75 quotes found
"The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) went out on the day of Badr along with three hundred and fifteen (men). The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: O Allah, they are on foot, provide mount for them; O Allah, they are naked, clothe them; O Allah, they are hungry, provide food for them. Allah then bestowed victory on them. They returned when they were clothed. There was no man of them but he returned with one or two camels; they were clothed and ate to their fill."
"The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) stood up, i.e. on the day of Badr, and said: Uthman has gone off on the business of Allah and His Apostle, and I shall take the oath of allegiance on his behalf. The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) then allotted him a share, but did not do so for anyone else who was absent."
"The companions of (the Prophet) Muhammad who took part in Badr, told me that their number was that of Saul's (i.e. Talut's) companions who crossed the river (of Jordan) with him and they were over three-hundred-and-ten men. By Allah, none crossed the river with him but a believer. (See Qur'an 2:249)"
"I never failed to join Allah's Apostle(Peace Be Upon Him) in any of his Ghazawat except in the Ghazwa of Tabuk. However, I did not take part in the Ghazwa of Badr, but none who failed to take part in it, was blamed, for Allah's Apostle had gone out to meet the caravans of (Quraish, but Allah caused them (i.e. Muslims) to meet their enemy unexpectedly (with no previous intention) ."
"It has been narrated on the authority of Anas that when (the news of) the advance of Abu Sufyan (at the head of a force) reached him. the Messenger of Allah (Peace Be Upon Him) held consultations with his Companions. The narrator said: Abu Bakr spoke (expressing his own views), but he (the Holy Prophet) did not pay heed to him. Then spoke 'Umar (expressing his views), but he (the Holy Prophet) did not pay heed to him (too). Then Sa'd b. 'Ubada stood up and said: Messenger of Allah, you want us (to speak). By God in Whose control is my life, if you order us to plunge our horses into the sea, we would do so. If you order us to goad our horses to the most distant place like Bark al-Ghimad, we would do so. The narrator said: Now the Messenger of Allah ( Peace Be Upon Him) called upon the people (for the encounter). So they set out and encamped at Badr. (Soon) the water-carriers of the Quraish arrived. Among them was a black slave belonging to Banu al-Hajjaj. The Companions of the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) caught him and interrogated him about Abu Sufyan and his companions. He said: I know nothing about Abu Sufyan, but Abu Jahl, Utba, Shaiba and Umayya b. Khalaf are there. When he said this, they beat him. Then he said: All right, I will tell you about Abu Sufyan. They would stop beating him and then ask him (again) about Abu Sufyan. He would again say', I know nothing about Abu Sufyan, but Abu Jahl. 'Utba, Shaiba and Umayya b. Khalaf are there. When he said this, they beat him likewise. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) was standing in prayer. When he saw this he finished his prayer and said: By Allah in Whose control is my life, you beat him when he is telling you the truth, and you let him go when he tells you a lie. The narrator said: Then the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: This is the place where so and so would be killed. He placed his hand on the earth (saying) here and here; (and) none of them fell away from the place which the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) had indicated by placing his hand on the earth."
"From Sad bin Mu'adh: When Umaiya returned to his family, he said to his wife, "O Um Safwan! Don't you know what Sad told me? "She said, "What has he told you?" He replied, "He claims that Muhammad has informed them (i.e. companions that they will kill me. I asked him, 'In Mecca?' He replied, 'I do not know." Then Umaiya added, "By Allah, I will never go out of Mecca." But when the day of (the Ghazwa of) Badr came, Abu Jahl called the people to war, saying, "Go and protect your caravan." But Umaiya disliked to go out (of Mecca). Abu Jahl came to him and said, "O Abu Safwan! If the people see you staying behind though you are the chief of the people of the Valley, then they will remain behind with you." Abu Jahl kept on urging him to go until he (i.e. Umaiya) said, "As you have forced me to change my mind, by Allah, I will buy the best camel in Mecca. Then Umaiya said (to his wife). "O Um Safwan, prepare what I need (for the journey)." She said to him, "O Abu Safwan! Have you forgotten what your Yathribi brother told you?" He said, "No, but I do not want to go with them but for a short distance." So when Umaiya went out, he used to tie his camel wherever he camped. He kept on doing that till Allah caused him to be killed at Badr."
"Abu Dharr took an oath that this verse:" These two adversaries who dispute about their Lord" (xxii. 19) was revealed in connection with those who on the Day of Badr came out (of rows to fight against the non-believers and they were) Hamza, 'Ali, 'Ubaida b. Harith (from the side of the Muslims) and 'Utba and Shaiba, both of them the sons of Rabi'a and Walid b. 'Utba (from the side of the non-believers of Mecca)."
"(At the battle of Badr) Utbah ibn Rabi'ah came forward followed by his son and his brother and cried out: Who will be engaged in single combat? Some young men of the Helpers responded to his call. He asked: Who are you? They told him. He said: We do not want you; we, in fact, want only our cousins. The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Get up Hamzah get up Ali; get up Ubaydah ibn al-Harith. Hamzah went forward to Utbah, I went forward to Shaybah; and after two blows had been exchanged between Ubaydah and al-Walid, they wounded one another severely; so we turned against al-Walid and killed him, and we carried Ubaydah away."
"The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said on the day of Badr: He who does such-and-such, will have such-and such. The young men came forward and the old men remained standing near the banners, and they did not move from there. When Allah bestowed victory on them, the old men said: We were support for you. If you had been defeated, you would have returned to us. Do not take this booty alone and we remain (deprived of it). The young men refused (to give), and said: The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) has given it to us. Then Allah sent down: "They ask thee concerning (things taken as) spoils of war, Say: (Such) spoils are at the disposal of Allah and the Apostle......Just as they Lord ordered thee out of thy house in truth, even though a party among the believers disliked it." This proved good for them. Similarly obey me. I know the consequence of this better than you."
"The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said on the day of Badr: He who kills a man will get such-and-such, and he who captivates a man will get such-and-such. The narrator then transmitted the rest of the tradition in a similar manner. The tradition of Khalid is more perfect."
"It has been narrated on the authority of 'Umar b. al-Khattab who said: When it was the day on which the Battle of Badr was fought, the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) cast a glance at the infidels, and they were one thousand while his own Companions were three hundred and nineteen. The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) turned (his face) towards the Qibla Then he stretched his hands and began his supplication to his Lord:" O Allah, accomplish for me what Thou hast promised to me. O Allah, bring about what Thou hast promised to me. O Allah, if this small band of Muslims is destroyed. Thou will not be worshipped on this earth." He continued his supplication to his Lord, stretching his hands, facing the Qibla, until his mantle slipped down from his shoulders. So Abu Bakr came to him, picked up his mantle and put it on his shoulders. Then he embraced him from behind and said:. Prophet of Allah, this prayer of yours to your Lord will suffice you, and He will fulfil for you what He has promised you. So Allah, the Glorious and Exalted, revealed (the Qur'anic verse):" When ye appealed to your Lord for help, He responded to your call (saying): I will help you with one thousand angels coming in succession." So Allah helped him with angels."
"A man asked Al-Bara' and I was listening, "Did 'Ali take part in (the battle of) Badr?" Al-Bara' said, "(Yes). he even met (his enemies) in a duel and was clad in two armors (one over the other),""
"The Prophet , while in a tent (on the day of the battle of Badr) said, "O Allah! I ask you the fulfillment of Your Covenant and Promise. O Allah! If You wish (to destroy the believers) You will never be worshipped after today." Abu Bakr caught him by the hand and said, "This is sufficient, O Allah's Apostle! You have asked Allah pressingly." The Prophet was clad in his armor at that time. He went out, saying to me: "There multitude will be put to flight and they will show their backs. Nay, but the Hour is their appointed time (for their full recompense) and that Hour will be more grievous and more bitter (than their worldly failure)." (54.45-46) Khalid said that was on the day of the battle of Badr."
"On the day (of the battle) of Badr when we stood in rows against (the army of) Quraish and they stood in rows against us, Muhammad said, "When they do come near you, throw arrows at them.""
"Muhammad said at the battle of Badr: When they come near you shoot arrows at them; and do not draw swords at them until they come near you."
"On the day (of the battle) of Badr, the Prophet and his companions had caused the 'Pagans to lose 140 men, seventy of whom were captured and seventy were killed."
"It has been reported on the authority of Anas b. Malik who said: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) sent Busaisah as a scout to see what the caravan of Abu Sufyan was doing. He came (back and met the Holy Prophet in his house) where there was nobody except myself and the Messenger of Allah. I do not remember whether he (Hadrat Anas) made an exception of some wives of the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) or not and told him the news of the caravan. (Having heard the news), the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) came out (hurriedly), spoke to the people and said: We are in need (of men) ; whoever has an animal to ride upon ready with him should ride with us. People began to ask him permission for bringing their riding animals which were grazing on the hillocks near Medina. He said: No. (I want) only those who have their riding animals ready. So the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) and his Companions proceeded towards Badr and reached there forestalling the polytheists (of Mecca). When the polytheists (also) reached there, the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: None of you should step forward to (do) anything unless I am ahead of him. The polytheists (now) advanced (towards us), and the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said. Get up to enter Paradise which is equal in width to the heavens and the earth. 'Umair b. al- Humam al-Ansari said: Messenger of Allah, is Paradise equal in extent to the heavens and the earth? He said: Yes. 'Umair said: My goodness! The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) asked him: What prompted you to utter these words (i. e. my goodness! ')? He said: Messenger of Allah, nothing but the desire that I be among its residents. He said: Thou art (surely) amona its residents. He took out dates from his bag and began to eat them. Then he said: If I were to live until I have eaten all these dates of mine, it would be a long life. (The narrator said): He threw away all the dates he had with him. Then he fought the enemies until he was killed."
"The Prophet said on the day (of the battle) of Badr, "This is Gabriel holding the head of his horse and equipped with arms for the battle."
"On the day of Badr, Al-Miqdad said, "O Allah's Apostle! We do not say to you as the children of Israel said to Moses, 'Go you and your Lord and fight you two; we are sitting here, (5.24) but (we say). "Proceed, and we are with you." That seemed to delight Allah's Apostle greatly."
"Allah's Apostle while in a tent on the day of the Battle of Badr, said, "O Allah! I request you (to fulfill) Your promise and contract! O Allah! If You wish that you will not be worshipped henceforth.." On that Abu Bakr held the Prophet by the hand and said, "That is enough, O Allah's Apostle You have appealed to your Lord too pressingly," while the Prophet was putting on his armor. So Allah's Apostle went out, reciting Their multitude will be put to flight, and they will show their backs.' (54.45)"
"Az-Zubair said, "I met Ubaida bin Said bin Al-As on the day (of the battle) of Badr and he was covered with armor; so much that only his eyes were visible. He was surnamed Abu Dhat-al-Karish. He said (proudly), 'I am Abu-al-Karish.' I attacked him with the spear and pierced his eye and he died. I put my foot over his body to pull (that spear) out, but even then I had to use a great force to take it out as its both ends were bent." 'Urwa said, "Later on Allah's Apostle asked Az-Zubair for the spear and he gave it to him. When Allah's Apostle died, Az-Zubair took it back. After that Abu Bakr demanded it and he gave it to him, and when Abu Bakr died, Az-Zubair took it back. 'Umar then demanded it from him and he gave it to him. When 'Umar died, Az-Zubair took it back, and then 'Uthman demanded it from him and he gave it to him. When 'Uthman was martyred, the spear remained with Ali's offspring. Then 'Abdullah bin Az-Zubair demanded it back, and it remained with him till he was martyred."
"Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibrahim ibn Abi Abla from Talha ibn Ubaydullah ibn Kariyz that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Shaytan is not considered more abased or more cast out or more contemptible or more angry on any day than on the Day of Arafa. That is only because he sees the descent of the Mercy and Allah's disregard for great wrong actions. That is except from what he was shown on the Day of Badr." Someone said, "What was he shown on the Day of Badr, Messenger of Allah?" He said, "Didn't he see Jibril arranging the ranks of the angels?""
"On the day of the battle of Badr, the Prophet said, "O Allah! I appeal to You (to fulfill) Your Covenant and Promise. O Allah! If Your Will is that none should worship You (then give victory to the pagans)." Then Abu Bakr took hold of him by the hand and said, "This is sufficient for you." The Prophet came out saying, "Their multitude will be put to flight and they will show their backs." (54.45)"
"It has been narrated on the authority of Anas b. Malik that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said (after the encounter at Badr): Who will ascertain for us what has happened to Abu Jahl? Ibn Mas'ud went (to gather this information). He found that the two sons of 'Afra' had struck him and he lay cold at the point of death. He caught him by his beard and said: Art thou Abu Jahl? He said: is there anybody superior to the person you have killed, or (he said) his people have killed him. Ibn Mas'ud says that, according to Abu Mijlaz, Abu Jahl said: Alas! a person other than a farmer would have killed me."
"It has been narrated on the authority of 'Abd al-Rahman b. Auf who said: While I was standing in the battle array on the Day of Badr, I looked towards my right and my left, and found myself between two boys from the Ansar quite young in age. I wished I were between stronger persons. One of them made a sign to me and. said: Uncle, do you recognise Abu Jahl? 1 said: Yes. What do you want to do with him, O my nephew? He said: I have been told that he abuses the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him). By Allah, in Whose Hand is my life, if I see him (I will grapple with him) and will not leave him until one of us who is destined to die earlier is killed. The narrator said: I wondered at this. Then the other made a sign to me and said similar words. Soon after I saw Abu Jahl. He was moving about among men. I said to the two boys: Don't you see? He is the man you were inquiring about. (As soon as they heard this), they dashed towards him, struck him with their swords until he was killed. Then they returned to the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) and informed him (to this effect). He asked: Which of you has killed him? Each one of them said: I have killed him. He said: Have you wiped your swords? They said: No. He examined their swords and said: Both of you have killed him. He then decided that the belongings of Abu Jahl he handed over to Mu'adh b. Amr b. al-Jamuh. And the two boys were Mu'adh b. Amr b. Jawth and Mu'adh b. Afra."
"At the battle of Badr the Apostle of Allah gave me AbuJahl's sword, as I had killed him."
"Narrated Abdullah: That he came across Abu Jahl while he was on the point of death on the day of Badr. Abu Jahl said, "You should not be proud that you have killed me nor I am ashamed of being killed by my own folk.""
"On the day of Badr, the Prophet said, "Who will go and see what has happened to Abu Jahl?" Ibn Mas'ud went and found that the two sons of 'Afra had struck him fatally. 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud got hold of his beard and said, "'Are you Abu Jahl?" He replied, "Can there be a man more superior to one whom his own folk have killed (or you have killed)?""
"Abu Zumail said that the hadith was narrated to him by Ibn 'Abbas who said: While on that day a Muslim was chasing a disbeliever who was going ahead of him, he heard over him' the swishing of the whip and the voice of the rider saying: Go ahead, Haizi'm! He glanced at the polytheist who had (now) fallen down on his back. When he looked at him (carefully he found that) there was a scar on his nose and his face was torn as if it had been lashed with a whip, and had turned green with its poison. An Ansari came to the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) and related this (event) to him. He said: You have told the truth. This was the help from the third heaven. The Muslims that day (i. e. the day of the Battle of Badr) killed seventy persons and captured seventy. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said to Abu Bakr and 'Umar (Allah be pleased with them): What is your opinion about these captives? Abu Bakr said: They are our kith and kin. I think you should release them after getting from them a ransom. This will be a source of strength to us against the infidels. It is quite possible that Allah may guide them to Islam. Then the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: What is your opinion. Ibn Khattab? He said: Messenger of Allah. I do not hold the same opinion as Abu Bakr. I am of the opinion that you should hand them over to us so that we may cut off their heads. Hand over 'Aqil to 'Ali that he may cut off his head, and hand over such and such relative to me that I may but off his head. They are leaders of the disbelievers and veterans among them. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) approved the opinion of Abu Bakr and did not approve what I said The next day when I came to the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him), I found that both he and Abu Bakr were sitting shedding tears. I said: Messenger of Allah, why are you and your Companion shedding tears? Tell me the reason. For I will weep ate, if not, I will at least pretend to weep in sympathy with you. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: I weep for what has happened to your companions for taking ransom (from the prisoners). I was shown the torture to which they were subjected. It was brought to me as close as this tree. (He pointed to a tree close to him.) Then God revealed the verse:" It is not befitting for a prophet that he should take prisoners until the force of the disbelievers has been crushed..." to the end of the verse:" so eat ye the spoils of war, (it is) lawful and pure. So Allah made booty lawful for them.""
"I heard the Prophet reciting Surat-at-Tur in Maghrib prayer, and that was at a time when belief was first planted in my heart. The Prophet while speaking about the war prisoners of Badr, said, "Were Al-Mutim bin Adi alive and interceded with me for these filthy people, I would definitely forgive them for his sake.""
"The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) fixed the ransom of the people of pre-Islamic Arabia at four hundred dirhams per head on the day of the battle of Badr."
"I got an agreement written between me and Umaiya bin Khalaf that Umaiya would look after my property (or family) in Mecca and I would look after his in Medina. When I mentioned the word 'Ar-Rahman' in the documents, Umaiya said, "I do not know 'Ar-Rahman.' Write down to me your name, (with which you called yourself) in the Pre-lslamic Period of Ignorance." So, I wrote my name ' 'Abdu 'Amr'. On the day (of the battle) of Badr, when all the people went to sleep, I went up the hill to protect him. Bilal(1) saw him (i.e. Umaiya) and went to a gathering of Ansar and said, "(Here is) Umaiya bin Khalaf! Woe to me if he escapes!" So, a group of Ansar went out with Bilal to follow us ('Abdur-Rahman and Umaiya). Being afraid that they would catch us, I left Umaiya's son for them to keep them busy but the Ansar killed the son and insisted on following us. Umaiya was a fat man, and when they approached us, I told him to kneel down, and he knelt, and I laid myself on him to protect him, but the Ansar killed him by passing their swords underneath me, and one of them injured my foot with his sword. (The sub narrator said, " 'Abdur-Rahman used to show us the trace of the wound on the back of his foot.")"
"When it was the day (of the battle) of Badr, prisoners of war were brought including Al-Abbas who was undressed. [Muhammad] looked for a shirt for him. It was found that the shirt of 'Abdullah bin Ubai would do, so the Prophet let him wear it. That was the reason why the Prophet took off and gave his own shirt to 'Abdullah. (The narrator adds, "He had done the Prophet some favor for which the Prophet liked to reward him.")"
"On the day of Badr, (Quraishi) Emigrants received 100 shares of the war booty.""
"The Badr warriors were given five thousand (Dirhams) each, yearly. 'Umar said, "I will surely give them more than what I will give to others.""
"The believers who failed to join the Ghazwa of Badr and those who took part in it are not equal (in reward)."
"Narrated Said bin Al-Musaiyab: When the first civil strife (in Islam) took place because of the murder of 'Uthman, it left none of the Badr warriors alive. When the second civil strife, that is the battle of Al-Harra, took place, it left none of the Hudaibiya treaty companions alive. Then the third civil strife took place and it did not subside till it had exhausted all the strength of the people."
"(who was one of the Badr warriors) Gabriel came to the Prophet and said, "How do you look upon the warriors of Badr among yourselves?" The Prophet said, "As the best of the Muslims." or said a similar statement. On that, Gabriel said, "And so are the Angels who participated in the Badr (battle).""
"Muhammad looked at the people of the well (the well in which the bodies of the pagans killed in the Battle of Badr were thrown) and said, "Have you found true what your Lord promised you?" Somebody said to him, "You are addressing dead people." He replied, "You do not hear better than they but they cannot reply.""
"On the day of Badr, the Prophet ordered that the corpses of twenty four leaders of Quraish should be thrown into one of the dirty dry wells of Badr. (It was a habit of the Prophet that whenever he conquered some people, he used to stay at the battle-field for three nights. So, on the third day of the battle of Badr, he ordered that his she-camel be saddled, then he set out, and his companions followed him saying among themselves." "Definitely he (i.e. the Prophet) is proceeding for some great purpose." When he halted at the edge of the well, he addressed the corpses of the Quraish infidels by their names and their fathers' names, "O so-and-so, son of so-and-so and O so-and-so, son of so-and-so! Would it have pleased you if you had obeyed Allah and His Apostle? We have found true what our Lord promised us. Have you too found true what your Lord promised you? "'Umar said, "O Allah's Apostle! You are speaking to bodies that have no souls!" Allah's Apostle said, "By Him in Whose Hand Muhammad's soul is, you do not hear, what I say better than they do." (Qatada said, "Allah brought them to life (again) to let them hear him, to reprimand them and slight them and take revenge over them and caused them to feel remorseful and regretful.")"
"The Prophet stood at the well of Badr (which contained the corpses of the pagans) and said, "Have you found true what your lord promised you?" Then he further said, "They now hear what I say." This was mentioned before 'Aisha and she said, "But the Prophet said, 'Now they know very well that what I used to tell them was the truth.' Then she recited (the Holy Verse):-- "You cannot make the dead hear... ...till the end of Verse)." (30.52)"
"Hisham narrated on the authority of his father that it was mentioned to 'A'isha that Ibn 'Umar had narrated as marfu' hadith from the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) that the dead would be punished in the grave because of the lamentation of his family for him. Upon this she said: He (Ibn 'Umar) missed (the point). The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) had (in fact) said: He (the dead) is punished for his faults or for his sins, and the members of his family are wailing for him now. (This misunderstanding of Ibn 'Umar is similar to his saying:) The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) stood by the well in which were lying the dead bodies of those polytheists who had been killed on the Day of Badr, and he said to them what he had to say, i. e.: They hear what I say. But he (Ibn 'Umar) misunderstood. The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) had only said: They (the dead) understand that what I used to say to them was truth. She then recited:" Certainly, thou canst not make the dead hear the call" (xxvii. 80), nor can you make those hear who are in the graves, nor can you inform them when they have taken their seats in Hell."
"Aba Talha reported: When it was the Day of Badr and Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) had gained victory over them (the Meccans), he commanded more than twenty persons, and in another hadith these are counted as twenty-four persons, from the non-believers of the Quraish to be thrown into the well of Badr. The rest of the hadith is the same."
"Once the Prophet was offering the prayer in the shade of the Ka'ba. Abu Jahl and some Quraishi men sent somebody to bring the abdominal contents of a shecamel which had been slaughtered somewhere in Mecca, and when he brought them, they put them over the Prophet Then Fatima (i.e. the Prophet's daughter) came and threw them away from him, and he said, "O Allah! Destroy (the pagans of) Quraish; O Allah! Destroy Quraish; O Allah Destroy Quraish," naming especially Abu Jahl bin Hisham, 'Utba bin Rabi'a, Shaiba bin Rabi'a, Al Walid bin 'Utba, Ubai bin Khalaf and 'Uqba bin Abi Mitt. (The narrator, 'Abdullah added, "I saw them all killed and thrown in the Badr well)."
"Um Ar-Rubai'bint Al-Bara', the mother of Hartha bin Suraqa came to the Prophet and said, "O Allah's Prophet! Will you tell me about Hartha?" Hartha has been killed (i.e. martyred) on the day of Badr with an arrow thrown by an unidentified person. She added, "If he is in Paradise, I will be patient; otherwise, I will weep bitterly for him." He said, "O mother of Hartha! There are Gardens in Paradise and your son got the Firdausal-ala (i.e. the best place in Paradise).""
"I asked Ibn 'Abbas regarding Surat-al-Anfal. He said, "It was revealed in connection with the Battle of Badr.""
"Among the prisoners taken at Badr were two men named 'Oqba b. Abi Mo'ayt and on-Nadr b. ol-Hareth. … It was Nadr who had said at Mecca, "We have already heard (such things). If we wished, we could say (things) like this. They are only fables of the ancients" (sura 8, verse 31). Death was the penalty which Nadr finally paid for that utterance. … At the next halt, 'Oqba was brought before the Prophet, and 'Asem b. Thabet was ordered to put him to death. 'Oqba cried out, "What is to happen to my children?" The Prophet answered, "Hellfire.""
"Certainly, it can come as a jolt to discover that, with a single exception, we have no extant descriptions of the Battle of Badr that date from before the ninth century AD.... What if the entire account of the victory at Badr were nothing but a fiction, a dramatic just-so story, fashioned to explain allusions within the Qur’an that would otherwise have remained beyond explanation? A battle on a valley’s edge won against terrifying odds; angels swooping down to strike at infidel necks; plunder seized from routed caravans: the holy text certainly alludes to all these things. Yet, aside from a single name-check, Badr itself is never mentioned.52 There is certainly no confirmation that a great battle—such as the one described by Ibn Hisham—was ever fought there. Whatever else it may be, the Qur’an is no work of history."
"“Kalapahar, by successive and numerous fightings, vanquished the Rajah's forces, and brought to his subjection the entire dominion of Odîsah (Orissa), so much so that he carried off the Rani together with all household goods and chattels. Notwithstanding all this, from fear of being killed, no one was bold to wake up this drunkard of the sleep of negligence, so that Kalapahar had his hands free. After completing the subjugation of the entire country, and investing the Fort of Barahbati, which was his (the Rajah’s) place of sleep, Kalapahar engaged in fighting… The firm Muhammadan religion and the enlightened laws of Islam were introduced into that country. Before this, the Musalman Sovereigns exercised no authority over this country. Of the miracles of Kalapahar, one was this, that wherever in that country, the sound of his drum reached, the hands and the feet, the ears and the noses of the idols, worshipped by the Hindus, fell off their stone-figures, so that even now stone-idols, with hands and feet broken, and noses and ears cut off, are lying at several places in that country. And the Hindus pursuing the false, from blindness of their hearts, with full sense and knowledge, devote themselves to their worship! It is known what grows out of stone: From its worship what is gained, except shame? “It is said at the time of return, Kalapahar left a drum in the jungle of Kaonjhar, which is lying in an upset state. No one there from fear of life dares to set it up; so it is related.”"
"Vijaya Gupta wrote a poem in praise of Husain Shah of Bengal (1493-1519 AD). The two qazi brothers, Hasan and Husain, are typical Islamic characters in this poem. They had issued orders that any one who had a tulsi leaf on his head was to be brought to them bound hand and foot. He was then beaten up. The peons employed by the qazis tore away the sacred threads of the Brahmans and spat saliva in their mouths. One day a mullah drew the attention of these qazis to some Hindu boys who were worshipping Goddess Manasa and singing hymns to her. The qazis went wild, and shouted: “What! The haramzadah Hindus make so bold as to perform Hindu rituals in our village! The culprit boys should be seized and made outcastes by being forced to eat Muslim food.” The mother of these qazis was a Hindu lady who had been forcibly married to their father. She tried to stop them. But they demolished the house of those Hindu boys, smashed the sacred pots, and threw away the puja materials. The boys had to run away to save their lives."
"Haig writes that “it is evident, from the numerical superiority in Eastern Bengal of the Muslims… that at some period an immense wave of proselytization must have swept over the country and it is most probable that the period was the period of Jalaluddin Muhammad (converted son of Hindu Raja Ganesh) during whose reign of seventeen years (1414-1431)… hosts of Hindus are said to have been forcibly converted to Islam”.81 With regard to these conversions, Dr. Wise writes that “the only condition he offered were the Koran or death… many Hindus fled to Kamrup and the jungles of Assam, but it is nevertheless probable that more Muhammadans were added to Islam during these seventeen years (1414-31) than in the next three hundred years”."
"The details of the conversion of Raja Ganesh bring out the importance of the role of force, of persuasion and of the Ulama and Sufis in proselytization. In 1409 Ra a Ganesh occupied the throne of Bengal and sought to establish his authority “by getting rid of the prominent ulama and Sufis”. Qutb-ul-Alam Shaikh Nurul Haqq wrote to Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi to come and save the Muslims of Bengal. Ibrahim Sharqi responded to the call, and Raja Ganesh, finding himself too weak to face the challenge, appealed to Shaikh Nurul Haqq for help. The latter promised to intercede on his behalf if he became a Musalman. The helpless Raja was willing, but his wife refused to agree. Ultimately a compromise was made by the Raja offering to retire from the world and permitting his son, Jadu, to be converted and ascend his throne. On Jadu being converted and enthroned as Jalaluddin Shah, Shaikh Nurul Haqq induced Sultan Ibrahim to withdraw his armies.87 If a Raja of the stature of Ganesh could not face up to the Ulama and the Sufis, other Rajas and Zamindars were still worse placed. Petty Rajas and Zamindars were converted to Islam, with their wives and children, if they could not pay land revenue or tribute in time. Such practice appears to be common throughout the whole country as instances of it are found from Gujarat88 to Bengal."
"“In this year also Sulaiman Kirrani, ruler of Bengal, who gave himself the tide of Hazrati A’la, and had conquered die city of Katak-u-Banaras, that mine of heathenism, and having made the stronghold of Jagannath into the home of Islam, held sway from Kamru to Orissa, attained the mercy of God…”"
"“…During the Husain Shahi period the stone cutter’s art was thoroughly practised and perfected, as walls of gates and mosques were adorned with stone, either quarried from Rajmahal hills or obtained from some existing buildings… “…The British Museum, London, has in its collection two sculptured pieces from Bengal, namely, the seated Buddha figure (Pl. XLIIa) and the image of Brahmani. Both these images have on their obverse exquisitely carved diaper work of unmistakable Muslim workmanship. The Indian Museum, Calcutta, has a stone slab carved on the one side with the image of Durga, destroying Mahisha or Buffalow-demon, and on the reverse arabesque. The panel consisting of a scalloped arch with a lotus rosette on each of its sides, surrounded by richly foliated devices, is undoubtedly a Muslim work...“The Muslim calligraphers did not feel any scruple to utilize fragments of Hindu or Jaina sculpture in carving out beautiful inscriptions in elegant Naskh, Thulth and Tughra, keeping the images inside the wall…”“The famous Mosque of Baba Adam, the patron saint of the locality in the ancient Hindu site of Rampal where Raja Ballal Sena built his palace in the district of Dacca is an impressive architectural monument of pre-Mughal Bengal. “…Measuring 43 feet by 36 feet externally and 34 feet by 22 feet internally, the Mosque incorporated a number of beautifully carved stone pillars of unmistakable Hindu workmanship… “In the construction of this 6-domed mosque, measuring 36 feet by 24 feet, considerable amount of locally available materials from dilapidated Hindu monuments were employed as evident in the black carved basalts of the pillars, mihrabs, epigraphic slabs, etc… Sadipur (Bengal).“…A.K. Bhattacharya points out that an inscription in Arabic, carved in Tughra is found on the reverse of an image of Adinath, which is recovered from a ruined Dargah in the village Sadipur, P.S. Kaliachak, Malda.”"
"Certainly, it can come as a jolt to discover that, with a single exception, we have no extant descriptions of the Battle of Badr that date from before the ninth century AD. We do not even have Ibn Ishaq’s original biography of Muhammad—only revisions and reworkings. As for the material on which Ibn Ishaq himself drew upon for his researches, it has long since vanished. Set against the triumphal hubbub raised by Arab historians in the ninth century, let alone the centuries that followed, the silence is deafening and perplexing. The precise state of play bears spelling out. Over the course of almost two hundred years, the Arabs, a people never noted for their reticence, and whose motivation, we are told, had been an utterly consuming sense of religious certitude, had set themselves to conquering the world—and yet in all that time, they composed not a single record of their victories, not one, that has survived into the present day. How could this possibly have been so, when even on the most barbarous fringes of civilisation, even in Britain, even in the north of England, books of history were being written during this same period, and copied, and lovingly tended? Why, when the savage Northumbrians were capable of preserving the writings of a scholar such as Bede, do we have no Muslim records from the age of Muhammad? Why not a single Arab account of his life, nor of his followers’ conquests, nor of the progress of his religion, from the whole of the near two centuries that followed his death? Even the sole exception to the rule—a tiny shred of papyrus discovered in Palestine and dated to around AD 740—serves only to compound the puzzle."
"Muhammad was a prince; he rallied his compatriots around him. In a few years, the Muslims conquered half of the world. They plucked more souls from false gods, knocked down more idols, razed more pagan temples in fifteen years than the followers of Moses and Jesus did in fifteen centuries. Muhammad was a great man. He would indeed have been a god, if the revolution that he had performed had not been prepared by the circumstances."
"Mahomet was a great man, an intrepid soldier; with a handful of men he triumphed at the battle of Bender (sic); a great captain, eloquent, a great man of state, he revived his fatherland and created a new people and a new power in the middle of Arabia."
"the pressure to abolish slavery generally came from some combination of European colonial powers and economic and demographic shifts. A few Muslim clerics, such as one writing in the mid-nineteenth-century Arabian peninsula, opposed abolition on the grounds that slavery was accepted in religious texts. Similarly, one scholar argues “that slavery enjoyed a high degree of legitimacy in Ottoman society. That legitimacy derived from Islamic sanction,” among other factors. Although abolition did eventually occur, there was not a strong internally developed critique of slaveholding based on religious principles."
"In the Orient slavery has never been regarded in the same way as in the West. Oriental slavery is such as one sees in the Holy Scriptures; the slave inherits from his master, he marries his daughter. Most of the pashas have been slaves; so also were a large number of grand viziers, all the Mamelukes, Ali-Bey and Mourad-Bey. They have begun by fulfilling the menial functions within their master's house, and have risen through their merit or by favour. In the West on the other hand, the slave was always beneath the domestic; his was the lowest rank."
"The Islamic doctrine of slavery was closely linked with the doctrine of the inescapable struggle between believers and unbelievers… and Pagans were routinely sold into slavery if they had the misfortune of being captured by Muslims."
"In the heartlands of Islam, from Saudi mansions to ISIS dungeons, there are still slaves, laboring, beaten, bought, sold, raped and disposed of in Mohammed's name."
"In Hindustan British rule has abolished slavery, but it nevertheless exists in noble families, where the slaves seem willingly to assent to their condition of bondage."
"In one of the sad paradoxes of human history, it was the humanitarian reforms brought by Islam that resulted in a vast development of the slave trade inside, and still more outside, the Islamic empire."
"Polytheists and idolaters were seen primarily as sources of slaves, to be imported into the Islamic world and molded-in Islamic ways, and, since they possessed no religion of their own worth the mention, as natural recruits for Islam."
"The summer is already far advanced in this part of the world; and, for some miles round Adrianople, the whole ground is laid out in gardens, and the banks of the rivers are set with rows of fruit trees, under which all the most considerable Turks divert themselves every evening; not with walking, that is not one of their pleasures, but a set party of them choose out a green spot, where the shade is very thick, and there they spread a carpet, on which they sit drinking their coffee, and are generally attended by some slave with a fine voice, or that plays on some instrument."
"Meanwhile, the religious zeal of Christians and Moslems had helped to revive and spread a form of servitude once justified primarily by the ancient laws of war. Members of each faith looked upon the other as infidels, and hence each felt doubly entitled to make slaves of the other when taken as captives. Moors captured in North Africa and in the Spanish peninsula were held in bondage in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France. Christian prisoners suffered the same fate in the lands of Islam. Christians and Moslems alike believed it just to hold heathens in servitude, and both found victims among the Negroes of Africa. Their operations were facilitated by the fact that slavery already existed among the Negro tribes and that native dealers were often willing participants in the trade in human flesh. The Christian purchasers liked to think of themselves as the agents of civilization and the true religion. The native traders were less philosophical about their business."
"So what was abolitionism in such contexts? Can we at all use here this loaded, essentially foreign, term in a meaningful, historical sense ? Should we bother to ? True, some historians might find it worthwhile to study lone abolitionist voices in an otherwise solid anti-abolition discourse. But then, some historians would always insist that the unrepresentative is important in and of itself, regardless of its social and political significance. Even if we examine with good intentions the scant evidence that Clarence-Smith himself provides in his book, we cannot but conclude how very few and very far between such voices indeed were. Considered within the huge dimensions of the Islamic World and the extended period of time allowed by the author for these voices to have emerged, the phenomenon appears so marginal and ephemeral that it cannot possibly deserve to be called a "sentiment", let alone constitute a Subversive current' or be described as a Movement'. Why, then, we may ask, does Clarence-Smith insist on this unpromising line of investigation and rather forced research agenda.... Also, if scholars were to undertake, in earnest and honesty, extensive studies of anti-enslavement manifestations in Islamic societies, their work would most probably reinforce the kind of negative view of ' Islam' that Clarence-Smith is so eager to revise and reconstruct."
"To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility ..."
"19 June 1866 – We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead, the people of the country explained that she had been unable to keep up with the other slaves in a gang, and her master had determined that she should not become anyone's property if she recovered."
"26 June 1866 – ... We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path: a group of men stood about a hundred yards off on one side, and another of the women on the other side, looking on; they said an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer."
"27 June 1866 – To-day we came upon a man dead from starvation, as he was very thin. One of our men wandered and found many slaves with slave-sticks on, abandoned by their masters from want of food; they were too weak to be able to speak or say where they had come from; some were quite young."
"The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken-heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves. ... Twenty one were unchained, as now safe; however all ran away at once; but eight with many others still in chains, died in three days after the crossing. They described their only pain in the heart, and placed the hand correctly on the spot, though many think the organ stands high up in the breast-bone."
"And if my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together."
"As far as the historiography of early Islam is concerned, the burden of proof has shifted decisively: what was once effortlessly assumed is now painstakingly documented. In fact, much of what was radical in the 1970s and early 1980s is now middle-of-the road..."
"The Moores in times past of Fez and Morocco, had divers excellent personages, well learned, and very civill; for amongst the Kings Mahometan one can not praise too much the Kings Almansor, Maunon, and Hucceph, being most excellent men in their superstition.In whose times flourished the most famous medicines, and Philosophers that were among the Pagans, as A Vicenne, Rasis, Albumazar, Averroes, &c. with other great numbers maintained by the Kings of Morocco, that then were Masters of all Barbary and Spaine: As in Spaine may be seene yet, (though now fallen in decay) a great number of their Colledges, shewing they were great lovers of their Religion and Doctrine, and are so to this day, save onely in their drinking of Wine forbidden by their Alcoran. They were great devisers too of gallant sportings, exercises, turnaments, and Bull-beating, which Spayne retaineth to this time; yea, and the Romanes did learne, and follow many of them."