we are in pursuit, so whoever has his mount ready, let him ride with us.” Some men asked permission to fetch their animals from the high quarters of Madinah, but he said, “No—only those whose mounts are present.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his Companions set off until they out-stripped the idolaters and reached Badr first. When the idolaters arrived, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Let none of you step forward to do anything until I give him leave.” As the enemy drew near, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ proclaimed, “Rise to a Garden whose breadth is the heavens and the earth!”

ʿUmayr ibn al-Humām al-Anṣārī said, “O Messenger of Allah, a Garden whose breadth is the heavens and the earth?” He replied, “Yes.” ʿUmayr exclaimed, “Bravo, bravo!” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked, “What makes you say ‘Bravo, bravo’?” He answered, “Nothing, by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, but the hope that I might be among its people.” He said, “You are indeed among its people.”

ʿUmayr then took a few dates from the pouch at his side and began to eat them. He said, “If I live long enough to finish these dates, that will be a long life!” He threw away what he had of the dates, advanced, and fought until he was killed—may Allah be pleased with him.

Muslimah related this from Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Naḍr, and a group likewise narrated it from Abū al-Naḍr Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim, from Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah with the same wording.

Ibn Jarīr also reports that ʿUmayr fought while chanting:

 Hastening to Allah with no provision
  save piety and deeds for the Final Return;
 Patient for Allah’s sake in the struggle,
  for every store of goods is bound to perish
 except piety, righteousness, and right guidance.

Imām Aḥmad records—Ḥajjāj narrated to us; Isrāʾīl, from Abū Isḥāq, from Ḥārithah ibn Muḍar-rib, from ʿAlī, who said: “When we arrived in Madinah we ate of its fruits and fell ill with fever. Meanwhile the Messenger of Allah ﷺ kept gathering information about Badr. When news reached us that the polytheists were advancing, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out for Badr—and Badr is a well. We reached it before the polytheists and found there two of their men: one from Quraysh and a client of ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ. The Qurashī slipped away, but we seized the client. We kept asking him, ‘How many are the enemy?’ and he would answer, ‘By Allah, they are many in number and formidable in might.’ Whenever he said this, the Muslims would strike him, until they brought him before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He asked him, ‘How many…’