W) ordered that the corpses of twenty four leaders of...

W) ordered that the corpses of twenty four leaders of Quraish should be thrown into one of the dirty dry wells of Badr.So on the third day after the battle of Badr, he ordered that his she- camel be saddled........When he halted at the edge of the well, he addressed the corpses of the Quraishite infidels by their names and their father's 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 Messenger?

We have found true what our Lord had promised us. Have you too found true what your Lord had promised you?" 'Umar said: O Messenger of Allah! You are speaking to the bodies that have no souls! The Messenger of Allah (S. A. W) 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 cause men to feel remorse and regret.) (al- Bukhari with Eng. Translation, Vol.5, pp. 209-210) Strangely enough, another hadith is given in Tafsir ad-Durru 'l-manthur, that Ibn 'Abbas says: "The Messenger of Allah (S. A. W) was standing over the dead badies of those killed on the day of Badr and saying: 'Did you find true what your Lord had promised?

O so-and- so son of so-and-so, did not you disbelieve in your Lord? Did not you reject your Prophet? Did not you cut the ties of relationship?' They (the companions) said: 'O Messenger of Allah!

Do they hear what you are saying?' He said: 'You do not hear what I say better than they do.' Then Allah revealed the verse: Surely you cannot make the dead to hear and you cannot make those hear who are in the graves." And Bukhari too, after giving the clear and well-accepted hadith (quoted earlier) gives two traditions from 'Aisha which more or less confirm the above-quoted hadith of Ibn 'Abbas with the same "verse".

Now let us look critically at these later three ahadith: The first tradition is narrated by Abu Talha. The one of ad-Durru 'l-manthur, is narrated by Ibn 'Abbas, and the later two of Bukhari by 'A'isha. Now Ibn 'Abbas was a small child in Mecca at that time; and 'A'isha was in Medina, not in Badr; while Abu Talha was in Badr. Whose report should be relied upon?

The "verse" which Ibn 'Abbas claims to have been revealed concerning this episode of Badr is a mix-up of two sentences from 3 verses: The sentence, Surely you cannot make the dead to hear,is a part of Surah 30.