The qiblah, the fast, and Badr

Al-Barāʾ رضي الله عنه reported that they prayed towards Bayt al-Maqdis for sixteen or seventeen months, and that the Prophet ﷺ used to turn his face to the sky. The command came mid-prayer; a man who had prayed with him passed a congregation in rukūʿ and called out that the qiblah had changed, and they turned while still praying. The foolish among the people asked what had turned them from their former qiblah.

• 2:142–150 — The qiblah passage and the naming of this Ummah as a witness over mankind.

• The change tested attachment: obedience to the command, not sentiment for a direction.
• Al-Baqarah answers the objection before it is raised — 'to Allah belong the east and the west'.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4486; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 525

In Shaʿbān of 2 AH the fast of Ramaḍān was made obligatory, replacing the earlier fast of ʿĀshūrāʾ as an obligation and leaving it recommended. Zakāt al-fiṭr was prescribed at the end of that Ramaḍān, and the ʿĪd prayer was prayed for the first time. Zakāh on wealth was made an ordered duty in the same period. The community was being given a shape — worship, charity and a calendar — in the very year it first had to fight.

• 2:183–185 — Fasting prescribed, as it was for those before you.

• Obligations came in a settled community, when people could actually carry them.
• Fasting and giving were legislated in the same months as Badr — worship and struggle were never separated.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1503, 2002; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī

In Ramaḍān of the second year the caravan escaped but the army came. He ﷺ consulted his Companions; al-Miqdād and Saʿd ibn Muʿādh pledged to follow him into the sea if he ordered it. He stood in the shelter that night making du'ā until his cloak fell, and Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه said, 'Enough, Messenger of Allah.' Fourteen Muslims were killed; seventy of Quraysh were killed and seventy captured, among them Abū Jahl. Literate captives ransomed themselves by teaching ten children of Madinah to write.

• 3:123 — 'Allah gave you victory at Badr while you were weak.'
• 8:9–12 — The angels sent down, and the sakīnah.

• Consultation preceded battle; the leader asked and the people answered freely.
• Anfāl ties the victory to obedience and to Allah's help, and immediately regulates the spoils and the captives.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3951; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1763

Banū Qaynuqāʿ were bound by the covenant of Madinah. After Badr they declared that Quraysh knew nothing of war and that fighting them would be different. A Muslim woman in their market was shamed when a goldsmith pinned her garment; a Muslim killed him and was killed in turn. The Prophet ﷺ besieged them fifteen nights until they surrendered, and on the plea of ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy they were expelled to Shām rather than killed.

• The covenant was a real document with real consequences on both sides.
• Expulsion, not slaughter, was the outcome — the punishment was measured against the breach.

Ibn Hishām; Abū Dāwūd 3001; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī