Another instructive anecdote is that Gabriel came to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and asked, “How do you rank the people of Badr among yourselves?” The Prophet replied, “They are the very best of the Muslims,” or words to that effect. Gabriel then said, “And so are the angels who fought at Badr.”
Badr is a well-known location between Mecca and Medina where a battle took place between the Muslims and the idolaters. The reason for that clash was that Abu Sufyan, Sakhr ibn Harb, the chief of Mecca, was returning from Syria with a caravan carrying food for the Meccans. When the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—heard that the caravan was nearing Mecca, he informed his Companions. The Meccans had earlier expelled the Muslims from their homes and properties and had confiscated them, so the believers were entitled to seize the property of the unbelievers in just retribution. The Prophet therefore told his Companions to set out only to intercept that caravan.
He left with three hundred and a little more than ten men—somewhere between ten and twenty over three hundred, roughly three hundred and thirteen or three hundred and twenty. They carried virtually no weaponry: only seventy camels, which they rode in turns, and two horses. Their intent was not to fight but simply to capture the caravan and return.
Abu Sufyan, however, was an astute and seasoned leader. He dispatched a message to the people of Mecca: “Rescue your caravan; Muhammad and his Companions are coming to seize it.” Then he took the coastal route, far from Medina. When Quraysh heard this, the zeal of the pre-Islamic period seized them. They rallied in full force—every notable and chieftain among them—for a wisdom Allah the Exalted had decreed. After they had left the outskirts of Mecca, news reached them that Abu Sufyan had escaped safely by way of the coast, beyond the reach of the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—and his Companions. They then consulted one another: “Since the caravan is safe, let us return to Mecca; why should we go to war?” But their leaders—such as Abu Jahl and others—said, “By Allah, we will never return to Mecca until we reach Badr,” the decisive crossroads between