The Quraysh Army Marches: Who Went, Who Hesitated, and What Allah Decreed
militaryDr. Yasir Qadhi narrates the Quraysh side of the lead-up to Badr: who went, who resisted, the political dynamics within the army, and the Divine plan overriding every human intention.
❧The Fastest and Largest Gathering in Makkī History
The exaggerated warning of Ḍamḍam ibn ʿAmr, the crier sent by Abū Sufyān from the Syrian road, sent shockwaves through Makkah. Abū Sufyān had described (and Ḍamḍam had amplified) the Muslim army as an enormous threat to the caravan. Every household had money invested. There was no debate: they had to mobilize immediately. Within a single day, the preparations were complete and the army had departed Makkah. Ibn Isḥāq notes that not a single household was left unrepresented, every family sent someone. If they had no able-bodied man, they hired a substitute.
The size, approximately 1,300 men, was the largest army Makkah had ever assembled. With it: over 100 horses, over 600 suits of armor, and hundreds of camels (they slaughtered approximately 10 per day to feed the force). They also brought along qayyināt (قَيْنَات), singing girls who beat drums and sang to boost morale and announce the Qurashī might to all of Arabia. This was pure Jāhilī sloganeering, all of it: the display, the pride, the size. Allāh describes their psychological frame of mind in Sūrat al-Anfāl (8:47):
> Wa lā takūnū kalladhīna kharajū min diyārihim baṭaran wa riyāʾan-nāsi wa yaṣuddūna ʿan sabīlillāh (وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ خَرَجُوا مِن دِيَارِهِم بَطَرًا وَرِئَاءَ النَّاسِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ)
'Do not be like those who left their homes baṭaran (in arrogance) and riyāʾan (showing off to the people), and who block the path of Allāh. And Allāh surrounds all that they do.'
❧Abū Lahab Does Not Go
Abū Lahab, the Prophet's ﷺ paternal uncle and de facto leader of the Banū Hāshim, made the unusual decision not to join the army. Rather, he had an outstanding debt of 4,000 dirhams owed to him by another man. He told the debtor: 'If you go to Badr in my place, I will forgive the entire debt.' The debtor agreed and went. Abū Lahab stayed in Makkah.
The classical sources do not explain why Abū Lahab did not go. Dr. Qadhi offers a theory: alongside natural cowardice, there may have been a deep personal conflict. This would mean fighting his own sub-tribe, the Prophet ﷺ himself is Banū Hāshim, and most of the Muslim Muhājirūn were his relatives. Even the worst enemies of Islām retain remnants of Jāhilī tribalism, and Abū Lahab may simply have been unable to march against his own kin. This is consistent with other moments in the Seerah: Abū Lahab freed a slave and celebrated at the Prophet's ﷺ birth; he briefly extended his protection to the Prophet ﷺ after the death of Abū Ṭālib before Abū Jahl pressured him to withdraw it. He had some sense of ʿaṣabiyyah for his own bloodline, even if it never translated into belief. Allāh curses him in the Quran; none of this constitutes virtue, but it contextualizes his absence.
❧ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah: The Wisest of the Wrong Side
ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah was a distant relative of the Prophet ﷺ and one of the senior Qurashī noblemen. He had shown humanity before: after the tragic rejection at Ṭāʾif, ʿUtbah was in his garden when he saw the Prophet ﷺ sitting bloodied and exhausted. He sent him a bunch of grapes via a Christian slave named ʿAddās, a quiet act of personal sympathy at one of the darkest moments of the Seerah. He also made an early private offer to the Prophet ﷺ: if money, honor, or kingship is what you want, Quraysh will provide it, if only you stop your message. The Prophet ﷺ declined by reciting Sūrah Fuṣṣilat.
Before Badr, ʿUtbah initially refused to go to war. His reasons were personal: too many of his own relatives were on the other side. His brother Shaybah ibn Rabīʿah overruled him with a Jāhilī argument: 'If we stay behind at a moment this critical, we will spend the rest of our lives hearing the mockery of the Quraysh. This will be a permanent ʿayb (shame) on our family.' The appeal to honor overrode common sense, and both brothers joined.
Once inside the Qurayshi camp, ʿUtbah continued to resist. When Abū Sufyān's envoy arrived telling the army to return, the caravan was safe, ʿUtbah was the loudest voice saying: 'Good, let's go back. Our mission is complete.' But Abū Jahl insisted on remaining at Badr for three days: to drink wine, have the women sing, slaughter camels, and let all of Arabia witness the Qurashī might. ʿUtbah was disgusted.
On the morning of Badr itself, the most remarkable moment, ʿUtbah mounted his red camel and galloped back and forth along the entire Qurashī line, shouting at his own people: 'Do not fight! Even if you win, you lose, because you will have spent your victory killing your own brothers, cousins, and sons. What kind of victory is that?' Then he said something almost unimaginable: 'Blame me. Go tell all the Arabs that I was a coward, that I stopped you. I don't mind. Let the shame come to me.' The Prophet ﷺ, watching from the Muslim side, said:
'If there is any good in that army, it is the man on the red camel.' (wa in kāna fīhim khayr, fa-ṣāḥib al-jamal al-aḥmar)
Despite everything, Abū Jahl publicly accused ʿUtbah of cowardice. ʿUtbah's rage overtook his wisdom and he stepped forward as the first champion in the Mubārazah, the pre-battle duel. His rage became his death sentence. He and his brother Shaybah and his son al-Walīd were the first to die at Badr. His blind nationalism, not his wisdom, was what ultimately prevailed.
Dr. Qadhi uses ʿUtbah as a vivid case study in ʿaṣabiyyah (tribal fanaticism). Islām is against blindly supporting any cause, human, national, or political. Only the Prophet ﷺ is supported unconditionally. All others must be weighed against truth. The modern equivalents: nationalism, party loyalty ('I'm a Democrat/Republican, I don't care what they do, I support them'). Allāh says even if it is against your parents, speak the truth. ʿUtbah had the wisdom to see the truth but lacked the fortitude to follow it.
❧ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ: Fear Wearing Bravado
ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ was perhaps the most morally depraved of the Qurashī enemies. Dr. Qadhi notes he was not even explicitly mentioned by name in the Quran, Abū Jahl is indirectly alluded to, Abū Lahab is directly cursed, but ʿUqbah is too filthy even for Quranic mention.
His recorded crimes against the Prophet ﷺ:
1. He crept up on the Prophet ﷺ during ṣalāh at the Kaʿbah, wrapped his own shawl around the Prophet's neck and began choking him to death. Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه ran to intervene, screaming the words that Allāh would later quote in the Quran (Q 40:28): A-taqtulūna rajulan an yaqūla rabbiyallāh, 'Will you kill a man just because he says Allāh is his Lord?' Abū Bakr was beaten and bloodied defending the Prophet ﷺ.
2. He was among those who approved the assassination plan devised at the Dār al-Nadwa.
3. When Abū Jahl challenged the gathering, 'Who will pick up the carcass of a freshly slaughtered animal and throw it on Muḥammad during his Sajdah?', Ibn Isḥāq says fa-qāma fil-qawmi ashqāhum ('the most wretched of the people stood up'). That was ʿUqbah. He ran outside, picked up the foul, blood-soaked, fly-covered entrails, rushed back rejoicing, and threw them onto the Prophet ﷺ while he prostrated. The Prophet ﷺ could not lift himself. Fāṭimah, then a young girl, came running and removed it while weeping.
4. When the Prophet ﷺ refused to eat at ʿUqbah's table without a testimony of faith, ʿUqbah spat on the Prophet's ﷺ face. The Prophet ﷺ calmly wiped the spit and said: 'O ʿUqbah, the next time we meet outside the valleys of Makkah, I shall execute you as a prisoner.'
ʿUqbah remembered this prediction and was terrified of going to Badr. Someone from his household offered a solution: 'I have the fastest camel in Makkah. Even if the whole army flees, you will escape.' The lure of safety, combined with public pressure, convinced him. But on the day of Badr, when the battle turned, ʿUqbah's camel was the first to flee. He was left standing alone on an empty plain, captured as a prisoner of war. He was one of only two men executed from all the prisoners of Badr, the Prophet's ﷺ prediction fulfilled precisely.
It was ʿUqbah whom Abū Jahl used against Umayyah ibn Khalaf in the humiliation scheme below.
❧Umayyah ibn Khalaf: Shamed Into His Own Death
Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the slave master of Bilāl, one of the top five Qurashī leaders, a large and well-fed man of considerable wealth and no fighting skill, wanted nothing to do with the army. He found a substitute to represent him and was satisfied.
Abū Jahl tried to persuade him personally. 'You are the Sayyid of this valley. Your presence is necessary for morale.' Even this appeal to ego failed. So Abū Jahl and ʿUqbah devised a public humiliation. While Umayyah was sitting in the Nādī (the open public council area outside the Kaʿbah), surrounded by his people and wearing fine garments, ʿUqbah walked up with a perfume burner and incense of the type women use and offered it to him: 'Perfume yourself, O Umayyah, as you are worthy of being perfumed.' The meaning was unmistakable in every Arab ear: you are no man.
Umayyah understood instantly. He cursed ʿUqbah and whoever had sent him. But the public shame did its work. He went home and, still trying to protect himself, told his wife: 'Go and buy me the best camel that money can buy.' He told her privately, 'Don't worry. I don't actually intend to fight. I'll just make a show of it and quietly leave.' He never intended to fight. But Allāh ʿazza wa-jalla had already written his name among those who would die.
❧The Quraysh Pray at the Kaʿbah: Against Themselves
Before departing, the assembled Quraysh gathered around the Kaʿbah, held the rings of its door and the cloth of its walls, and made duʿāʾ: 'O Allāh, whichever of these two armies is nobler in Your eyes, help them. Whichever of the two groups is more honorable, give them victory. Send Your aid to the better of the two tribes.' They did not realize they were praying against themselves. Allāh's response in Q 8:19:
> In tastaftiḥū fa-qad jāʾakumul-fatḥ, wa in tantahū fa-huwa khayrul-lakum, wa in taʿūdū naʿud, wa lan tughniya ʿankum fiʾatukum shayʾan wa law kathurat, wa innallāha maʿal-muʾminīn (إِن تَسْتَفْتِحُوا فَقَدْ جَاءَكُمُ الْفَتْحُ وَإِن تَنتَهُوا فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ وَإِن تَعُودُوا نَعُدْ وَلَن تُغْنِيَ عَنكُمْ فِئَتُكُمْ شَيْئًا وَلَوْ كَثُرَتْ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ)
'If you are asking for Fatḥ, then the Fatḥ has already come, not to you. And if you stop, it is better for you. And if you return [to war], We shall return [against you]. And your numbers shall not avail you even if they are great. For Allāh is with the Believers.'
❧Shaitan Appears as Surāqah ibn Mālik
As the army marched out, a crisis erupted: a long-unresolved blood feud between the Quraysh and the Banū Bakr (a sub-tribe of the Banū Kinānah) resurfaced as a collective panic. If all the fighting men of Makkah were away at Badr, would the Banū Bakr not seize the opportunity to attack the undefended city? A segment of the army threatened to turn back.
At that moment, Iblīs himself, Shaitan, appeared to the army in the physical form of Surāqah ibn Mālik (the same Surāqah who had famously pursued the Prophet ﷺ during the Hijrah and was later promised the bracelets of Kisrā). Why Surāqah? Because he was a chieftain of Banū Muḍlij, one of the tribes of the Banū Kinānah, the very confederate group that the Quraysh feared. Shaitan, appearing as Surāqah, said: 'I have heard of your fear. I give you my personal guarantee that the Banū Bakr will not attack Makkah. I am your jār (protector).' He even volunteered to march alongside them as a sign of sincerity.
The army was reassured and continued. Allāh records the entire deception in Q 8:48:
> Wa idh zayyana lahumu sh-shaytānu aʿmālahum wa qāla lā ghāliba lakumul-yawma minal-nāsi wa innī jārul-lakum. Fa-lammā tarāʾatil-fiʾatāni nakasa ʿalā ʿaqibayh wa qāla innī barīʾun minkum innī arā mā lā tarawn innī akhāfullāha wa llāhu shadīdul-ʿiqāb (وَإِذْ زَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ وَقَالَ لَا غَالِبَ لَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَإِنِّي جَارٌ لَّكُمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَرَاءَتِ الْفِئَتَانِ نَكَصَ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَيْهِ وَقَالَ إِنِّي بَرِيءٌ مِّنكُمْ إِنِّي أَرَىٰ مَا لَا تَرَوْنَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ وَاللَّهُ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ)
'When Shaitan beautified their deeds for them and said, "None of mankind can defeat you today, and I am your protector." But when the two armies faced each other, he turned on his heels and said, "I am free of you. I see what you do not see. I fear Allāh, and Allāh is severe in punishment."'
On the morning of Badr, when Shaitan (as Surāqah) saw the angels descending, he turned and ran. The Quraysh called after him: 'Surāqah! Why are you running? You came all the way with us!' They could not see the angels. When one of them tried to stop him, Shaitan shoved him violently and disappeared. The real Surāqah was in Makkah the entire time, completely unaware his form had been used.
❧Abū Sufyān's Second Envoy and the Split
Once Abū Sufyān confirmed his caravan had escaped to safety, he sent a second messenger to the army: 'Return to Makkah. You no longer need to protect us.' ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah seized on this immediately: 'The mission is complete. Let's go home.' Abū Jahl refused. He wanted to march to Badr, stay three days, slaughter camels, drink wine, let the singing girls perform, and send a message to all of Arabia: the Quraysh are a force to be feared. Pure baṭar (arrogance) and riyāʾ (showing off), precisely what Allāh had described.
Several tribes who had only come to protect the caravan, the most notable being the Banū Zuhrah, took Abū Sufyān's message as permission to leave. Approximately 300 to 350 men returned to Makkah. The army shrank from ~1,300 to ~950–1,000.
❧A Young Man's Dream at Juhfah
When the army reached Juhfah (the area where Masjid ʿĀʾishah is today), a young man from the Banū Hāshim in the army, one of the youngest present, unnamed in the sources, woke up from a dream visibly shaken. He announced it to the camp: 'I saw a man riding toward us, a crier. He announced: ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah is killed. Shaybah ibn Rabīʿah is killed. Abul-Ḥakam ibn Hishām (i.e., Abū Jahl) is killed. Umayyah ibn Khalaf is killed...' And he went on naming every senior nobleman who would later die at Badr, every single one. Then the man in the dream slaughtered a camel and the blood splattered on every tent in our encampment.' The army dismissed the dream. They were preparing their own deaths.
❧Allāh's Decree: Even If You Had Agreed, You Would Have Disagreed
Q 8:42 captures the entire Divine plan:
> Wa law tawāʿattum lakhtalaftum fil-mīʿādi wa lākil-liyaqḍiyallāhu amran kāna mafʿūlā, li yahlika man halaka ʿan bayyinatin wa yaḥyā man ḥayya ʿan bayyinah (وَلَوْ تَوَاعَدتُّمْ لَاخْتَلَفْتُمْ فِي الْمِيعَادِ وَلَٰكِن لِّيَقْضِيَ اللَّهُ أَمْرًا كَانَ مَفْعُولًا لِّيَهْلِكَ مَنْ هَلَكَ عَن بَيِّنَةٍ وَيَحْيَىٰ مَنْ حَيَّ عَن بَيِّنَةٍ)
'If you had agreed to meet [in battle], you still would have disagreed about the time and place. But [it happened] so that Allāh could fulfill a matter that was already decreed, so that whoever perishes, perishes after the proof has been established; and whoever lives, lives after the proof has been established.'
Nobody on either side planned the Battle of Badr. The Muslims wanted the caravan. The Quraysh just wanted to protect their investment and go home, or in Abū Jahl's case, to throw a Jāhilī celebration. Yet here they were, armies facing each other on the plains. Allāh's Qadar is sovereign.