This exchange took place not far from Badr, with the sea lying to the west and Birku’l-Ghimad—a site on the Yemeni side of Mecca—several nights’ journey south of the city. The idolaters were then in Mecca, while the Prophet’s Companions were camped on the Medina side, to the north of Mecca; thus Mecca was to their south and the sea to their west.

In effect they were saying: “If you were to order us to enter the enemy’s territory and head in that direction, we would do so without hesitation.”

They went on to say: When Allah granted the Children of Israel victory and dominion, innovations arose among them; they grew arrogant, their hearts hardened, and they came to resemble Pharaoh’s household. Allah therefore sent the Messiah—peace be upon him—with gentleness, forbearance, pardoning those who wronged him, and bearing their harm, so as to soften their character and remove the tyranny and harshness that had taken root in them.

Yet those people exceeded all bounds in gentleness: they abandoned commanding right and forbidding wrong, relinquished jihad in Allah’s path, neglected to judge between people with justice or to enforce the prescribed penalties, and many of their devotees withdrew into solitary monasticism. At the same time, among their kings there was oppression, cruelty, rule by other than what Allah had revealed, and the unlawful shedding of blood—some of it at the instigation of their scholars and ascetics, and some that they had not commanded—mirroring what the Jews themselves had done.

So Allah sent Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—with a complete and just law, and He made his community a balanced, exemplary nation that does not veer toward one extreme or the other. They are firm against the enemies of Allah, gentle toward the allies of Allah; they apply pardon and forgiveness when the matter concerns their personal rights, and they resort to retaliation and punishment when the right belongs to Allah.