News of the Prophet's expedition leaked out and Abu-Sufyan...

News of the Prophet's expedition leaked out and Abu-Sufyan directed the caravan to another route to keep it out of danger. Furthermore, he also asked for help and the Quraish responded by sending an army three times greater than the total number of the faithful. The matter, for the Muslims, turned to be a face-to-face confrontation with the Quraish. They had either to confront the Quraish or retreat back. It was no longer the question of being able to ambush the commercial caravan.

With the sudden change in the situation, the Prophet (s.a.w.) consulted his companions, putting responsibility directly with them, when explaining the challenge. Al-Muqdad bin Amru declared: "By Allah, if you ordered us to walk on the embers of tamarisk(66) or the thorns of al- haras(67) we would walk with you. By Allah we will not say to you what the Israelites had said to Musa (Moses), 'Go you and your Lord, then fight you both, surely we will here sit down' but,…