Acts17apologetics investigate a battle; Badr was a caravan raid?

In answer to the video "Islamicize Me Day 11: Muhammad's Path to Financial Success!"

The battle of Badr is the most explicit example of what jihad consists of.

When the Quraysh began their grand-scale preparations to attack Medina, they had mutually decided that most of their savings and all profits made this year would be put together and used for the purchase of weapons, horses, and other items of war

8:36"Surely those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (people) from the way of Allah; so they shall spend it, then it shall be to them an intense regret, then they shall be overcome; and those who disbelieve shall be driven together to hell".

The Great Battle of Badr took place in the month of Ramadan 2/624.

Abu Sufyan was returning from Syria to Mecca escorting his caravans containing items that were precisely meant to be used for that war effort. It is also important mentionning, the Meccans had in their treasury all the property unlawfully seized from the Muslims as they were forced to emigrate to Medina, leaving their homes and belongings behind. Contrast this with the attitude of the prophet who had ordered Ali to remain behind him for 3 days as he left Mecca for the first time to settle in Medina, so that every property the Quraysh had entrusted him with be returned to them. So although the Muslims would have been justified militarily in raiding Abu Sufyan's caravans so as to weaken their enemies' treasury, as well as compensate their loss of property to the Meccans, this is not how the war played out, as will be shown.

As a side note, it was precisely this motive that prompted the prophet David as related in the HB, to initiate a specific raid on the Amalekites that had formerly seized an Israelite city's spoils after burning it to the ground 1Sam30. Raids were a paticularity of David's armies when they ambushed, fought and plundered their enemies 2Sam3:22. David was never reprimanded for these non-divinely sanctionned actions, nor for other cruel, unwarranted behavior such as the mutilation and slaughter of people 1Sam18:25. Only his adulterous behavior was considered sinful 1Kings15:5. So right off the bat, for some Judeo-christian critics to come and try to discredit the prophet Muhammad for allegedly conducting "raids", it shows deep unfamiliarity with their own scriptures and the way their true, and greatest prophets behaved whether in their personal lives or in their battles, none of them even remotely comparable in terms of sinfulness, greed, lust and cruelty as the vilest of charges they can find against the prophet Muhammad.

Back to the battle of Badr, fearing that he might be intercepted by the prophet through the tribes he had allied with, Abu Sufyan, while still in Syria and a few weeks before starting his journey back, sent a message to Mecca to gather men and swiftly send them towards Medina in order to stop a possible expedition from the Muslims that would be heading towards him. These suspicions were reinforced by the prophet himself, who openly made his plans known. This means the prophet was more interested in alarming the Quraysh and causing them to gather all their forces to defend their caravans. The Medina Muslims at that crucial point were living under the constant threat of a potential invasionby the Quraysh. The prophet's desire was to cause a decisive encounter with this enemy. Only a significant defeat would put an end to this state of affairs and instaure a climate of safety around the weak Muslim community

8:7"and Allah desired to manifest the truth of what was true by His words and to cut off the root of the unbelievers".

About 1000 men from the various clans of Quraysh, headed by Abu Jahl, responded to Abu Sufyan's call and marched to Medina while the caravans were deviated to another route through the sea coast. As the Meccan army reached Badr, Abu Sufyan's caravans were passing just 3 miles away, on the seaside and despite news coming to them that the caravans were not attacked by the Muslims, the fighting men of Quraysh kept on marching towards Medina to meet the Muslims and engage them in battle. In their minds, 1000 well-equipped warriors would suffice to teach the under equipped and outnumbered Muslims a good lesson. So they camped at the stream of Badr. Even after the Banu Zuhrah tribe deserted the ranks of the Quraysh they were still counting 990 men, among them al-Abbas (the Prophet's uncle), Aqil (son of Abu Talib).

As news came to the Muslims in Medina that the caravan was coming from Syria (on the north side) and that the Meccan army was marching towards Medina (from the South), the Muslims began reasoning between 2 alternatives: raid Abu Sufyan's vulnerable caravan and thus weaken the Meccans in their resources to fight them (the safest and most lucrative option) or to boldly face the Meccan alliance as the prophet suggested. The 2nd option was adopted and after a 3 days journey, the Muslims reached Badr.

If they werent compelled to defend themselves, that their lives in Medina werent under constant threat, the Muslims who counted just above 300 fighters would have never entertained the idea of setting an appointement with the Quraysh alliance

8:41"and if you had mutually made an appointment, you would certainly have broken away from the appointment".

Those who saw them marching to meet a far superior ennemy, considered that their faith had rendered them crazy 8:49. The Muslims were at the side of Badr's valley that was nearer to Medina, and the Quraysh at the furthest side of the valley, while the Meccan caravans at the seacost returning to Mecca 8:42. The Quran, the sole contemporary writing testifying to the event, gives an accurate account on the reason why the Muslims set out from Medina to meet the Meccans

8:5-8"Even as your Lord caused you to go forth from your house with the truth, though a party of the believers were surely averse. They disputed with you about the truth after it had become clear, (and they went forth) as if they were being driven to death while they saw (it). Remember the occasion when Allah was holding out to you the promise that one of the two hosts would fall to you: you wished the weaker host should fall to you: but Allah willed to prove by His words the Truth to be truth and to cut across the roots of the disbelievers so that the Truth should come out as truth and falsehood should be proved to be falsehood, even though the evil-doers did not like it".

This belies the baseless claim that the Prophet intended to attack the caravans of the Quraysh whose army only had the purpose of protecting their goods. These are not the descriptions of men seeking to plunder unarmed caravans, not only because of the southern route they had taken (the caravans were to the north) but also the Quran shows the Muslims leaving their homes, unwillingly, fearing death and disputing about the matter that was explained to them. That matter is related in 8:7 with God promising them victory over one of the "parties" while they originally desired to go after the "unnarmed party". This shows that God and the prophet's orders were never to go after the vulnerable party, the caravans.

Although some Muslims had originally desired to avoid the Meccan army and attack the caravan instead, that idea was not accepted, not by the prophet, and not by God. Such tone is found in all of the Muslims' early battles as they set themselves to encounter a much stronger enemy 33:9-11,48:12.

As a side note, Ibn ishaq who, like Tabari, was a historian not a mufassir, whose declared objective was to collect everything that was being said on a hisorical incident or verse fearing for the loss of valuable information, regardless of its veracity or falsehood, leaving the responsibility to sift the truth on the subsequent generations, relates a comment painting the prophet as leaving Medina with the objective of raiding the caravans. Not only does this alleged order go against the command in the Quran 8:7, but while trying to reconcile the Quran verses showing the Muslims unwilling to leave for that expedition, fearing death, with his comment, he gives the absurd reason that the Muslims' fear and aversion was due to the

"thought that the Messenger of Allah would go to war".

Why would they be fearful when the caravans were highly vulnerable, numbering only 30-40 men lightly equiped and seperated from the Meccan army as all sources agree, and the Muslims had mobilized more than 300 men?