terror” (al-Anfāl 8:12). Look! In this single verse Allah reassures the believers while He hurls terror into the hearts of the disbelievers. With terror gripping the enemy and resolve filling the believers, how near must victory then be?

Allah therefore granted the believers extraordinary steadfastness and sent terror down upon those who disbelieved.

He, Exalted is He, also said: “So strike above the necks and strike every fingertip of theirs” (al-Anfāl 8:12)—meaning every joint. Strike on, for the matter has been made easy for you.

The Muslims—praise be to Allah—pressed the attack. They killed seventy men and captured another seventy. Those slain were not from the fringes of Quraysh; every one of them was a leader and a chief. Twenty-four of the corpses were dragged away and cast into a dry well at the center of Badr, their lifeless bodies pulled along until they were dropped into the pit.

The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—then stood over them and called out, “O so-and-so, son of so-and-so,” addressing each by name and by his father’s name, “have you found what your Lord promised you to be true? For I have indeed found what my Lord promised me to be true.”

Some Companions asked, “Messenger of Allah, how can you speak to people whose bodies have decayed?” He replied, “By Allah, you do not hear what I am saying any better than they do, but they cannot respond.” They were dead—and this, praise be to Allah, is a blessing for which we must thank Him each time we remember it.