The Prophet ﷺ asked, “How do you regard the people of Badr among you?” They answered, “They are the finest of the Muslims”—or words to that effect. He said, “And so it is with the angels who witnessed Badr.” Al-Bukhārī alone records this wording.
Section: The arrival of Zaynab, the Prophet’s daughter ﷺ, as an emigrant (1) from Mecca to Madinah (one month after the Battle of Badr, in accordance with the pledge her husband Abū al-ʿĀṣ had made to the Prophet ﷺ, as mentioned earlier) (2).
Ibn Isḥāq (3) relates: When Abū al-ʿĀṣ returned to Mecca and had been granted release—as already noted—the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent Zayd ibn Ḥārithah and an Anṣārī companion in his stead and said, “Stay in the valley of Yaʾjaj (4) until Zaynab passes by you; then escort her and bring her to me.” So the two men went to their post, and this was a month—or nearly so—after Badr. When Abū al-ʿĀṣ reached Mecca he told her to join her father, and she began to prepare.
Ibn Isḥāq (5) continues: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr told me, on the authority of Zaynab, that she said: “While I was making my preparations, Hind bint ʿUtbah met me and said, ‘Daughter of Muḥammad, has it not reached me that you intend to join your father?’ I replied, ‘I have no such intention.’ She said, ‘Cousin, do not do it. If you need any belongings that will ease your journey, or money to help you reach your father, whatever you require is with me. Do not feel embarrassed to take it from me, for what lies between women is not like what lies between men.’ By Allah, I think she said that only in order to help me, yet I was afraid of her and denied that I wished to leave.”
Ibn Isḥāq (7) adds: When her preparations were complete, her husband’s brother Kinānah ibn al-Rabīʿ brought her a camel, and she mounted it. He took his bow and quiver and set out with her in broad daylight, leading the camel while she sat in her howdah. Some men of Quraysh heard of this and went out in pursuit until they caught up with her at Dhū Tuwa. The first to reach her were Habbār ibn al-Aswad ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā and a man of the Fahri clan (9). Habbār brandished his spear at her, terrifying her while she was in the howdah—and she was pregnant—