Counting the Believers

They had a census. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "Count all the souls that profess Islam." So the total number of men of fighting age was fifteen hundred. And then the Companions asked a question: we are fifteen hundred, so should we not be afraid?

Quraysh was sending out its major caravan to al-Shām; the caravan was headed by Abū Sufyān himself, one of the leaders of Quraysh. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) caught news of this, and he was sending out spies to bring him news of the caravan. So Basbas ibn ʿAmr came back and entered the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); there was nobody in the house except the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Basbas ibn ʿAmr, and he told the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) that the caravan of Quraysh had been spotted in such and such a place. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) immediately came out and said, "Whoever has his camel ready, whoever has his ride ready, shall join us." So some of the Companions said, "O Messenger of Allah, our rides are in a part of Madīnah that is a little bit far away." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "No, you need to be ready to leave now — we do not have time to wait for you to go and bring your camel and come back." So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wanted to leave in a speedy fashion, immediately, and therefore not enough time was given to all of the Muslims to get ready, so a small number ended up going with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and that number was a little over three hundred — some say three hundred and seventeen, some say three hundred and nineteen. That was it; the rest could not join because they did not have time to prepare themselves.

What was the purpose of this army? It was to take over the caravan of Quraysh led by Abū Sufyān. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told the people, "This caravan belongs to Quraysh and will carry much wealth. Attack it, may Allah present it to you."

Abū Sufyān was very careful. As already noted, Abū Jahl had already delivered a warning to the people of Makkah: you need to be careful, your financial lines are being attacked and your men are being attacked, so be careful. So Abū Sufyān was very alert, and he too was sending out his spies to gather news about the whereabouts of Muhammad (peace be upon him). So he reached the place of Badr, which is about a hundred and fifty kilometres from Madīnah, and he held some of the camel manure in his hand and crushed it, and said, "This manure has some of the animal feed of Madīnah in it" — so he knew from the manure itself where the camels were feeding, and he knew that the owners of these camels were followers of Muhammad (peace be upon him), pursuing him. So he sent an urgent message, very urgent, to Quraysh: your caravan is being threatened, you need to come and protect it. He sent the message with ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Ḍamrī.^**