📅 623CE | 2 AH
As always in Arabia, the battle of Badr began with single combats. Al Aswad sprang out of the ranks of the Quraysh toward the Muslims seeking to destroy the trough and drink from the well of Badr, but Hamzah stood ready striking him with his sword, cutting off his legs and killing him.
As soon as al Aswad fell, other members of the Quraysh leapt forth challenging the Muslims to duel wanting to fight their own tribesmen. At this, Hamzah, Ali, and ‘Ubaydah ibn al Harith advanced forth. No sooner had they charged forth were all three men of Quraysh lying dead on the ground. ‘Ubaydah received a lethal blow to his leg, severing it. As the marrow oozed from its stump, he had only one thought. “Am I not a martyr, O Messenger of God?” he said as the Prophet approached him. “Indeed, thou art,” he answered. When the Qurashite army saw this, they advanced, and the two armies collided.
In between battle the Prophet prayed to his Lord ceaselessly and persistently to come to their help and when the fierce engagement reached its climax he again began to supplicate his Lord saying, “O God! Should this group (of Muslims) be defeated today, You will no longer be worshipped.”
When the believers were ordered to charge, they did not charge alone, for the prophet had been promised by revelation: “When you sought aid from your Lord, so He answered you: I will assist you with a thousand of the angels following one another. The presence of the Angels was felt by all, but that presence was only visible or audible to a few, and in varying degrees.”
During the course of battle Bilal killed Umayyah ibn Khalaf, his previous master who would torture him by placing a large rock on his chest and letting him burn under the scorching sun in order to force him to renounce Islam. Mu’adh ibn ‘Amr killed Abu Jahl. Hamzah, Ali and other Muslim heroes penetrated deeply into enemy lines, forgetting themselves, their small numbers, and their being surrounded by their enemies. Muslims hurled themselves into the encounter chanting, “God is one! God is one!” By midday the Quraysh, who had expected to have to make a show of force, panicked and fled in disarray, leaving about fifty of their leading men, including Abu Jahl himself, dead on the field.
When the dust begun the settle and the unbelievers had fled the battlefield, the Muslims collected the dead of the Quraysh and buried them on the spot. The Prophet and his companions spent that night on the battlefield burying their dead, collecting the booty and keeping watch of the captives. The outcome of the battle was a humiliating defeat for the polytheists. They sustained heavy casualties, seventy were killed and a like number taken prisoners. Many of the principal men of Makkah, and some of the Prophet’s bitterest opponents were among the slain.
Fourteen Muslims were killed, of who six were from the Muhajirin and eight from the Ansar.