The Captives of Badr Between Mercy and Firmness

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 5 November 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9hNcQm0G0Y)

We have pointed out before that Sūrat al-Anfāl is a special school for raising a particular generation: a generation that knows its bounds in terms of beginning and end, knows its starting points in life and in faith, and understands where it is going and what its goals are in this world. This is a necessary introduction: this generation, which the Lord of the worlds, glorified is He, nurtures in Sūrat al-Anfāl, does not look upon this world as an end; rather, it is merely a means that leads it to aims more important and more sublime than the enjoyment of the life of this world. It is on this basis that the close of this blessed sūrah comes.

The captives after Badr: two opinions

We begin our commentary from the words of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿مَا كَانَ لِنَبِيٍّ … لَهُ أَسْرَىٰ حَتَّىٰ يُثْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ تُرِيدُونَ عَرَضَ …﴾ ("It is not for a prophet … captives until he has inflicted a thorough defeat in the land. You desire the goods …")^[1]. The point is that after the Battle of Badr the Prophet ﷺ came to have captives, and the question was: what shall we do with them? There were two main opinions.^[9]

The first opinion was that of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him): O Messenger of Allah, let us ransom them, or let them ransom themselves from our hands with an amount of money that will help us in our circumstances, and we set them free; there is no need to shed blood.

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him) represents another school: if we finish them off, we finish off a large part of the strategic and administrative thinking of these enemies. In this there is a kind of benefit, and in that there is a kind of benefit.

Both Companions (may Allah's pleasure be upon them) intended good. Do not imagine that Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq wanted the ransom in order to obtain extra money; can you imagine Abū Bakr seeking personal benefit from this matter? That is simply not among his considerations at all. Abū Bakr was the first of the people who came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to offer all their wealth in the way of Allah; the Prophet ﷺ never once called for donations for any work of Islam without Abū Bakr being the first to come and the one who came with the most of his wealth.

The Qur'an's rebuke to the whole community

But the divine decision remains. The Prophet ﷺ inclined to the first opinion, and he did so out of his mercy and gentleness ﷺ. Yet the Noble Qur'an came to rebuke the Muslim community for this. Why? Because there are situations that call for decisiveness and firmness; situations in which the enemy has shown his blatant enmity, with which no maneuvering toward a middle point is possible, and there is no way out of the crisis except for him to see strength and severity from the Muslims. We see this strength in what the Lord of the worlds said: ﴿وَأَعِدُّوا لَهُم مَّا اسْتَطَعْتُم مِّن قُوَّةٍ …﴾ ("And prepare against them whatever you are able of strength …")^[2] and then ﴿تُرْهِبُونَ بِهِ عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ وَعَدُوَّكُمْ﴾ ("by which you deter the enemy of Allah and your enemy").

Look at the naming: when the other party moves, in the Qur'an's naming, from being people of daʿwah, a place for accepting Islam, for winning hearts and guiding souls, to being enemies, the Lord of the worlds calls them ﴿عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ وَعَدُوَّكُمْ﴾ ("the enemy of Allah and your enemy"); there is then a different mode of dealing. The point here is: the Prophet's ﷺ initial decision, then the Qur'an's rebuke to the whole community, not to the person of the Prophet ﷺ alone.

The doubt raised by opponents

This brings us before a doubt that opponents raise: that your Prophet permitted the shedding of blood. Then what is wrong with Islam when it dealt with one who came as a combatant, bearing arms, who came of himself and by his own choice, having made his decision about himself and his family before he left his home? As long as we find a way to pardon, there is no harm in it; but in a situation of strength, honour and invulnerability, confusion may arise for someone who has not studied the history of these events in detail, so he imagines that the Prophet ﷺ made an unjust decision.

How do we settle the matter?

So as not to go on at length: there are situations in which mercy is stronger and more powerful than anything, and this is the general concept: ﴿فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَانفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ﴾ ("So by mercy from Allah you were gentle with them; and had you been harsh and hard of heart, they would have dispersed from around you")^[3]. And there are situations that call for decisiveness; that is why we saw the following sūrah, even though it speaks of another occasion, open with ﴿بَرَاءَةٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ﴾ ("A disavowal from Allah and His Messenger")^[4] without "In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate". How can you imagine the language of the Qur'an turning to such harshness? And he tells you: no, it is not harshness but strength.

And what is the difference between the two words? Harshness is something you use with the friend and the relative, the distant and the beloved and the enemy; you deal with it as a matter of course. Strength, however, is what makes you raise your hand to strike your child's hand, for example, while you are disciplining him. Is there enmity between you and him? Is there hostility between you and him? What drove you to it? Your mercy toward him and your compassion for his future, or a prior enmity? You strike his hand so that he does not destroy himself. It is the strength in the character of the one who raises others; it makes him at times, I do not say violent, but firm and decisive in taking decisions and positions.

Patterns of relationships at the close of al-Anfāl

The verses at the close of Sūrat al-Anfāl show us the patterns of relationships. When the Prophet ﷺ chose what he chose, we saw Abū Bakr saying: O Messenger of Allah, so-and-so is a relative of so-and-so, he will ransom him, and so-and-so is a relative of so-and-so, he will ransom him, and the matter is closed. Then our Lord, glorified is He, tells us: ﴿وَأُولُو الْأَرْحَامِ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلَىٰ بِبَعْضٍ فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ﴾ ("And those of blood relationship are more entitled to one another in the decree of Allah")^[5]. And listen to His words, the Exalted: ﴿إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَهَاجَرُوا وَجَاهَدُوا بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ﴾ ("Indeed, those who believed and emigrated and strove with their wealth and their lives in the way of Allah") — and these are the body of the Emigrants — then He moves to ﴿وَالَّذِينَ آوَوا وَّنَصَرُوا﴾ ("and those who gave shelter and support"), then He says, glorified is He: ﴿أُولَٰئِكَ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ﴾ ("they are allies of one another")^[8]. So blood ties were severed when we reached a stage of either shared faith or disbelief that separates people.

In Sūrat Hūd, when the Lord of the worlds tells us about Nūḥ, upon our Prophet and upon him be blessings and peace, He speaks to him about his child, about his son, saying: ﴿يَا نُوحُ إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ أَهْلِكَ ۖ إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ﴾ ("O Nūḥ, indeed he is not of your family; indeed, he is one whose conduct is not righteous")^[6]. Imagine the direct address to Nūḥ: O Nūḥ, he is not of your family.

So the bonds that tie the people of faith together are the bond of faith first and before everything; then after that comes the spirit of Islam in inviting people, being gentle with them, having mercy on their conditions, feeling compassion for them, winning their hearts and being generous to them; this is the basic spirit. But if someone sets himself up as your enemy, raises his sword in your face and becomes your combatant, then comes the stage of the strength needed to defend yourself and to take control of the situation in the way that suits the aggressor's condition.

And there are people who hate the word Islam: ﴿إِذَا ذُكِرَ اللَّهُ وَجِلَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ﴾ ("when Allah is mentioned, their hearts tremble") is one group, and another group: ﴿اشْمَأَزَّتْ قُلُوبُ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ﴾ ("the hearts of those who do not believe shrink with aversion")^[7]. Glory be to Allah, the All-Powerful! The mere mention of Islam makes him recoil; one of them stops at his limit, and the other commits aggression. And there is no doubt that aggressions, or a strong reaction if it happens, are not carried out individually; rather, they are a complete system defined by a set of markers, such as being under a legitimate authority working for the people of Islam, and the rest of that great system.

The upshot

What we have seen in today's talk: that Islam did not wrong anyone, nor did it commit aggression against anyone. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself inclined toward gentleness in all his states, upon him be blessings and peace; and were it not that this is an educational matter tied to society and to the future, these verses would not have come down to rebuke the Messenger of Allah, but rather to rebuke the whole Muslim community.

And the sum of it: the bond of kinship that ties all of us to one another, all of us the people of Islam, is the kinship of Islam, and it is stronger than any kinship. Yet we have neglected this kinship, and so we have found ourselves divided in this way: we do not know how to cooperate, nor to complement one another, nor to build a future for the religion together, nor to plan for the rising generations in our hands with a respectable shared plan, nor to think ahead; instead we think about the mutual cheating that Satan casts among us, and the division that Satan wants to exist in our midst.

I ask Allah, glorified is He, to grant us good understanding of His Book, and to make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The verse is from Sūrat al-Anfāl, number 67. What the speaker pronounced of it in the transcript was given; it is garbled where he says «يغل له أسرى», so the text was limited to what is established of it. Its wording: ﴿مَا كَانَ لِنَبِيٍّ أَن يَكُونَ لَهُ أَسْرَىٰ حَتَّىٰ يُثْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ﴾ ("It is not for a prophet to have captives until he has inflicted a thorough defeat in the land"). ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Anfāl, verse 60. The end of the first part was unclear in the transcript (the transcript has «ومن رباط الخير», whereas the verse reads «وَمِن رِّبَاطِ الْخَيْلِ»), so only what is established was kept. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, verse 159. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Tawbah, verse 1. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Anfāl, verse 75. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Hūd, verse 46. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Zumar, verse 45 (the second part); and his words «وجلت قلوبهم» occur in Sūrat al-Anfāl, verse 2. The speaker mentioned the two phrases together. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Anfāl, verse 72. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, from Ibn ʿAbbās from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with them), the Messenger of Allah ﷺ consulted Abū Bakr and ʿUmar about the captives of Badr. Abū Bakr advised taking ransom so that it would be a strength against the disbelievers, and ʿUmar advised striking their necks; «فَهَوِيَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ مَا قَالَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ» ("The Messenger of Allah ﷺ inclined to what Abū Bakr said"). Then he ﷺ said: «أَبْكِي لِلَّذِي عَرَضَ عَلَيَّ أَصْحَابُكَ مِنْ أَخْذِهِمُ الْفِدَاءَ» ("I weep because of what your companions proposed to me of taking the ransom"), and Allah the Exalted revealed ﴿مَا كَانَ لِنَبِيٍّ أَن يَكُونَ لَهُ أَسْرَىٰ حَتَّىٰ يُثْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ﴾ ("It is not for a prophet to have captives until he has inflicted a thorough defeat in the land").