The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 22
CH. 3 ĀL-E-‘IMRĀN PT. 3 زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَوَاتِ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ Beautified for men is the. 15 love of desired things—women وَالْبَنِينَ وَالْقَنَاطِيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ and children, and stored-up الذَّهَبِ وَالْفِضَّةِ وَالخَيْلِ المُسَوَّمَةِ heaps of gold and silver, and pastured horses and cattle and وَالْاَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ ذَلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيُوةِ crops. That is the provision of the present life; but it is Allah a18:47; 57:21. 3:186; 9:38; 10:71. Meccan tribes) was broken at Badr and their glory departed. The Quranic prophecy was also literally fulfilled; for, after the Meccan host was routed at Badr, the ringleaders of the Quraish who fell in the battle were actually dragged along the ground and cast into a well for burial. It was on this occasion that, addressing their dead bodies the Holy Prophet said, "God has made true the promise He had made to us. Have you also found to be true that which was promised to you?" (Bukhārī). The Quran describes the Day of Badr as the day of "Discrimination" (8:42), because on that day a great prophecy, accompanied by great results, was fulfilled in extremely unfavourable circumstances. The defeat of the infidels was as unexpected and complete as was the victory of the Muslims. Truly has the Battle of Badr been reckoned among the greatest battles in history. It virtually decided the fate of the Meccans and of the whole of Arabia. The power of the Quraish was broken forever and the new Faith rose high and powerful in the land; and all this came about 462 exactly as it had been prophesied. The clause, whom they saw to be twice as many as themselves, points out that the Meccan army appeared to the Muslims to be less than their actual strength, i. e. only twice instead of thrice the number of the Muslims, as was actually the case. This was quite in harmony with Divine will which designed that the encounter should take place and the few weak and ill-equipped Muslims, seeing the full strength of the enemy, should not become discouraged (8:45). What happened was that one-third of the Meccan army was behind a rising piece of land and the Muslims could see only two-thirds of them, i. e. 600 or twice as many as their own number. The Muslims were thus naturally heartened by seeing the Meccan army only twice their own number because they knew that in fulfilment of His promise (8:67-68) God would surely vouchsafe to them victory over an enemy double their number. The words, actually with their eyes, have been added to point out that it was not in a vision or a dream that the Muslims saw the disbelievers to be