The Battle of Badr – First Victory of Islam

 Battle of Badr – Story in Simple English

Abu Sufyan was coming from Syria with a caravan carrying 50,000 gold coins and all kinds of goods, going towards Makkah. But there was one big problem: to reach Makkah, the caravan had to pass near Madinah, and Muslims were already waiting there. Abu Sufyan thought, “If I go this way, Muslims will surely attack us.”

This was in the month of Ramadan. One year before the Battle of Badr, when Muslims migrated from Makkah to Madinah, they left with nothing except the clothes they were wearing. The Quraysh of Makkah sold their houses, lands, and everything they owned to make them angry. The goods in Abu Sufyan’s caravan were actually the same wealth taken from Muslims. So Muslims were not looting someone else — they were taking back what had been looted from them.

Abu Sufyan, the head of the caravan, was very worried. He changed the route to avoid Muslims and sent a messenger to Makkah asking for urgent help. When that man reached Makkah, he went to the Kaaba, cut off his camel’s nose and ears, tore his clothes, and started shouting for help. That was the traditional way of showing emergency in those days.

The Muslim army had already left to stop the caravan. Abu Jahl asked the messenger, “How many Muslims are there?” He said, “Almost 300, maybe 313 men.” Abu Jahl replied, “We will go with 1,000 men.” Then he asked, “How many horses do they have?” The man said, “Almost two.” Abu Jahl replied, “We will take 100 horses.” Then he asked, “How many camels do they have?” He said, “About 70.”

Meanwhile, Abu Sufyan took the caravan from another route and escaped the Muslim army. So there was no need for war anymore because the caravan was safe. But Abu Jahl said, “Even if the caravan is safe, we will not leave these Muslims. For every one of them, we have three men.”

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ ordered his army to camp at the first well of Badr. One companion asked him, “O Messenger of Allah, did Allah tell you to choose this place, or is it by your opinion?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “It is by opinion.” The man suggested going further to a place with more water so that the Muslims could control the wells before the enemy. The Prophet ﷺ liked this advice, and the whole army moved at night to that place.

The next day, Abu Jahl’s army appeared — three times bigger than the Muslims. Utbah, a very rich businessman of Makkah, came forward with his brother and son and challenged the Muslims for single combat. Three Ansar came out from Madinah, but Utbah said, “We don’t want them. We want our own relatives who left the religion of our forefathers.”

So Hamza, Ubaidah, and Ali رضي الله عنهم came forward. The fight started. Ubaidah was wounded, but Utbah, his brother, and his son were all killed. Utbah’s son, Hudhayfah, was in the Muslim army and saw his father, uncle, and brother killed in front of him, but he still stayed with the Muslims.

Muslims knew their army was much smaller, so they chose a defensive strategy: “We will not leave our place. Let them come.” Abu Jahl ordered a full attack, thinking it would finish in two minutes. But it didn’t. Slowly, for every one Muslim, five disbelievers were killed. The Quraysh army was shocked: “We are three times more than them, but we cannot even push them back.”

The Prophet ﷺ changed the Muslim lines, bringing fresh men to the front. Abu Jahl again ordered a full attack, but the same thing happened, and his army started running away. This time Muslims attacked, and the Quraysh army fled from Badr in all directions. Abu Jahl was killed.

In Makkah, everyone was waiting for the news of victory, because for the past 60 years the Quraysh had never lost a big battle. About 65 years earlier, they had even defeated Abraha’s army of 60,000. That made the whole Arab world see Quraysh as leaders. But now, the Quraysh lost to only 313 Muslims.

When the people who escaped from the battle reached Makkah and told the story, no one believed them at first: “How can we lose to such a small group?” But slowly they realized the truth — Quraysh had lost the war and lost their honor in all of Arabia.

A famous Western historian writes: before the Battle of Badr, Arabs saw Muhammad ﷺ as a weak man, someone expelled by his people, begging for help from others. But after Badr, Muhammad ﷺ became known as a king and a military genius, because he defeated an army three times bigger than his own.

When Muslims returned to Madinah with the news of victory, there was happiness and celebration everywhere. But when the Prophet ﷺ entered his home, he found out that his beloved daughter Ruqayyah رضي الله عنها had passed away just days earlier. He felt deep sadness, but he did not mention his grief to anyone, so that the Muslims could continue their celebrations.

Still, the joy could not last long, because Abu Sufyan had already started preparing another army of 3,000 men from all over Arabia to take revenge.