Results of Muslims' Victory

The victory of the Islamic troops has certain consequences some of which will be dealt with hereinafter:

(1) God has previously promised Muslims victory over the Meccan troops (Qur’¡n 8:7) and the Holy Prophet informed them about this promise at the end of their military discussions.[1] With this victory, Muslims relied more on God's assistance and became stronger in their faith.

(2) Both the hypocrites and the Jews of Medina became upset and humiliated by this victory. When the Holy Prophet's envoy reached Medina to announce the Muslims' victory, the Hypocrites spread the rumor that Mu¦ammad was killed and Muslims were defeated and spread apart.[2]

The Jews surfaced their hatred.[3] Ka`b al-Ashr¡f, one of the leaders of Jews, said,

“Those who are said to be killed were among the noblemen. If this news is correct, then to die is preferred to living on the earth.[4]

(3) The tribes living around Medina reckoned this victory as a sign of the truthfulness of Islam and showed inclinations to it. Ya`q£b¢ writes:

“After God granted His Prophet victory in the Battle of Badr and killed many of troops of Quraysh, the Arab tribes showed inclinations to Islam and sent their representatives to the Holy Prophet. Four or five months after the Battle of Badr, the tribe of Rab¢`ah, at the district of Dh¢q¡r, fought with Khosrow. They told one another that they should raise the slogan of tih¡m¢ (Mu¦ammad) in the battlefield. Then, they would utter, O Mu¦ammad, Oh Mu¦ammad. Following this, they won over their enemies.”[5]

(4) Quraysh realized they had made mistakes in estimating Mu¦ammad's power; they had never imagined that they could be beaten so easily by a group of escapees and farmers! They thus concluded that their trade was endangered and that they could never rely on the Mecca-Damascus trade route which crossed Badr. In a gathering, ¯afw¡n ibn Umayyah said:

“Mu¦ammad and his followers have endangered our trade. We do not know what to do with them. They would not abandon the shores as long as the shore-dwellers have united with them. We do not know where to go. Our life subsistence in this city is provided by our summer trip to Damascus and winter trip to Abyssinia. If we are stuck in this city, we have to consume our capital and lose our income and wealth.”

Quraysh, then, decided to make their trade trip to Damascus via Iraq. ¯afw¡n headed a caravan towards Damascus through Iraq. His share of the merchandize was three hundred thousand D¢n¡rs. When the Holy Prophet knew about this, he sent a one-hundred strong troop under the leadership of Zayd ibn °¡rithah to confiscate the goods. That was in Jum¡d¡ al-ªkhir, the third year of Hegira. The caravan men fled and the goods were confiscated by the Muslim troops. Moreover, one or two prisoners were taken to Medina.[6] This mission is referred to, in books of history,[7] as Sariyyat al-Qaradah.[8]