The Reasons Quraysh Marched Again

Now the account moves on to the Battle of Uḥud. What were the reasons for the Battle of Uḥud? There were religious reasons, economic reasons, political reasons, and social reasons.

The religious reason: the people of Quraysh wanted to stop the advance of Islam. They wanted to stand between the people and becoming Muslim. Allah (swt) says:

So it says here that they are spending their wealth to avert people from the way of Allah. Al-Ṭabarī says, yunfiqūnahā li-yamnaʿū al-nāsa min al-dukhūli ilā al-islām: they are spending their money to prevent people from becoming Muslim. And as al-Shawkānī says about this āyah, the meaning is that the objective of these kuffār in spending their money is to stand between the people and becoming Muslim, by fighting the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and mobilising armies for that purpose. And history is repeating itself. Look at how much money the enemies of Allah (swt) are spending to fight Islam. Billions of dollars are spent for that: to kill …, to round them up, to capture them, and to tarnish the reputation of Islam — lots of money is spent for that purpose. So the kuffār today are not very different from the kuffār of Quraysh.

The social reason: Quraysh wanted to wash away the shame of Badr. That was a serious dent in their reputation, and they wanted to make up for it.

The economic reason has already been touched on: those raids were putting serious pressure on Quraysh, who were accustomed to having all the Arabs respect them and open the way for them to both Yemen and Syria, but now things were different. Allah (swt) says:

For the accustomed security of Quraysh — their accustomed security in the caravan of winter and summer. The caravan of winter was to Yemen, and the caravan of summer was to Syria. Let them worship the Lord of this House, who has fed them, saving them from hunger, and made them safe, saving them from fear. But because they refused to worship Allah (swt), that accustomed security was now gone. Only one leg of their journey was affected, and that is from Makkah to Syria, because they had two journeys: one was from Makkah to Yemen and Abyssinia, the second was from Makkah to Syria. The journey to Syria was done in summer, and the journey to Yemen and Abyssinia was in winter. However, cutting the route to Syria also affected the route to Yemen — why? Because the business of Quraysh was based on buying products from Yemen and selling them in Syria, and vice versa. So since they were now having difficulty going to Syria, that would also affect their business in Yemen, because they ended up selling those products of Syria in Yemen. So Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah says: "Muḥammad and his companions have ruined our trade, while we don't know what measures to take against them; we are at a loss. They are constantly threatening the coastal area, while its inhabitants are either at peace or in alliance with him. Where shall we live? And where shall we stay? If we stay here in our hometown, we will be forced to eat from our capital, which will soon be consumed. We depend for our lives on trade with Syria in the summer and with Yemen and Abyssinia in winter." So Muḥammad (peace be upon him) was squeezing Makkah tight; they were feeling suffocated, and this shows the strategy of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) of not only afflicting physical harm on Quraysh in actual warfare, in battles on the battleground, but also giving attention to the economic war against Quraysh, which was an important part of his strategy.

Then there is the political reason: the status of Quraysh was shaken. This outstanding victory of the Muslims seriously weakened the reputation of Quraysh in Arabia, who were seen as the noble, most respected tribe — one did not fight against Quraysh, one respected them. So all of this was changing; the status quo was not the status quo any more, and they wanted to regain their reputation. So Quraysh assembled an army, three thousand strong, and financed that army from the caravan which Abū Sufyān had saved, the one that was the cause for the Battle of Badr — that caravan, its entire wealth, everything in it, was used to finance the Battle of Uḥud.