He took his place on the Prophet’s right—Abū Bakr was there as well—while Isrāfīl stood on the left wing with a thousand angels, the wing in which I myself was present; and Gabriel was on the right with another thousand.

He went on: “That day I kept thrusting with my spear until the blood reached my armpit.”

The author of al-ʿIqd and others relate that the finest single verse ever spoken by the Arabs is the couplet of Ḥassān ibn Thābit:

At Badr’s well, when their mounts were held in check—
Gabriel was beneath our banner, and Muhammad.

Al-Bukhārī records: Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm told us, Jarīr told us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Muʿādh ibn Rifāʿah ibn Rāfiʿ al-Zurqī, from his father—who had fought at Badr—that he said: “Gabriel came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and asked, ‘How do you regard the people of Badr among yourselves?’ He replied, ‘Among the very best of the Muslims,’ or words to that effect. Gabriel said, ‘And so too are the angels who witnessed Badr.’” This narration is unique to al-Bukhārī.

Allah the Exalted says: “When your Lord revealed to the angels, ‘I am with you, so make firm those who believe. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the disbelievers; therefore strike them above the necks’—that is, their heads—‘and strike from them every fingertip.’” (Al-Anfāl 8:12)

In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, through the isnād of ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār from Abū Zumayl, Ibn ʿAbbās reports: “While a man from the Muslims that day was pursuing an idolater in front of him, he suddenly heard the crack of a whip above him and a horseman’s voice calling, ‘Advance, Ḥayzūm!’ He looked and saw the idolater fall flat on his back. On examination he found that the man’s nose had been cut off and his face split open as by a whip-stroke, the whole of it having turned green. The Anṣārī went and reported this to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said, ‘You have spoken the truth; that was from the third wave of help from heaven.’ That day they killed seventy and took seventy prisoner.

Ibn Isḥāq says: ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ḥazm related to me—from someone who reported from Ibn ʿAbbās—on the authority of a man of Banū Ghifār who said: “My cousin and I were present at Badr while still idolaters. We had climbed a mountain to see which side would prevail so that we could loot the defeated. A cloud approached, and when it came close to the mountain we heard within it the snorting of horses…"