He therefore turned back.

Ibn Lahīʿa transmits the same report from Abū al-Aswad, from ʿUrwah, adding: “The Muslims mounted in pursuit of them, but the enemy eluded them and abandoned their provisions, so Abū Sufyān’s foray came to be called the Raid of al-Sawīq.”

Ibn Isḥāq said: “Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr, Yazīd ibn Rumān, and another reliable source narrated to me from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik:

When Abū Sufyān returned to Mecca and the routed remnant of Quraysh came back from the day of Badr, he vowed that no water for a ritual bath would touch his head until he had raided Muḥammad ﷺ. He set out with two hundred horsemen and halted at a hill called Nabt, about one barīd (roughly twelve miles) from Medina. Setting off in the night, he went to Ḥuyayy ibn Akhṭab, knocked at his door, but Ḥuyayy, afraid of him, did not open. Abū Sufyān then turned to Sallām ibn Mishkam, the chief of Banū al-Naḍīr; Sallām admitted him, offered him hospitality, and covertly supplied him with intelligence.

Later that same night Abū Sufyān returned to his companions and dispatched a party of men. They reached the district of al-ʿArīḍ, found two Muslims there, killed them, and withdrew, whereupon the alarm was raised.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out after them until he reached Qarqarat al-Kudr, then turned back; Abū Sufyān and his men had already escaped, having thrown away food supplies in their saddlebags—including a large quantity of sawīq (barley meal)—to lighten their mounts for flight. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned, the Muslims said, “O Messenger of Allah, may we hope that this will count for us as a raid?” He replied, “Yes.” This occurred two months after Badr.

In that same year ʿUthmān married Umm Kulthūm (may Allah be pleased with her),

and in the same year ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) married Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ (may Allah be pleased with her).