The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume II — Page 122
Seal of the Prophets - Volume II 122 This is the deduction which has been made from this verse, and I consider this deduction to be an excellent one. In light of this verse it must be accepted that news of the imminent arrival of the Quraish must have been received while still in Madīnah. However, the generality which has been inferred from this deduction is not at all correct. In other words, to infer from this verse that all or most of the Muslims had received news in Madīnah; and all of them or most, had set out from Madīnah on the basis of this knowledge, is definitely erroneous. The reason being that in addition to this, the remaining narrative of the Holy Qur’ān and a majority of the historical accounts categorically reject this notion. Even the verse under discussion does not accept such a generality because it is clearly mentioned in the verse that this feeling was only present within some companions, as is evident from the word فَرِیْقًا. That is to say, that only a few companions were worried about the Holy Prophet sa setting out. All or most of the Companions were not worried. Hence, it is proven that in light of the Holy Qur’ān only a few Companions had received news of the army of the Quraish in Madīnah, and most were unaware. This is a probability, which does not contradict the remaining narrative of the Holy Qur’ān and historical account. It is very likely that when news of the army of the Quraish reached Madīnah, due to some wisdom, the Holy Prophet sa only revealed this knowledge to a few selected Companions, and a majority of the Muslims remained unaware; and it was in this very state that they set out from Madīnah, only with the caravan in mind, and then upon reaching close to Badr, they suddenly encountered the Quraish. It is this probability which seems to be correct because the remaining narrative of the Holy Qur’ān supports this idea, and indications to this affect can also be found in history and the Aḥādīth. As such, the Holy Prophet sa especially sought the counsel of the Companions prior to setting out from Madīnah, and he acted upon this counsel in such a manner that the Anṣār would also become prepared to set out with him. In this manner, the Holy Prophet sa was able to gather a larger force, 1 although the Anṣār had not yet participated in any campaign prior to this. 2 Then, upon reaching close to Badr, news of the army of the Quraish was received from an Abyssinian slave, but the Companions were skeptical of this intelligence and considered it to be a lie. However, the Holy Prophet sa accepted this news 1 Ṣaḥīḥu Muslim, Kitābul-Jihād Was-Siyar, Bābu Ghazwati Badr, Ḥadīth No. 4621 2 Aṭ-Ṭabaqātul-Kubrā, By Muḥammad bin Sa‘d, Volume 2, p. 254, Ghazwatu Badr, Dāru Iḥyā’it- Turāthil-‘Arabī, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996)