Badr: 17 Ramaḍān: 10 Myths & Facts

This is not intended as a retelling of the Battle of Badr, the respected reader is advised to read full accounts which are available. Rather, I am simply gathering a few myths and interesting (to me) facts which are not usually mentioned.

1. Let’s start with the name. While the battle was certainly great, there is no such thing as the ‘Great’ Battle of Badr as a name, as is often cited. As I have discussed before, many of the common Islāmic phrases we use today were originally inaccurately translated in British India. The translators were often not scholars, or not even Muslim, and their misunderstandings have stuck with us to this day. The scholars of Sīrah coined the term Badr al-Kubrā in contradistinction to skirmishes and appointments also at Badr – Badr aṣ-Ṣughrā/ Badr al-Mawʿūd. In other words, it was never meant as a sensational name, the way the unversed use it today – Hey! What a great battle Badr was! Rather, the intent of ‘Badr al-Kubrā’ is the Greater Battle of Badr, as opposed to the Lesser Badr. Great would have been Kabīrah in any case, not Kubrā, which by definition is for comparison.(By unversed, I do not only refer to journalists, but even scholars of religion these days, for whom many of them Sīrah is but a passing interest).
2. The Companions (رضي الله عنهم) all fasted while fighting during the heat of Ramaḍān! What is your suffering compared to theirs? What is your excuse? This makes for good storytelling and oratory, but contradicts the clear narration of Muslim 1116, that some chose to fast and some chose not to fast, and neither party faulted the other for their decision. This is not a narration from some obscure book, but hey, why let facts get in the way of a good emotional speech and laziness to fact-check?
3. Many know of the Qurashī leader at Badr, ʿUtbah bin Rabīʿah, but did you know that on the Muslim side there was also an ʿUtbah bin Rabīʿah (رضي الله عنه)? Unfortunately, we are uncertain of his full name, there are various views.
4. According to al-Imām al-Baghawī: al-Akhnas as-Sulamī, his son, Yazīd bin al-Akhnas, and Yazīd’s son, Maʿn bin Yazīd bin al-Akhnas, were the only Muslim trio of grandfather-son-grandson to have fought at Badr. (رضي الله عنهم). Note that Yazīd was a common name amongst the Companions (رضي الله عنهم). It is ignorance to prohibit a name simply because of one later personality.
5. There were three horses at Badr on the Muslim side [Ibn Hisham: 1666]:

السَّبَلُ as-Sabal (of Marthad al-Ghanawī رضي الله عنه)

الْيَعْسُوبُ al-Yaʿsūb (of Zubayr al-Asadī رضي الله عنه)

سَبْحَةُ Sabḥah (of Miqdād al-Kindī رضي الله عنه)

Now you know what to name your car.

6. Saʿd bin Khaythamah al-Awsī (رضي الله عنه) argued with his father before Badr, ‘If not for Paradise I’d give you preference, but I desire to be martyred.’ i.e. that he should go instead of his father. Allāh granted his desire, and he was martyred at Badr.

7. There were no Munāfiqūn before Badr. Kuffār only pretended to be Muslim AFTER Badr. In our time, Ghazzah exposed the Munāfiqūn and those, like the Leftists and activists, who prefer ideologies other than Allah’s Dīn.

8. The duʿāʾ of Rasūlullāh ( صَلَّى اللّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) the night before Badr [Muslim 1763]

اللَهُمَّ إِنْ تُهْلِكْ هَذِهِ الْعِصَابَةَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْإِسْلَامِ لَا تُعْبَدْ فِي الْأَرْضِ

O Allāh! If You destroy this group of the people of Islām, then You will not be worshipped on the Earth!

9. The duʿāʾ of Rasūlullāh ( صَلَّى اللّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) when marching to Badr [Abū Dāwūd 2747], and appropriate for the downtrodden Mujāhidūn to this day:

اللهم ! إنَّهُمْ حُفاةٌ فَاحمِْلْهُمْ، اللهم ! إنَّهُمْ عُراةٌ فَاكْسُهُمْ، اللهم ! إنَّهُمْ جِيَاعٌ فأَشْبِعْهُمْ

O Allāh! Indeed, they are barefoot, so carry them (grant conveyance). O Allāh! Indeed, they are naked, so clothe them. O Allāh! Indeed, they are hungry, so satiate their hunger.

10. Alī (رضي الله عنه) executed the apostate, ʿUqbah bin Abī Muʿeṭ, who was captured at Badr.  The ignorant and exaggerators claim that there were never apostates in the era of Rasūlullāh ( صَلَّى اللّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). Muʿeṭ is pronounced with imālah, the same rule as in bismillāhi majrehā  [Hūd:41]. The Qurʾān refers to his apostasy in al-Furqān:27.  

سليمان الكندي

Twitter: @sulayman_Kindi

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