Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates: Sayyiduna Umar bin Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) related this hadith to me: When the day of the Battle of Badr came, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) looked towards the polytheists, whose number was one thousand, while the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were a little more than three hundred. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) turned his face towards the Qiblah, then he stretched out both his hands and began to supplicate to his Lord:“O Allah! Fulfill for me what You have promised me. O Allah! Fulfill for me what You have promised me. O Allah! If this group is destroyed, which belongs to the people of Islam, then You will not be worshipped on this earth.”The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) continued to beseech his Lord, raising both his hands, facing the Qiblah, until his cloak fell from his shoulders. Then Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) came to him, picked up the cloak of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), placed it on his shoulders, and then embraced him from behind and said:“O Prophet of Allah, you have supplicated much to your Lord. Your Lord will surely fulfill His promise to you.”Then Allah the Exalted revealed this verse:“When you were seeking help from your Lord, He responded to you: ‘Indeed, I will reinforce you with a thousand angels, following one another.’”So Allah the Exalted helped the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) through the angels.

The narrator named Abu Zumail states: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) told me that on that day, a Muslim man was pursuing a polytheist who was ahead of him. During this, he heard the sound of a whip above him and the voice of a horseman above him saying:“Hayzum, go forward!”At that moment, he saw the polytheist in front of him lying fallen on his back. When he looked at him, his face and nose were wounded as if struck by a whip. Then that Ansari came and informed the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of this, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“You have spoken the truth; this was the third help sent from the heavens.”On that day, they killed seventy (polytheists) and captured seventy (polytheists).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates: When they had captured the prisoners, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him):“What is your opinion regarding these prisoners?”Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said:“O Prophet of Allah, they are cousins and family members. My opinion is that we take ransom from them, which will help us prepare against the disbelievers, and perhaps Allah the Exalted will guide them to Islam.”The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“O son of Khattab, what is your opinion?”(Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) says:) I said:“No, by Allah! O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), my opinion is not the same as Abu Bakr’s. My opinion is that you hand them over to us so we may strike their necks. You hand over Aqil to Ali so he may strike his neck, and hand over so-and-so to me so I may strike his neck.”Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said this regarding his nephew.“These people are the leaders and chiefs of disbelief.”But the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) adopted the opinion that he himself had expressed and did not adopt the opinion I had expressed.

The next day I came, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) were sitting and weeping. I said:“O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Tell me, what makes you and your companion weep, so that I may also weep for that reason, and if I cannot weep, I will make a weeping face.”The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“I am weeping over what your companions proposed regarding taking ransom. About this, Allah the Exalted has revealed this command: ‘So Allah the Exalted made the spoils of war lawful.’”