Chief of the Prophets — Page 102
Chapter Six 102 Here you are! Makkah has thrown before you its greatest heroes. 1 When a nation becomes corrupt, and God the Exalted wants to wipe them off the face of the earth, their machinations do not work for them. It is recorded that the army of the Quraish reached the valley of Badr before the Muslim army and occupied a place that had an abundance of water and grass. As the poor Muslims reached there afterwards, they were forced to camp at a site where there was neither much water, nor any reasonable provisions for grass. They were forced to setup camp on a sand dune, but God’s blessings descended on them in such a way that after a while it started to rain. The Muslims were able to gather water in the form of pools, and because the sand hardened beneath their feet, they were able to firmly place their feet on the ground. On the other hand the Quraish, because of being on a slope, had access only to muddy water, and second, the mud caused the feet of people as well as horses to slip. And third, as the later events will show, at the time of the start of the fighting, when Muḥammad sa threw a handful of gravel towards the enemy, such a strong storm started to blow from the direction of the Muslims to the disbelievers which aided the arrows of the Muslims, and also blinded the enemy and made it hard for them to launch arrows. It was Friday, the 17 th of Ramaān, and the two armies were ready to face each other. All of a sudden, two people approached Muḥammad sa and said: We are only just arriving from Makkah. When we set out from Makkah, the Quraish detained us and we were released 1 Ibni Hishām