JK PANORAMA VOL 4 ISSUE 5 MAY

monotheism on the order of Allah-the Merciful.
This raised feathers in the city of Mecca, and
divided families, albeit for the time being, as
people mostly youngsters keenly listened to
Prophet Muhammed's message. The message
from the most high God was in turn revealed to
Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) by Angel
Gabriel( Jibrail alaihisalaam). After the
successive deaths of Prophets'(PBUH) uncle
Abu Talib, and wife Hajirah(pbuh) pagan
chieftains intimidated prophet to the core. And
after failing to convince him to abandon
preaching Islam in Mecca the pagan chieftains
hatched a conspiracy to assassinate the Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH) in which they miserably
failed. (He was the chosen one who could not be
killed). Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had
overnight migrated to Medina,after evacuating
his followers to the same blessed place, along
with Abu Bakr(RA) on the invitation of
generous people of tribes of Medina who had
sought the Prophet's(PBUH) leadership and
guidance in amelioration of disputes cum in
fighting, once for all.
This landmark migration marks the beginning
of Hegirah Calendar of Muslims. Many
Muslims after being inflicted torture of
indescribable pain by the pagan chieftains had
already migrated to Abysinia ( modern day
Ethiopia)on the orders of the Prophet(PBUH)
to seek refugee under the Christian king. The
pagan chieftains got infuriated after the king of
Abysinia refused to return Muslims who had
sought his refugee in time of need, and would
knit the brow on coming to know about the
prophet's(PBUH) leadership skills ,and kind
treatment of him by the benevolent people of
Yathrib(Medina), so much so that they
plundered everything that Muslims had left
behind in Mecca; and decided to trade that in
Damascus, the ancient city.
Initially, the prophet(PBUH) refused to fight
because Allah had not ordered him to do so, but
then Allah revealed “to fight against those who
fight against you, and banish those from homes
who banished you”. Thus Muslims numbering
313 under the supreme leadership of Prophet
Muhammad(PBUH),with meagre resources,
reached to the field of Badr , a strategic trade
route 70 miles away on the western side of
Medina, where they captured all small and big
water wells. All Meccan pagan chieftains
assembled and decided to nip Muslims in the
bud, once for all ,but their war mongering fell
flat on the day, 17th Ramzan 2AH, they met
Muslims face to face on the battle field. This
was due to their obsessive stubbornness, that
they were living in fool's paradise. While as
pagans feasted throughout the night prior to the
battle Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
worshipped to his guardian Lord. This
remarkable quality of impeccable virtue set him
aside from the pagans.
Abu Sufiyan, who until then was outside the
fold of Islam , schemed against Muslims and
inflicted mammoth torture and pain upon
them(before he entered Islam) played truant on
the day of fighting. The outcome of the war was
that almost all haughty pagan chieftains, like
“Utbah”, “Umaiah”, “Abu Jahal”, elder son of
Utbah Waleed( Utbahs younger son Huzaifa
was Muslim and fought against Meccan
pagans) , who issued incendiary statements
against Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) ,and
compelled him to migrate from Mecca were
killed on the battlefield.
The Prophet's(PBUH) close companions
except Usman (RA) fought this battle. The
victory was from Allah-the mighty, as alluded
by Quran(3:123,3:124,3:125,3:126). A poorly
equipped but spiritually and morally strong
people ,313 in number, defeated a strength of
more than 950 adequately resourced and well
endowed force of the Quraysh. It is this battle
that actually set the precedent for the success of
other battles fought by Muslims against their
adversaries in following years, and changed the
face of the world. The prisoners of the battle
were treated at par with other Muslims, and any
prisoner who could teach ten Muslims would be
freed, as ordered by the Prophet of wisdom
(PBUH). Jabir relates: The most important
thing that one must take cognizance of is that all
the battles fought by Muslims under the
supreme leadership of Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH) were defensive in nature like the battle
of Badr.
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May 2019