Mecca, Medina, and Syria. There, they boasted, “We shall slaughter camels, drink wine—Allah forbid!—and let the qiyān (singing-girls) play for us in jubilation and merriment. When the other Arabs hear of our revelry, they will never cease to fear us—Allah protect us!”
Thus they set out, just as Allah the Exalted says: “They went forth from their homes in arrogant defiance and to be seen by people” (Qur’an 8:47). Resolute, they insisted on confronting the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, at Badr. The Prophet and his Companions numbered three hundred and a little over ten, whereas Quraysh mustered nine hundred men. Quraysh arrived fully equipped for war, while the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, had made no real preparations. Yet Allah Most High brought the two forces together at an unexpected moment so that His decree might come to pass.
They met, and regarding this Allah says: “When Allah showed them to you in your dream as few in number” (Qur’an 8:43). The Prophet, ﷺ, had indeed seen them as few so that his heart would be encouraged to engage them. Allah continues: “Had He shown them to you as many, you would surely have lost courage and would have disputed about the matter; but Allah saved you—He knows well what is in the hearts” (8:43). And He says: “And when He made you see them, when you met, as few in your eyes…” (8:44). Glory be to Allah— they saw the Companions as few, and the Companions likewise saw them as few, so that each side felt ready to face the other.
The armies closed ranks, the battle flared, and seventy Meccans were killed while another seventy were captured; from the Muslims, seventy men fell. Glory be to Allah—“Such days We alternate among mankind” (Qur’an 3:140).
In brief, the encounter took place and the fighting was fierce. The leading chiefs of Quraysh were slain—including the seven or eight men who had once thrown the entrails of a camel on the Messenger of Allah while he was prostrating beneath the Kaʿbah, in that famous incident where the Prophet supplicated, “O Allah, deal with Quraysh! O Allah, deal with Quraysh! O Allah, deal with So-and-so and So-and-so,” naming them one by one. All of them were killed at Badr. The Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, then ordered that these arrogant chieftains be cast into a foul, stinking well, and he—peace and blessings be upon him—remained triumphant and victorious on that day.