The Message of Islam — Page 32
32 The Battle of Badr Space would not permit of even the briefest reference to all the pre- cautions that the Holy Prophet saw took, and all the measures that he adopted, for the building up of the Muslim community, for the security of Madinah, and for the ultimate triumph of the faith. By way of illustration, however, a brief account might be set out of the first battle fought out in Islam. About a year after the Emigration, intelligence began to reach the Prophet saw that the Meccans were preparing a strong force to advance upon Madinah. Their pretext was that one of their large caravans returning from Syria was likely to be attacked by the Muslims at a point near Madinah, and that an adequate force had to proceed north to secure its safe passage. They may have been genuinely apprehensive concerning the car- avan, in view of their declared objective of putting and an end to the Prophet saw and the Muslims by use of force. It was a large caravan, carrying valuable merchandise and was accompanied by a sizeable armed guard. By the time the Meccan army set out on its march north, however, news arrived that the caravan had passed safely through the danger zone. Nevertheless, the Meccan army continued its march in the direction of Madinah. On the side of the Muslims, permission to take up arms in defence having been accorded in Divine revelation (see Surah al-Hajj, 22:40–42), the Prophet saw assembled a force of just over three hundred Muslims from Makkah and Madinah, and marched out with them. This heterogeneous body—it scarcely deserved the designation ‘force’—was united only by the common bond of faith and the determination to die in defence of it. It included some of the older Meccan Muslims who were good fighters, but