Badr al-Mawʿid, the Appointed Badr

The Muslims won in the Battle of Badr, and the disbelievers won in the Battle of Uḥud, so they agreed that they were going to meet the following year, same time, same place, for the third battle, because they were even — it was a tie, one–one. So now they agreed that they were going to meet again, and that was called Badr al-Mawʿid, the appointed Badr. So Abū Sufyān, with a two-thousand-strong army, left from Makkah. But when they left Makkah and travelled for a while, Abū Sufyān said, "Men of Quraysh, it is right for you to make such an expedition only in a fruitful year, when you can pasture on trees and drink milk. This year it is barren. I'm going back; you do the same." So Abū Sufyān bailed out, along with his army. They were too afraid to meet the Muslims, and they walked away; and the excuse he used is that it's a barren year, it's infertile: "We're going to suffer along the way, so let's just go back."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) shows up — appointed time, appointed place. The disbelievers of Quraysh don't show up, so he stays there for a few days and then leaves. While he was there, he met with Makhshī ibn ʿAmr al-Ḍamrī, from the tribe of Banū Ḍamrah, and these men had an agreement, a peace agreement, with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — or we could call it an alliance. So he comes to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said, "Muḥammad, have you come here to this well to meet with Quraysh?" The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "Yes, brother from Banū Ḍamrah; but if you want, we will release you from your agreement with us, and we will battle you until Allah decides between us." He said, "No, by Allah, Muḥammad, there is no need for that."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is telling this man: "If you want us to end this agreement between us, we wouldn't have any problem with that, and we're ready to fight you." And this shows something about the personality of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and what he projected to people. If the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) entered into a truce or a peace agreement with anyone — and it is more proper, by the way, to call it a truce, because that is what it really is, or an alliance — if the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) entered a truce or an alliance with any people, it is because they needed that, not because he needed it: not because of a point of weakness, not because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was weak and eager to make a truce. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was strong, and he made that very clear to the people: "If you want to end the agreement, we'd be happy to do so." And this is important for Muslims to realise: that as Muslims our religion is strong, and we need to be strong; and when we enter into a truce or an agreement with disbelievers, it has to be from that point of strength, and not due to weakness.^†