According to the well-known opinion, during the Battle of Badr, seventy of the polytheists were taken captive and seventy were killed. Indeed, this matter has been clearly stated in more than one hadith. As these hadiths have appeared on previous pages, insha’Allah, they will also appear on the following pages. As indicated in the hadith of Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari, seventy of the polytheists were killed and seventy were taken captive in the Battle of Badr.
Mūsā b. ʿUqba said: "In the Battle of Badr, six Muslims from the Quraysh and eight Muslims from the Anṣār were martyred. Of the polytheists, forty-nine were killed and thirty-nine were taken captive." Al-Bayhaqī also narrated from Mūsā b. ʿUqba in this manner.
Al-Bayhaqī narrates that al-Ḥākim Muḥammad b. Isḥāq said: "In the Battle of Badr, eleven Muslims were martyred. Four of them were from the Quraysh and seven from the Anṣār. Of the polytheists, more than twenty were killed."
Elsewhere, Muḥammad b. Isḥāq said: "The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) had forty captives with him. About the same number of polytheists were killed."
Al-Bayhaqī, through the transmission of Abū Ṣāliḥ, narrates that al-Zuhrī said: "The first person to be martyred among the Muslims was Mihjaʿ. He was the freedman of ʿUmar. Also, one of the first martyrs was a man from the Anṣār. On that day, more than seventy polytheists were killed, and about the same number were taken captive."
According to al-Bayhaqī’s narration, Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib said: "In the Battle of Uḥud, the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) appointed ʿAbdullāh b. Jubayr as the commander of the archers. They killed seventy of us. On the day of Badr, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions (ṣaḥāba) captured 140 polytheists. Seventy of them were dead, and seventy were captives."
I say: In truth, the total number of the polytheists was between 900 and 1000. Qatāda explicitly stated that they were 950 people. Perhaps he derived this view from what we have related. Allah knows best.
According to the hadith of ʿUmar, mentioned on previous pages, the number of the polytheists was more than 1000. The sound view is the first one, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said about them: "That people are between 900 and 1000."
As for the Companions (ṣaḥāba), on that day they numbered a little over 310. This will be explained definitively later, and their names will also be given.
According to what al-Ḥakam narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās through the transmission of Maqsim, the Battle of Badr took place on the seventeenth day of the month of Ramadan (on a Friday). ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr, Qatāda, Ismāʿīl, al-Suddī al-Kabīr, and Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir also said the same.
Al-Bayhaqī narrates that regarding the Night of Power (laylat al-qadr), ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd said: "Seek that night in one of the last ten nights of Ramadan, for on its morning the Battle of Badr took place."
Al-Bayhaqī, through the channel of Qutayba, narrates from Zayd b. Arqam that when he was asked about the timing of the Night of Power (laylat al-qadr), he replied: "The Night of Power is the nineteenth night of Ramadan. There is no doubt about it. On that day, truth and falsehood were separated, and the two groups (Muslims and polytheists) confronted each other."
Al-Bayhaqī said: According to the well-known view transmitted from the scholars of the campaigns (maghāzī), the Battle of Badr took place after seventeen nights of Ramadan had passed.
Al-Bayhaqī, through Abū’l-Ḥusayn b. Bushrān, narrates that ʿAmr b. ʿUthmān said: "I heard Mūsā b. Ṭalḥa say: When Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī was asked about when the Battle of Badr took place, he replied: Either it was after seventeen days of Ramadan had passed or after thirteen days had passed. Or it was in one of the last ten days of Ramadan, or in one of the last seventeen days."
This is indeed a strange narration.
While discussing the biographical entry of Kubāsh b. Ashyam al-Laythī, Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir said: Kubāsh participated in the Battle of Badr on the side of the polytheists. Describing how the polytheists were defeated despite the small number of the Messenger of God’s Companions (ṣaḥāba), he said: I said to myself: "I have never encountered anything like this. Everyone fled from it. Only the women did not flee. By Allah, even if the women of Quraysh had come to this battle with their bows for sexual intercourse, they would not have been able to drive Muhammad and his Companions back." After the Battle of the Trench, I said: "Let me go to Medina and see what Muhammad is saying." At that time, the thought of entering Islam had settled in my heart. I went to Medina and asked where Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was. They said: "There he is, standing in the shade of the mosque with his Companions." I went to him. I could not recognize him among his Companions. I greeted them. He said to me: "O Kubāsh b. Ashyam! Are you the one who said on the Day of Badr: 'I have never seen anything like this. Everyone fled from it, only the women did not flee'?" I replied:
"I testify that you are the Messenger of Allah, for I never told anyone about this. I only said it to myself. If you were not a Prophet, you would not have known about it. Come, so that I may pledge allegiance to you to enter Islam." After saying this, I became a Muslim."