While he was in his pavilion on the Day of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ implored: “O Allah, I beseech You by Your covenant and Your promise. O Allah, if You will, You will never again be worshipped after today.” Abū Bakr grasped his hand and said, “Enough, enough, Messenger of Allah; you have pleaded earnestly with your Lord,” while the Prophet was clad in his coat of mail. He then came out reciting: “The multitude shall be routed and will turn their backs; yet the Hour is their appointed time, and the Hour is more calamitous and bitter” (Q 54:45–46). Al-Bukhārī recorded this report.

ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār related—through Abū Zumayl Simāk al-Ḥanafī—from Ibn ʿAbbās, from ʿUmar, who said: On the Day of Badr the Messenger of Allah ﷺ looked at the idolaters, a thousand strong, while his own followers numbered three hundred and nineteen. He faced the qiblah (direction of prayer), stretched out both hands, and kept pleading with his Lord, arms extended toward the qiblah, until his cloak slipped from his shoulders. Abū Bakr came up, picked up the cloak, placed it over his shoulders, and embraced him from behind, saying, “Prophet of Allah, this suffices; your supplication to your Lord is enough, for He will surely fulfill what He has promised you.” Thereupon Allah revealed: “When you cried out to your Lord for help, He answered you: ‘I will reinforce you with a thousand angels, rank upon rank’” (Q 8:9). Thus Allah strengthened him with the angels.

Ibn ʿAbbās continued: A man from the Muslims that day was chasing an idolater ahead of him when he heard the crack of a whip above him and the voice of a horseman saying, “Advance, Ḥayzūm!” He looked at the idolater, who suddenly fell on his back; on closer view, the man’s nose had been severed and his face split as though by a whip, and it had all turned green. The Anṣārī then came and reported this to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said, “You have spoken the truth; that was part of the third wave of heavenly aid.” On that day they killed seventy and captured seventy. Muslim recorded this narration.