Battle of Badr: Islam at Its Best
http://www.islam-watch.org/authors/68-mumin/1380-battle-of-badr-islam-at-its-best.html
On the 17th of Ramadan of every year,
Muslims celebrate Islam’s most blessed and most important day – the
battle of Badr, which took place two years after Hijra. From the
Muslims’ point of view, the battle symbolized the victory of what is the
right (Haq) against what is wrong (Batel), the oppressed against the
oppressors, the Muslims against the Kuffar; in short it symbolized the
victory of Islam against the enemies of Allah. The Muslim army won the
battle and Mohammed emerged as a rising leader in Arabia that every
tribe should fear and respect- or else.
In Badr, the Muslims demonstrated their
best. They have never been that good before or after that ‘glorious’
day. Since then, Badr has been a medal that honored those Muslims who
were lucky enough to join Mohammed and fight the battle. There is
nothing more prestigious to any sahaba (Mohammed’s companion) than to
refer to him as a Muslims who ‘shahida badr’, meaning fought in Badr.
Being so blessed, the Muslims of today often use the name Badr in
military exercises /operations or prestigious organizations.
Our knowledge about that battle comes
only from the Islamic sources because there are no others. There are no
accounts from the defeated party, the Kuffar, who were completely
annihilated and no accounts from other neutral parties. This is a
typical example of the adage “history is written by the victorious”. It
is logical to assume that the Muslim historians did their best to paint a
picture that is biased towards Islam.
Mohammed’s immigration to Medina went
well, but soon the inevitable happened and he ran out of money. Normal
people who find themselves in similar circumstances would look for work
or learn new skills to support themselves, but I don't think the idea
crossed Mohammed’s mind. Simply it was not in his culture. Mohammed
opted for the easy money that comes through raiding other tribes and
stealing their properties.
That was the beginning of that form of
jihad known as ‘gazwat’, which is a polished word for raids. Mohammed
and his followers carried out a number of those raids before the battle
of Badr, which was a continuation of those raids, only on a larger
scale.
The Quraish was a tribe of trade. Their
richest caravan was coming home from Syria heading to Mecca under the
leadership of Abu Sufyan. The rich caravan was protected by some thirty
men. The news of the arrival of the caravan reached Mohammed, who
couldn't resist the temptation. He called for the Muslims and said:
“These are the camels of Quraish with their money, go for it may Allah
make it yours” (1). What a nice preaching!. He then organized a force of
over three hundreds of his followers to intercept the caravan and raid
it before it arrives to Mecca.
Abu Sufyan was a careful leader. He knew
what was on stake and how rich the caravan was. His strategy was to
send spies to explore the roads ahead and screen them for gangs who
might be tempted to raid the caravan. Indeed, the news came that there
was a huge gang, an army in fact, under the command of Mohammed, waiting
to ambush the caravan at Badr. Abu Sufyan diverted the caravan to an
alternative route that went towards Yanbu, at the red sea coast. At the
same time, he sent to Mecca to alert them that Mohammed and his gang
were planning to ambush the caravan.
Nearly every Meccan family had a stake
in that caravan, so the news generated a lot of anger. About a thousand
men gathered in haste and rushed to Badr to protect their caravan. Just
as they were about to reach Badr, The news came to them that their
caravan has arrived safely to Mecca. However, the two armies were
destined for a confrontation and the Meccans decided to teach Mohammed
and his gang a lesson. Because they had time on their side, the Muslims
were better positioned as they already occupied the water sources.
Mohammed was encouraged by a dream he had the night before that the
Meccan army was a small army, which he interpreted as a good sign (2).
Angel Gabriel, with three thousands of his angels, supported the
Muslims’ army (3). The battle lasted only a few hours and ended by the
early afternoon as many of the leaders of the Meccan army were killed.
The caravan was saved, but the Quraish
lost some of its best men in that battle, including Omar Ibn Hisham and
Nadr Ibn Al Harith, who often exposed Mohammed’s ignorance when he was
still in Mecca. Both men often asked Mohammed questions to which he had
no immediate answers. After weeks of thinking, Mohammed used to come up
with useless responses in the form of Quranic verses like “they ask you
about the spirit, say the spirit is something my god understands!...”
Omar Ibn Hisham was a respected man renowned of his knowledge about
religions and history. Mohammed was not comfortable with Omar Ibn
Hisham’s status and reputation and later changed his title to Abu Jahl
(father of ignorance), which suggests that the original title was
‘father of knowledge’, as Mohammed was known to reverse the titles he
didn't like. Ibn Al Harith was not killed in the battle but was taken as
a prisoner but Mohammed did not like to see him alive and gave his
orders to Ali to kill him, to which Ali obliged by beheading him! Of
course, Mohammed released the necessary verses to justify his actions
(4).
No matter how you read it, or from which angle you look at it, this what happened in Badr:
- A trading caravan coming home from Syria to Mecca.
- Armed gang waiting to ambush the caravan, kill its men and seize the caravan and the merchandise for themselves.
There is nothing else to see in the
story, as the Muslims told it, other than killing the prisoners, which
was (and still) against the prevailing ethics of war.
And that was Islam at its best!
That what Muslims celebrate on the 17th of Ramadan every year!
The battle of Badr was piracy on a large
scale carried out by a gang of merciless and blood thirsty murderers
against innocent traders- plain and simple. It will remain a disgraceful
piracy to the end of time. When Mohammed and his companions left Medina
to intercept that rich caravan, they were not interested in preaching a
religion or teaching ethics; they were only interested robbery and
murder.
But that all Mohammed had ever done. He and his companions were professional gangsters who made a living from murders and theft.
Why Muslims do not see the reality of Badr?
When Muslims read the story of Badr,
they do not sense any piracy or murder, which looks bizarre to non
Muslims. This is also true when Muslims read about Mohammed’s other
raids. Indeed, sensing any of Islam’s inanities is not as
straightforward to Muslims as the non Muslims think. I spent decades in
Islam without feeling there was anything disgraceful in the battle of
Badr or any of Mohammed’s other raids, which were far worse. Some may
wonder: How does that happen? Is there something wrong with the Muslims’
intellectuality?
The fact that it happens emphasizes the
concerns that Islam cripples the mind. The problem is that we keep
comparing Islam to other religions; the fact is that Muslims are brought
up in a completely different way than the followers of other religions.
It may look as an overstatement, but I do believe that professional
research is required to understand the effects of Islam on the mind. I
do believe that Islam is dangerous to mental health and something must
be done about it. The fact that people who convert to Islam suddenly
become dangerous to their relatives and their societies says it all. We
all know that people commit suicides or murders soon after converting to
Islam. If it is observed that people commit suicides after taking a
drug, that drug would be banned.
In my experience, Muslims’ inability to
see the reality of Islam has to do with the extensive brain washing the
Muslim is subjected to since his/her birth (5). By the time a Muslim
comes to read about the battle of Badr, his/her mind is already
conditioned to revere words like rasool, PBUH, sahaba and their titles,
Muslims ..etc. At the same time, his/her mind is conditioned to despise
and be repelled by words like Kuffar, enemies of Allah, Mushrikoon etc.
The Muslim’s basic facts are established at an early stage in life as
absolute facts, and that becomes difficult to change later in life. When
the Muslims read the sira books, they are already prepared to accept,
even think highly, of anything “the prophet PBUH” might do or say.
A Muslim school book introduces the
story by claiming that the Quraish had already confiscated the
properties of the “prophet of Allah PBUH, and the Muhajeroon, may ridwan
of Allah(acceptance) be upon them”, therefore, raiding a caravan was
approved by “Allah SWT and his prophet PBUH” as a justified action to
make the ‘haq’ (right) victorious and the ‘batel’ (wrong) loser. The
Muslims’ books actually put the blame on the Quraish and depict them as
war mongers and portray Mohammed and his gang as peace loving people!
"The battle could have been averted, as the caravan arrived safely to
Mecca. The prophet PBUH and the sahaba, may ridwan (acceptance) Allah be
upon them, were preparing to leave, but the enemies of Allah SWT seized
the opportunity to fight the Muslims to extinguish the divine light of
Islam, but Allah SWT will protect his light to eternity."
The killing of the prisoners is also justified: “The
prophet PBUH asked for the Sahaba’s (May ridwan Allah be upon them)
opinion. But Allah SWT, the all knowing, revealed verse Q.8:67, which
blamed the prophet PBUH for being soft and nice to the enemies of Allah
SWT and ordered him to apply Allah’s punishment on them, because SWT,
the all knowing, knew that the hearts of those prisoners were too black
and filled with hatred to Allah SWT and his prophet PBUH. Keeping them
alive would be too dangerous to Islam. Allah SWT knew what was best for
his religion and his prophet”.
It is worth mentioning that most of
Mohammed’s companions in Badr were from the Ansar, who lived in Medina,
and had no properties at all in Mecca. The battle of Badr was not a one
off piracy; the Muslims raided many other tribes where Muslims,
Muhajeroon and Ansar, had no properties at all. Interestingly, the issue
of properties never came up in any of the negotiations Mohammed had
with the Quraish after hijra, which means it never existed.
Criminals are never short of justifications, but a piracy is always a piracy and a murder is always a murder.
That was the battle of Badr, when Muslims did their best and Islam appeared in its best form!
---
References
1. Sirat Ibn Hisham
2. Q. 8: l 43,44
3. Q. 3: 123,124
4. Q.8: 67
Please refer to my article: http://www.faithfreedom.org/the-making-of-a-muslim/
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