The Prophet agreed to this counsel...

“And when you did go forth early in the morning from your family to lodge the believers in encampments for war and Allah is Hearing, Knowing.

When two parties from among you had determined that they should show cowardice, and Allah was the guardian of them both, and in Allah should the believers trust.” [^1] According to the report of Ali bin Ibrahim, the Messenger of Allah (S) said that these verses were revealed on the day of the Battle of Uhud when Quraish came to fight him from Mecca and the Prophet set out from Medina to meet them at an appointed place.

The two parties imply Abdullah bin Ubayy and his relatives, and a second was a great part of Khazraj who refused to leave the city. Shaykh Tabarsi has narrated from Imam Muhammad Baqir (a.s.) and Imam Ja’far Sadiq (a.s.) that the two groups mean Bani Salma and Bani Haritha, two clans of Ansar. Some say that one group was of Muhajir and another of Ansar who were disenchanted with the return of Abdullah bin Ubayy but they had not returned from there.

Thus the previous report of Ali bin Ibrahim is that the Messenger of Allah (S) sent his army on the Iraq route. Abdullah bin Ubayy and a group of Khazraj who were from his family, supported his view. The Prophet on numbering his companions found them to be seven hundred men.

He stationed Abdullah bin Jubair with fifty archers at the entrance of a mountain pass where he feared the Quraish might attack him in rear, and gave this detachment the strictest orders not to quit their position till he had driven the infidels into Mecca or they had forced him into Medina. Abu Sufyan ordered Khalid bin Walid with two hundred mounted men to form an ambuscade and attack the Muslims in rear, as soon as they were closely engaged with the grand division of Quraish.

Then the idolaters laid their ranks against the Muslims.