Wahb ibn ʿUmayr al-Jumahī—as noted earlier—was likewise released, and the Prophet ﷺ ransomed the rest of the prisoners. Even his own uncle al-ʿAbbās was made to pay more than any other captive, lest anyone claim he had shown him favoritism. The Helpers who had seized al-ʿAbbās asked the Messenger of God ﷺ to forego his ransom, but he refused and said, “Do not leave so much as a single dirham of it.”
The ransoms varied: the least that was taken was four hundred, while from some forty uqiyyahs of gold were exacted, as related by Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah. From al-ʿAbbās one hundred uqiyyahs of gold were taken. Others were required to work off a service equal to the value of their ransom.
Imām Aḥmad reports:
“ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim related to us; Dāwūd said: ʿIkrimah narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
Some of the prisoners taken at Badr had no money with which to pay a ransom, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made their ransom that they should teach the children of the Helpers to write.
One day a boy came home crying to his father. The father asked, ‘What is the matter?’
The boy replied, ‘My teacher beat me.’
The father said, ‘That scoundrel is still trying to settle the score of Badr! By Allah, you will never go back to him again.’”
Only Aḥmad relates this report, and its chain meets the standards of the Sunan collections. The matter has already been discussed in detail—praise and gratitude belong to Allah.
Section: The virtue of those Muslims who fought at Badr
Al-Bukhārī states in this chapter:
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad told us, Muʿāwiyah ibn ʿAmr narrated to us, Abū Isḥāq narrated from Ḥumayd, who said:
I heard Anas say:
Haritha was struck down on the Day of Badr. His mother came to the Messenger of God ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of God, you know how dear Haritha is to me. If he is in Paradise, I will bear my loss with patience and seek my reward; but if it is otherwise, then you shall see what I will do.”
He replied, “Woe to you! Have you lost your mind? Is there only one Garden? No, there are many Gardens, and he is in the Garden of al-Firdaws.”
Al-Bukhārī alone transmits this wording.
The same incident is also reported through another chain, from Thābit and Qatādah on the authority of Anas, adding that Haritha had been posted among the lookouts, and in it the Prophet ﷺ says, “Your son has attained the Highest Firdaws.”
This is a momentous indication of the merit of the people of Badr. Haritha was not in the thick of the fighting, nor in the very heart of the fray; he was merely observing from a distance when a stray arrow struck him as he drank from the basin. Yet by that single stance he attained al-Firdaws—the loftiest and most central level of Paradise, from which the rivers of Paradise spring forth, and the very level the Lawgiver instructed his community to ask of God when they ask Him for Paradise.
If this was the reward of a man who was merely among the lookouts, what then of those who stood directly before the enemy, while the enemy outnumbered them three to one in men and matériel?