Discipline Under Fire

When the single combat ended and the people of Quraysh started advancing towards the Muslims, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave his army instructions: if they close in on you, then shoot at them — don't just start firing your arrows haphazardly in a confused state; stay calm, control yourselves, and when they close in on you, then start shooting them. And then he said: and preserve your arrows — in another narration, gather them — because they were low on ammunition. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was telling them: preserve your arrows, don't just fire in every direction in a terrified state; wait until they come close, and then start shooting them. This narration is in al-Bukhārī. In another narration, related by Abū Dāwūd, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: and don't draw out your swords until they are near to you. So they were to continue firing arrows, and then when it was almost hand-to-hand combat, that is when they would draw out their swords.

When the battle started, the mushrikīn started seeing the Muslims as double their number. Before the battle started, the mushrikīn would see the Muslims as being less than they really were, so they were seeing them as less than three hundred. Now, when battle started, suddenly the numbers change — the perception of the size of the Muslim army changes; so the mushrikīn, who were a thousand, see the Muslims as being two thousand, when they were only three hundred and seventeen or nineteen. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says of this:

Already there has been for you a sign in the two armies which met — one fighting in the cause of Allah, and another of disbelievers; they saw them to be twice their own number by their eyesight, but Allah supports with His victory whom He wills. Indeed, in that is a lesson for those of vision. So in the beginning, they see them as less than their own number, so that they would be careless and willing to fight; however, when fighting does actually start, they would see them as double their number, so that this will destroy their morale. And the Muslims had a battle cry, a war cry, and that was: Aḥad, Aḥad, Aḥad, Aḥad — one, one, one, one; that was their war cry, and this was something the Muslims would employ in their battles.