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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Message Chapter 30: The Battle of Badr The Battle of Badr is one of the greatest and most famous battles of Islam and those who participated in it enjoyed a special distinction amongst the Muslims. Whenever one or more mujahids of Badr participated in or gave evidence about any matter the people used to say: "So many Badris agree with us".

The word 'Badri' is used in the biographies of the companions of the Prophet for those persons who participated in the Battle of Badr and the reason for their importance will be known from the details ot this event.

It has already been mentioned before that in the middle of Jamadiul Awwal of the second year of migration a report was received in Madina that a caravan was going from Makkah to Syria under the leadership of Abu Sufyan, and the Prophet went up to Zatul Ashirah to pursue the caravan and stayed there till the beginning of the following month, but could not lay hands on it.

The time of the return of the caravans was almost certain, because in early autumn the caravans of Quraysh used to return from Syria to Makkah. In all campaigns procurement of information is the first step towards victory. Unless the commander of an army is aware of the strength of the enemies, the point of their centralization and the morale of their soldiers, it is very likely that he may be defeated in the very first encounter.

One of the praiseworthy policies adopted by the Prophet in all the battles (the details of which will be given later) was that he used to collect information about the strength of the enemy and his location. And even till today the question of procurement of information enjoys great importance in global as well as local wars.

According to Allamah Majlisi[^1] the Prophet sent Adi (and according to the writer of 'Hayat-i Muhammad, as quoted by him from history books, he sent Talha bin 'Ubaydullah and Sa'id bin Zayd) for collecting information about the route and itinerary of the caravan, the number of its guards, and the nature of their merchandise. The information received was as under: It is a big caravan and all Makkans have shares in its merchandise.

The leader of the caravan is Abu Sufyan and there are about forty persons who guard it. The merchandise is loaded on one thousand camels and its value is about fifty thousand dinars.