah; and last but not least, the Qur’ānic permission for the Muslims to fight back, revealed immediately after the hijrah to Madīnah; all these events were building up towards Badr. Before the granting of permission, the Muslims could not engage their adversaries in the battlefield. The permission to fight back was immediately followed by other Qur’ānic verses, exhorting Muslims to fight back in self defence and instituting jihād as a permanent major strategy of the Muslims’ struggle against evil and unbelief. These other Qur’ānic revelation verses made it clear, that evil and unbelief were not passing features of reality, but a permanent one. Moreover, the encounter with evil is inevitable, because evil forces are, by their very nature, aggressive, uncompromising and provocative. They seek to eradicate goodness and godliness from life by every possible means in their possession. The efforts to avoid a showdown with evil forces are futile, because they sooner or later will enforce such a showdown, unless the forces of righteousness surrender to them; God forbid.
The Prophet’s expeditions and sarāyā, which are discussed in the first chapter, perfectly prepared the ground for Badr. The trade routes of the Quraysh were effectively blocked or interrupted. With the Quraysh commerce disrupted, many Bedouin tribes, especially the powerful Khuzā‘ah, though still unbelievers, were won over to the side of the Prophet (peace be upon him), as allies against the Quraysh. Meanwhile, the Muslims’ exodus from Makkah was successfully completed and their nascent state in Madīnah was secured, not merely as a set of rules or laws, or even as a set of formal institutions and policies, but firmly established in the hearts and minds of the vast majority of the inhabitants of the city, notwithstanding the enmity of the Madīnan Jews and Hypocrites.
However, the immediate cause of the Battle of Badr was the Muslims’ pursuit of a Quraysh commercial caravan, coming from Syria, and led by none other than Abū Sufyān himself. Abū Sufyān, the head of the Quraysh opposition to Islam, managed to dodge his Muslim pursuers and arrived safely, with the caravan intact, in Makkah.
When he arrived in Makkah, Abū Sufyān found the Makkans fully alerted, and mobilized for war against the Muslims, having received news about the Muslim offensive against their caravan. He was there in time to join the army, in fact to assume its command.
3. HOW DID THE BATTLE TAKE PLACE?
The original pledge the Madīnans gave to the Prophet (peace be upon him) was just to defend him against any attack. The situation had changed. So, the Prophet (peace be upon him) called a Shūrā Council. He asked: ‘O People! Give me your counsel.’ One by one, the leaders of Muhājirīn spoke supporting the Prophet (peace be upon him), and assuring him of their ability to fight the Quraysh and defeat them. Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and al-Miqdād ibn ʿAmr, all of them spoke very enthusiastically
