Battle of Badr: A Matter of Clear Evidence and Clear Choice
So, that is what the issue was: it was Freedom of Conscience and Human Liberty. It was not an issue for the Seventh Century only, but it was an issue for all time. And it was not an issue for Arabia only, but it was an issue for the whole world.
So, Badr was a crucible of faith, freedom and reason for the whole world and for all of humanity – for all time to come.
That is why even when many Muslims did not want to engage, and were inclined to take the easier way out, God forced them into battle – the Battle of Badr – so that God could accomplish, at their hands, a matter that had been “enacted” by God’s Eternal Pen on the Timeless Divine Tablet of God’s Eternal Will.
Listen to God say it in the Qur’an:
Kamaa Akhrajaka Rabbuka Min Bayitika Bil-Haqqi wa Inna Fareeqan Minal Mu’mineena La-Kaarihoon (Anfaal: 5).
Paraphrase:
“Just as your God made you come out of your homes in the pursuit of truth, even though a group among the Believers were resentful of it” (8:5).
So, that is what the Battle of Badr was all about.
Battle of Badr: A War God Wanted
It was clearly a war that God wanted, even though evidently there were people among the Believers, who were not inclined to it.
And it was God who got Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and his Believer Followers, the Muslims, out of their homes to prosecute that war.
It turns out that the Non-Believers of Makkah picked a fight, in this case, not just with Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and his Believer Followers, the Muslims, but with God Almighty himself.
Dhaalika Bi-Annahum Shaaqqullaha wa Rasulahu, wa Man Yushaaqiqillaha wa Rasulahu, Fa-Innallaha Shadeedul Iqaab (Anfaal, 13).
Paraphrase:
They picked a fight with God and his Messenger (Yusuf Ali: they contended against God), and those who pick a fight with God and his Messenger, God’s punishment of them shall surely be most severe (8:13).
So far as God was concerned, this war was a personal war. Muslims were merely the instruments of God’s choice in this matter – some of them reluctantly so.
So, God launched this war at Badr to decide forever the matter of Right and Wrong and to punish those who were giving God and his Messenger a hard time – Yushaaqiqillaha wa Rasulahu.
Quraish Seeking War
So it came out that the Non-Believers of Quraish would not sit still. They wanted war.
However, what Non-Believers of Quraish did not know was that it was not they who were really making the decisions in this matter. That time for them was long passed – the time when they had any choice in saving themselves and salvaging their own fate.
Now, they were being inexorably pushed and pulled in the direction of war. Not by Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and his Believer Followers, the Muslims.
But by God Almighty himself.
They were now being driven like sheep to their slaughterhouse. Not one of them could stay back or opt out or escape their pre-ordained fate.
For, the places of their slaying on the battlefield of Badr had all been picked and marked by God and those places had been identified and pointed out to his followers by Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, prior to the commencement of the Battle.
Quraish Invade Madinah
As a result, the Non-Believers of Quraish invaded Madinah vowing to destroy the fledgling new free Muslim society and Democratic Islamic State of Madinah.
Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, after due consultation with his followers, whom he referred to as his companions and colleagues, came out of the city limits of Madinah and met the invading army of the Non-Believers of Quraish on the plains of Badr.
The Non-Believers of Quraish were more than 1000 in number – a large and imposing army by the standard of those days. And they were well armed and well equipped. They had an abundance of logistics, supplies and resources in their possession. And there were many famous and feared warriors among them.
The forces that Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, lined up against them numbered no more than 313 with barely a horse or two among them. But that was practically everything Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, could manage at that time.
And they placed it all at God’s disposal to do as he pleased.
It was a scorching Saturday, March 13, 624 (Christian) and Ramadan 17, 2 (Hijri).
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and his followers, the Muslims, were hungry, thirsty and fasting. They were ill-fed, inadequately clad and meagerly equipped.
But they had brought to the front everything they owned.
Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, in Prayer and Prostration
Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, then threw himself on the ground in Sajdah and began to pray and plead with God.
“If this little band of people is destroyed,” he kept saying to God Almighty over and over through his sobs and tears, “Then you shall never be worshipped on this earth again.”
So, that was the battle between Right and Wrong; between Evil and Good; between Haqq and Baatil; between Truth and Falsehood.
And it was a confrontation between Justice and Injustice and between Human Equality and Inequality.
God Goes to War – And Does the Killing
In such battle, on whose side will God come down? The Qur’an gives the answer that God came down on the side of Equality and Justice and Truth and Human Liberation.
And God called it the Day of Demarcation – Youm al-Furqan: between Right and Wrong, the day the two groups met, Youmaltaqal Jm’aan (8:41).
There shall never be another day like that day for as long the world lasts. On that day, God forever decided the destiny of this world: that Truth shall triumph and his messenger and his message shall be victorious.
This was not a war fought for worldly bounties of land or wealth or women or pride or prestige. This was a war fought so Right and Truth shall win and Falsehood and Wrong shall perish.
As the Qur’an puts it: Liyuhiqqal Haqqa wa Yubtilal Baatil (8:8).
That was the war in which God himself went to battle; in which God himself did the shooting of the arrows; and in which God himself did the killing.
