The First Badr Expedition

Ibn Isḥāq (1) said: After returning from al-‘Ushayrah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained in Madinah only a few nights—less than ten—when Kurz ibn Jābir al-Fihri raided the city’s grazing herds. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out in pursuit until he reached a valley called Safwān on the outskirts of Badr; this was the first Badr expedition. Kurz escaped and the Prophet did not overtake him. According to al-Wāqidī (3), the banner on that day was carried by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Ibn Hishām and al-Wāqidī add that he left Zayd ibn Ḥārithah as his deputy in Madinah.

Ibn Isḥāq (4) continues: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then returned and stayed through Jumādā, Rajab, and Shaʿbān. Before this he had dispatched Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ with eight Emigrants; they advanced as far as al-Kharrār in the Ḥijāz.

Ibn Hishām remarks that some scholars say this expedition of Saʿd took place after that of Ḥamzah. The detachment came back without engaging the enemy. That is all Ibn Isḥāq says in brief. Al-Wāqidī, however, had already mentioned these three missions in detail: Ḥamzah’s in Ramaḍān, ʿUbaydah’s in Shawwāl, and Saʿd’s in Dhū al-Qaʿdah—each of them in the first year.

Imam Aḥmad (5) related: ʿAbd al-Muʿtāl ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb told me, “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to me.” ʿAbd Allah, the son of Imam Aḥmad, adds: Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Umawī narrated to me; my father narrated to us from Mujālid, from Ziyād ibn ʿIlāqah, from Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, who said:

“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Madinah, people from the tribe of Juhaynah came and said, ‘You have settled among us; grant us a firm pledge until we can come to you and be secure.’ He gave them that assurance, and they accepted Islam.

“Later, in the month of Rajab, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent us out—we were fewer than one hundred men—and ordered us to raid a clan of the Banū Kinānah next to Juhaynah. We attacked, but they were many, so we sought refuge with Juhaynah, who protected us and said, ‘Why are you fighting in the sacred month?’ We consulted one another. Some said, ‘Let us return to the Prophet ﷺ and inform him.’ Others said, ‘No, let us stay here.’ I, along with some men, said, ‘Rather, let us go after the Quraysh caravan and seize it.’

“At that time booty was distributed according to the rule: whoever took something kept it. So we headed for the caravan, while our companions went back to the Prophet ﷺ and reported what had happened. He rose, angry, his face reddening, and said:

‘You left me together and have come back divided! It was discord that destroyed those before you. I will surely send over you a man who is not the best of you, yet he will out-endure you in hunger and thirst.’

“He then appointed ʿAbd Allah ibn Jahsh al-Asadī as our commander; he was the first man ever to be given the title of amīr in Islam.”