Abu Sufyan's Post-Battle Exchange and the Vow to Return to Badr

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

The final confirmation that the battle had ended came through a public exchange between Abū Sufyān and the Muslims. Having failed to locate the Prophet (ﷺ) despite Khālid's search, Abū Sufyān, likely not having personally taken part in Khālid's counter-offensive, came forward as the Qurayshi leader to formally close the matter. Standing on one of the peaks of Uḥud, he called out: "Is Muḥammad alive? Answer me!" The Prophet (ﷺ) instructed: "Lā tujībūhu, Do not answer him." He asked again about Abū Bakr ("the son of Abū Quḥāfah"), then about ʿUmar ("the son of al-Khaṭṭāb"), in each case receiving silence at the Prophet's command. The Shaykh notes that even Abū Sufyān, still a pagan at this point, recognized these three as the clear order of precedence among the Muslims, a recognition some who claim to be Muslim today fail to grasp.

Hearing no answer, Abū Sufyān exulted: "We have killed all of them." At this, ʿUmar could no longer restrain himself and shouted: "Kadhabta yā ʿaduwwa-llāh!, You lie, O enemy of Allah! By Allah, all of them are alive, and they remain to harm you another day!" Abū Sufyān, having gotten confirmation they were alive, responded: "Today is in return for the day of Badr, wal-ḥarbu sijāl, and war goes in turns." He added: "You will find mutilation among your dead. I did not command it, but I am not angry about it either." ʿUmar replied: "Laysū sawāʾan, They are not equal. Our dead are in Jannah and your dead are in the Fire."

Abū Sufyān's final cry was: "Aʿlu Hubal!, Hubal be exalted!", invoking the chief idol of the Kaʿbah. The Prophet (ﷺ) instructed the Muslims to respond this time: "Say to him, Allāhu aʿlā wa ajall, Allah is higher and more majestic." Abū Sufyān called back: "Lanā-l-ʿUzzā wa lā ʿUzzā lakum, We have al-ʿUzzā and you have no al-ʿUzzā." The Prophet (ﷺ) again ordered a response: "Say to him, Allāhu mawlānā wa lā mawlā lakum, Allah is our protector and you have no protector."

Ibn al-Qayyim, in Zād al-Maʿād, observes the significance of this pattern: the Prophet (ﷺ) commanded silence when the taunts concerned his own life or death, refusing to even grant Abū Sufyān the dignity of a response, showing contempt through silence, but commanded an immediate, vocal response the moment idolatry was invoked against Tawḥīd. Personal pride could be swallowed; the honor of Allah could not be left unanswered.

Abū Sufyān closed the exchange with a promise: that the two sides would meet again one year later at the plains of Badr, setting up the following year's expedition.