The Angels at Badr

So in what form did the angels participate in this battle? Jibrīl himself joined in. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: I saw Jibrīl taking his horse by the reins and leading it, and all of the angels were wearing white turbans except Jibrīl — he was wearing a yellow one to distinguish him; he was the leader of the army of angels on that day. It is related in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that while one of the Muslim warriors was vigorously pursuing one of the unbelievers ahead of him, he heard above him the noise of a whip striking, and a rider's voice saying: giddy up, Ḥayzūm; press on, Ḥayzūm. When the Muslim warrior looked at the disbeliever in front of him, he found him prostrate on the ground; examining him more closely, he found that the man's nose had been smashed and his face split apart by a blow from a whip, all of it having turned black in colour. So this was a whip of fire. The Anṣārī warrior went and told this to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), who said: you speak true — that was help from the third heaven. So this was an angel riding on a horse called Ḥayzūm, and he was saying: giddy up, Ḥayzūm, press on, Ḥayzūm.

Another account tells of a man who said: my cousin and I were present at Badr, though we were still mushrikīn then. So these were two young men who were mushrikīn, and they were there just to watch the battle — they wanted to see who would win; they had no quarrel with either side, they had nothing to do with the battle, they just went there as spectators. We were up on a mountain waiting for the battle to take place and to see who would win, when a cloud approached; when it drew near the mountain, we heard the sound of horses galloping and a voice saying: press on, Ḥayzūm. My companion suffered a heart attack and died on the spot, while I almost expired but later recovered. This was quite a shock for these two men. Another man says: while I was pursuing one of the mushrikīn in front of me, suddenly his head flew off, so I realised that he was killed by someone other than me — and they could distinguish the casualties caused by the angels compared to those caused by the believers. Anas ibn Mālik said: our men could differentiate the ones the angels had killed from those they had struck, by the blow having occurred above their necks, and by their fingertips looking as if they had been burned by a branding iron. So the deaths that were caused by the angels — you can know that these were caused by the angels, first of all because it was a clean cut, and then because it was black, burned, as if it was a branding iron that was striking them.

Not only did the angels kill, but they also captured prisoners of war. Al-ʿAbbās says: O Messenger of Allah, when one of the Anṣār was dragging al-ʿAbbās, and he's saying that he captured him, al-ʿAbbās said: O Messenger of Allah, this isn't the man who captured me — a bald, fine-looking man, on a piebald horse, whom I hadn't seen with your men, was he who took me prisoner. So the Anṣārī said: no, it was I who captured him, O Messenger of Allah. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: keep quiet — Allah gave you help of a noble angel. Al-ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with him, said: the only battle in which the angels participated was at Badr; at the other battles, they constituted auxiliaries and reinforcements that didn't actually fight.