Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 195
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 195 view on behalf of Ansar. Perceiving this, S’ad bin Muaz, chief of Aus, submitted: ‘Messenger of Allah, it may be that you are awaiting an expression of our view. We have believed in you as a true Prophet of God and we have put our hands in your hand in tok en of absolute commitment. Go wherever you determine, we shall be with you. We call to witness Him Who has sent you with Truth, that if you will command us to jump into the sea, we shall jump into it and not one of us will hold back. God willing, you will find us steadfast in battle. You will behold that from us which will greatly please you. ’ The Holy Prophet was pleased and observed: ‘Go forward in the name of Allah and be glad that Allah has promised me that we shall certainly prevail over one of these t wo bodies of Quraish (the army or the caravan). I call God to witness that I am beholding the actual spots where the leaders of the enemy will be cut down. ’ The Companions were greatly reassured by these words and some of them inquired: ‘Messenger of Allah , if you had known of the advance of the Quraish army, why did you not mention it to us in Medina, so that we might have made some preparation for a confrontation in arms?’ Even now the Muslims did not know definitely whether they would be confronted with the caravan or with the Quraish army. The Holy Prophet, peace be on him, now began to advance rapidly towards Badr, and when he arrived close to it he asked Abu Bakr to ride behind him and the two went forward in advance of the Muslim force. Presently they encountered an old Bedouin from whom they gathered that the Quraish army had arrived near Badr. On learning this, the Holy Prophet rejoined his Companions and sent Ali, Zubair bin Awam and S’ad bin Abi