Part 22 In order to warn the Quraysh to back off,
the Muslims tried to show that they were not weak anymore, and so the people of Makkah
should stop messing with the innocent Muslims.
During the second year of the Hijri, or the 2nd year of the Islamic calendar, in the 5th
month (Jamad Al-Ula), Prophet Muhammad (s) took more than 150 Muhajireen, who were Muslims
from Makkah, and went to the west, next to the Red Sea to the city of Ushayrah to fight
back with one of the Quraysh's biggest business group, who were going to Syria.
Abu Sufyan was the leader of that business group.
Unfortunately, that business group left that place a few days before Muhammad (s) reached
there.
But luckily, when returning back from that journey Muhammad (s) made some friends with
some new tribes.
A month later, the Prophet originally sent 12 Muhajireen, but since 2 of them lost their
camel, only 10 of them went to a town very close to Makkah, which was the city of Nakhlah.
That place was between Makkah and Ta'if.
During that time it was the 7th month of the Arabic calendar, which was the month of Rajab
in the 2nd Hijri.
Before Prophet Muhammad (saw) many centuries ago, Allah (SWT) selected the month of Rajab
for Umrah to visit the Kabbah for worship.
During this month, for the safety of those who wanted to visit the Kabbah, no fighting
or war was allowed.
The only reason why the Prophet sent those Muslims to Makkah was so that they could get
some information about the Quraysh and their business travel plans, but unfortunately,
when the Muslims saw a small Quraysh business group, they attacked the Quraysh and killed
one person.
They also arrested two of the enemies and brought them back to Madina with them.
When Prophet Muhammad (s) heard about what had happened, he became very upset.
He immediately freed those arrested enemies and paid a fee for their mistake to the family
of the person who was killed accidently.
After that event, the Quraysh used that opportunity and spread scandals against the Muslims because
they broke Allah's law by attacking the people in the Holy month of Rajab.
It was a very uncomfortable situation for the Muslims.
Allah (SWT) then sent Surah Baqara verse 217 about that situation and said that it was
bad to fight in the month of Rajab.
But then Allah (SWT) also said in that ayah, that the Quraysh were killing many innocent
Muslims and throwing them out of their own houses which was even worse.
After that, Allah (SWT) sent many Quranic sentences to give as guidelines of how to
deal with the evil people.
If the evil people wanted to fight, Muslims would also have to fight back with them.
If they want to become friends, Muslims also should accept their friendship.
Around that time, about 2 weeks before Ramadan, something very important happened in Islam.
Before, the Muslims used to pray their prayer towards the direction of the Al Aqsa mosque
in Palestine.
But from that day, Allah (SWT) changed the law for the Muslims, and told them in Surah
Baqara verse 144, to pray their prayers towards the direction of the Kabbah in Makkah.
Some Jewish people who claimed themselves as Muslims did not like the new law from Allah
(SWT).
That’s because they were false Muslims, and because Allah (swt) changed his laws,
it helped the Muslims know who fake Muslims were and who the real Muslims
were.
Animal: Why were the Jewish people who claimed themselves as Muslims not happy with the new
law?
It’s because all of their prophets used to pray in the direction of the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Since they were used to praying in that direction for many many years, they were not happy with
the change.
During the same month of Shaban, Allah (SWT) gave another law in Islam that, every healthy
Muslim would have to fast during the entire month of Ramadan.
Before that law, fasting was not mandatory for Muslims.
The Quraysh were very angry at the Muslims for their bravery.
They realized that their business route to the north was not safe anymore because of
the Muslims in Madina.
So the evil Quraysh wanted to attack Madina and kill all the Muslims to make their business
route safe.
It was a foolish decision for the Quraysh to attack Madina, because they could’ve
easily became friends with the Muslims, but instead their arrogant wish was to kill all
the Muslims in Madina.
During the next month which was Ramadan, in the 2nd Hijri or second Islamic year, in the
year of 624, one of the most important events happened in Islam.
This was the famous Battle of Badr.
Abu Sufyan's business group was returning from Syria with lots of business items.
It was a very big business trip for the people of Makkah.
Almost all of the rich leaders from Makkah invested their money with Abu Sufyan in that
business trip.
Abu Sufyan was a very smart businessman.
He was very careful to avoid the Muslims in order to protect his business group.
When Prophet Muhammad (s) got the news about Abu Sufyan's business group,the prophet took
around 313 Muslims with him to stop Abu Sufyan’s business group, in order to give them a message
to stop messing with the Muslims.
Animal: So if the people of Makkah were the superpower in the land of Arabia at that time,
why did the Prophet only take 313 Muslims to fight with the strong Quraysh?
Yusuf: No, he did not want to fight with anyone.
That's why he did not take all of the Muslims with him.
He wanted to bring peace between the Muslims and Quraysh.
His plan was to scare the Quraysh so the Quraysh would stop killing the innocent Muslims and
let the Muslims live in peace.
Prophet Muhammad basically wanted to establish Allah (swt)'s law, so that everyone would
have their own right to follow their own religion freely.
No one should ever give a hard time to anybody for their religious belief.
That's why he had only 313 Muslims, two horses, and only 70 camels for their journey.
Because there weren’t that many camels, they had to share the camels for their ride
to the place of Badr, next to the Red Sea.
It was around 90 miles south-west of Madina.
In that Muslim group, there were only 82 Muhajireen, which were the Makkah's Muslims and around
230 were the Ansar, who were Madina's Muslims.
Animal: Why were the Muslims trying to go to the place of Badr?
Yusuf: Badr was surrounded by high mountains with some water wells, and for travelers like
them, it was the best place to take rest on the way.
The Prophet knew that Abu Sufyan's business group would take rest in the place of Badr.
Abu Sufyan had 40 people, 100 camels and lots of expensive business items.
When Abu Sufyan heard that, the Muslims made a plan to attack his caravan, he became very
scared and did not follow his usual route.
He quickly changed the route and sent one of his people to Makkah to get some soldiers
to save his expensive business items.
When the Quraysh heard the news, they became very angry and got ready to protect Abu Sufyan
and his business group.
They quickly gathered 1,300 soldiers.
Almost all the leaders from Makkah joined that group.
The only leader who didn’t join the group was Abu Lahab, and since he didn’t go, he
sent one of his men instead to fight in his place against the Muslims.
All of the tribes joined the army except for one family group from the Quraysh, the Banu
Adiy.
Abu Jahl was one of the main leaders of the Quraysh during the battle and he was very
excited about that mission, since he didn’t like the Muslims.
When the bad Qurayish reached the middle of their journey, at the place of Rabigh or Juhfa,
the Quraish got the message from Abu Sufyan that his business group was saved and the
army should return back to Makkah.
However, Abu Jahl did not like the idea of returning to Makkah because he wanted to destroy
the Muslims.
So he was able to convince almost all the people to fight with the weak Muslims.
Originally, the Banu Zahra family group went to fight in order to protect the business
group, but later on they did not agree with Abu Jahl so they backed down because they
didn’t want to destroy the Muslims for no reason.
So because of that almost 300 soldiers from Banu Zahra returned to Makkah.
Then Abu Jahl continued his journey with remaining 1000 soldiers to fight against the Muslims.
Finally, they set up their camp behind the Mountain of Badr area.
When Prophet Muhammad (s) heard that the Quraysh were coming to destroy the Muslims, he immediately
set up a meeting with the Muslims soldiers and their leaders.
At first, some of them were scared to fight with the strong Quraysh soldiers.
But when they heard Abu Bakr, Umar and Miqdad (pbut)'s opinion everyone became mentally
strong to fight with their strong enemies.
These three strong Muslim leaders were the Muhajirin, who were from Makkah.
However two third of the entire group of men were the Ansar, those who were from Madina.
So Prophet Muhammad (s) wanted to know, what the Ansars were thinking.
Then one of the Ansar's leaders Sa'd (PBUH) said he strongly supported the Prophet's decision.
With Allah (swt)'s blessing, everyone else agreed to fight with the bad Quraysh.
For more detailed information about this event we can find information at the beginning of
Surah Anfal.
This fight was very important for the Muslims.
If the Muslims were scared to fight with the bad Qurayish, Islam would’ve been very weak,
which meant that the Quraysh would go to Madina to kill all the Muslims and no one would have
any faith in the power of Islam.
Muhammad (s) started his journey with those brave Muslims to the place of Badr and arrived
there the same night as the Quraysh.
The Muslims set up their camp at Badr.
Compared to the Quraish, the Muslim army was very small.
So because of that it was important for the Muslims to come up with a smart strategy that
would help them win.
But one expert solder Hubab (PBUH) requested Prophet Muhammad (s) to move forward the camp,
so they could control the majority of the water wells.
He also requested to fill up all the water wells using stones and to kept one water well
for themselves, so the enemy could not get any water.
Hearing this, Prophet Muhammad (s) accepted Hubab's (PBUH) brilliant advice, because they
needed all the strategies that they could possibly do especially since the Muslims weren’t
even ready to go to battle.
He also sent 3 brave Muslims, Ali, Zubaer and Sa'd (pbut) to get some information about
their enemies.
Those brave Muslims went very close to the enemy’s camp, and found two slaves were
carrying some water.
So they immediately arrested them and brought them to the prophet.
From those slaves Muhammad (s) got some important information about their enemies, like how
many soldiers they had and who were in that battle group.
The Muslims also made a small tent for Muhammad (s) from where he could give direction to
his in the battlefield.
When all of the preparations were completed, Muhammad (s) started to pray for the Muslims’
victory and blessing from Allah (s).
Allah (s) accepted Prophet’s request and promised that at the battlefield one thousand
angels would come to help the Muslims gain their victory.
Animal: Did Allah (SWT) really send one thousand angels to help the Muslims?
Yusuf: Yes, you can find this information in Surah Anfal, verse 9.
But how they helped the Muslims we don't know.
There are different opinions from the scholars, but only Allah (SWT) knows the best.
During the night Allah (SWT) gave them a blessing rain in order to purify the Muslims and to
give them mental strength.Then Allah (swt) miraciously made everyone fall asleep so that
they would be refreshed in the morning and would have full energy to fight with
the enemies.