The Prisoners Taken at Badr

There is a matter of real interest at verse 67. What happened is that, besides the seventy who were killed, seventy of the leaders killed, as was mentioned in an earlier chapter, there were about seventy of the mushrikīn who were taken captive as well. So it was a great loss to the people of the Quraysh.

Now the Prophet (peace be upon him) consulted the Ṣaḥābah as to what should be done with them. This was the first instance of it; they had no precedent before this. There was a party, a large party, who said: let us take a ransom from them. Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) was of that party. Let us take a ransom and let them go. We have the money, and we shall get money from them as well, and we shall let them go; they are only prisoners. Whereas ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the view that no: this is the first time we are doing this; these people are very troublesome; let us finish them off entirely this time. It is fair and square. Let us finish them off, so that afterwards we have no threat. And it was not his view alone; there were a few others as well. Saʿd ibn Muʿādh (may Allah be pleased with him), it seems, was also of that view. But it appears they were in a minority. And the Prophet (peace be upon him), in his compassionate nature, being forgiving, took the other view. He took the view that a ransom should be taken.

And subḥānAllāh, Allah (swt) says — and these are very stern words, and there are several places in the Qur'an where the Prophet (peace be upon him) is censured, but immediately he is forgiven, or immediately Allah (swt) shows him softness and compassion. Here Allah says — consider these words; reading the meaning of this for the first time takes one aback:

Mā kāna li-nabiyyin an yakūna lahu asrā ḥattā yuthkhina fī al-arḍ: it is not fitting, it is not the right or the prerogative of a prophet, to take prisoners. Turīdūna ʿaraḍa al-dunyā: do you desire the goods of this world? And so it goes.

Then, in verse 68 — the tafsīr of this is still remembered — law lā kitābun mina Allāhi sabaq: had it not been for a decree that had already gone forth, a severe punishment would have afflicted you for what you did. And according to some narration it appears that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that the punishment had come up to those trees there. But because the decree had been made by Allah that Islam was to continue, and the mission had to go on, it did not come. Yet it shows that this was not the right thing to do. That was not the right thing to do.

But they had already done it. And in Islam a man does not go back upon his word. So they took the ransom. Is that ransom then unlawful or not, since it was not what Allah wanted at that point? So Allah says in the next verse, 69:

Fa-kulū mimmā ghanimtum ḥalālan ṭayyibā: no, this is permitted to you. Eat of it; it is lawful and pure. Wa-ttaqū Allāh.