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 of them, but asked the Muslims’ permission to set his son-in-law free without ransom, because he had nothing to offer except a necklace, which his wife, Zaynab, managed to produce, but which originally belonged to Khadījah, the Prophet’s much beloved senior wife.
The whole affair of the captives was settled in accordance with the Prophet’s opinion, and they were all set free, eventually. But the matter was not let to rest, at that level. Qur’ānic verses were revealed later (see below) which, in effect, approved of ʿUmar’s position that all the combatants among the captives be killed, with the exception of the Hashimites relatives of the Prophet (peace be upon him), especially al-ʿAbbās, because of their earlier service to Muslims.
7.3 The Qur’ān Comments on the Issue of War Captives
The Qur’ānic comment on the captives’ question is as follows:
It does not behave a Prophet to hold war captives, until he makes wide slaughter in the land; you desire the passing goods of this world, and Allah desires (for you) the Hereafter, and Allah is All-Mighty, All-wise. [al-Anfāl 8:67]
This verse must have been severe for the Muslims, because it had in clear and unambiguous language exposed a typical human weakness in some of the Badr fighters, namely the love of the passing goods of this world. That some of the Badr referees suffered from this typical human weakness, was amply demonstrated in two occasions during the march to Badr.
a. Firstly, some of them strongly disliked the possibility of having to clash with the Quraysh in the battlefield, as if they are being driven to death, their eyes wide open.
b.
