Meqdad ibn Amr of the Muhajireen said:

“O Messenger of God, go ahead with what God has ordered you to do, and we shall be with you. We do not say what the Children of Israel said to Moses to go and fight with his God, while they stay back [see: Al Ma’ida 24]; we say to you, ‘Go and fight with your God and we shall fight with you’. I swear by the One who sent you with truth, if you want us to march to Bark al Ghemad [a city in Abyssinia] with you, we will persevere till we reach there with you.”

Then Sa’d ibn Mo’adh of the Ansar said:

“We have believed in you and we bear witness that what you have come with is the truth. O Messenger of God, go ahead with what you wish to do, and we are with you. I swear by the One Who has sent you with truth, if you wish us to cross the sea with you, we will cross it, and not a single man will stay back. Go with the blessing of God.”

These were the pledges given to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessing be upon him) on the eve of the battle of Badr. No longer were they raiding a mere Quraish caravan coming from Al-Sham (the area encompassing Syria, Jordan, &Palestine), but now they had just learned that between 900-1000 heavily armed Quraishi soldiers were coming to make battle with them. Among them were the Quraishi chiefs and knights, including Abu Jahl, Otba and Shaiba (sons of Rabi’a), Amr ibn Hesham, Omaiyya ibn Khalaf, Sohail ibn Omar, Amr ibn abd Wodd and others. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), uncertain of how his companions would react to the news consulted them for their advice he received more than that. He received their pledges to fight with Him to the ends of the Earth, all in Allah’s cause.

The Ansar, under the constitution of Medina, were not obligated to fight an enemy outside of the city of Medina. The Muhajireen would be fighting their clansmen…their brothers, fathers and uncles. Yet both of them stood firm, against all odds and an uncertain outcome. They were the first to be tried in battle against the enemy. This is, in my opinion, what makes the Battle of Badr such and important milestone for the first Muslims.

Now, the human body (as I was taught last week) is very interesting. Take for instance when you get the flu. With the very first sneeze comes great pain. Your lungs and your chest pound and ache with pain. But with every consecutive sneeze the pain becomes slightly less…your body is conditioning itself to handle the pain.

The human body is the same way with experiences. In this very first battle, the Muslims were not only fighting against the Quraish but their own uncertainty. This was not a time for a person to be teetering in their faith. This was not a battle in which people would fight for mere booty or tribal alliances. Before Badr, the Muslims had only read and heard of how so many times Allah gave the smaller force victory over the larger. Surely in other battles such as Uhud and the Ditch (Khandaq)…even though they were vastly outnumbered…they went into it with a certain sense of pride and belief which was strengthened from their victory at Badr. But the people at Badr had nothing to strengthen their confidence or their bravery but the true faith in Allah's promise. This is why the people of Badr were held in such high esteem and honor.

We can see how great this honor is in the story of Hateb ibn Balta’a. While the Muslims were very secretly preparing for the travel and battle of the opening of Mecca, Hateb sent a letter with a woman to Mecca describing the Prophet’s plan. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), upon catching wind of this sent Ali ibn Abi Talib & Al Zubair ibn Al Awwam (radia allahu anhum) who successfully intercepted the message before it could reach its destination. When asked why he did such a thing Hateb replied “I swear by Allah that I do believe in Allah and His Messenger; I have not changed. However, I am a person who has nobody to intercede for with Quraish; and my family and children are in their homes, and I wanted to do this favour to them to keep my family safe.” After hearing this, as Tabari reports:

“Omar ibn Khattab said: ‘O Messenger of God, let me cut off his head, he has acted like a hypocrite’. The Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) said that Allah has probably forgiven all the sins that might be committed by the people of Badr”.

Subhan Allah! Could you really think of anything that you have done in your entire life that, if you also did such an act, would be forgiven so easily. It should be noted though that no harm was done by Hateb’s actions, as the message was intercepted before it could reach Mecca. Had it reached Mecca the consequences might have been different. But Alhamdullilah, Allah did not determine this fate for Hateb, and covered up his mistake before it could cause damage to him and the Muslims in general. Can you now imagine how great the honor was given to those who were steadfast and stood with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upun him) at Badr?

What I want us to learn here is about missing our opportunity. The biggest test of one’s faith is doing something for the sake of Allah without knowing what the outcome will be. For the Muslims at Badr the outcome looked very bleek. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was continually praying to Allah during the battle:

“O Allah, if this band perishes, You will not be worshipped”,
“O Allah, if this band perishes, You will not be worshipped.”

Meaning that if these Muslims were killed at Badr there would be no-one else to worship Allah. Arabs like these had never gone into such a set-piece battle before. Nor had they gone up against such great numbers before unless it was a hit-and run raid. To them this might have been certain death. Yet they believed, and they were the first of those who fought in the way of Allah. Whether victory or martyrdom they were willing to go with the Prophet till the end. This is the greatnesss of the Mujahideen of Badr.

Later, only after the treaty of Hudaibiya did people beging entering Islam in large numbers and fight side by side with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). It was not until they could see a clear upper hand for the Muslims that they decided it was safe to declare their Shahada and worship Allah properly without partners, to join the fold of the Muslim ranks. Yet are those who fought at Tabuk and Ta'if, or those who would later fight the Roman and Persian empires at the same level with those who fought at Badr?

“And what cause have ye why ye should not spend in the cause of Allah.- For to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth. Not equal among you are those who spent (freely) and fought, before the Victory, (with those who did so later). Those are higher in rank than those who spent (freely) and fought afterwards. But to all has Allah promised a goodly (reward). And Allah is well acquainted with all that ye do.” (Al-Hadid, 10)

May Allah also allow us to be strong from the very beginning, to recognize the good cause, and to believe even when we cannot see what lies ahead.