Qatada told that Anas b. Malik mentioned to him on the authority of Abu Talha that at the battle of Badr God’s prophet ordered twenty-four of the strong men of Quraish to be cast into one of the wells of Badr cased with stones which was corrupt and corrupting. When he prevailed over an enemy he stayed three nights on the field of battle; and when the third day came at Badr he ordered his riding-beast to be saddled. He then walked followed by his companions till he came to the mouth of the well, when he began to call them by their names and their fathers’ names, saying, “So and so son of so and so, so and so son of so and so, does it please you that you obeyed God and His Messenger? We have found what our Lord promised us to be true. Have you found what your Lord promised you to be true?” ‘Umar said, “Messenger of God, what you are addressing are only bodies without spirits.” The Prophet replied, “By Him in whose hand Muhammad's soul is, you cannot hear what I say better than they.” A version has, “You cannot hear better than they, but they cannot answer.”
(Bukhari and Muslim.) Bukhari added that Qatada said God brought them to life and made them hear what he said by way of rebuke, humiliation, revenge, and to produce grief and repentance.
Anas told that eighty Meccans came down armed from the mountain of at-Tan‘im against God’s Messenger intending to take him and his companions unawares, but he took them captive without fighting and spared them. A version says he set them free and God most high sent down, “He it is who averted their hands from you and your hands from them in the valley of Mecca” (Al-Qur’an; 48:24).
Narrated Marwan and al-Miswar b. Makhrama told that when the deputation of Hawain came to God’s Messenger to accept Islam and asked him to return to them their property and their captives he stood up and said, “Choose one of the two, either the captives or the property.” When they replied that they chose the:
Your brethren have come repentant and I have considered that I should return their captives to them, so let those of you who are willing to release the captives act accordingly, but those who wish to hold on to what they have till I give them some of the first booty God gives us may do so.” The people told God’s Messenger that they were willing to release the captives, and he said, “I cannot distinguish between those of you who have granted that and those who have not, so return that your headmen may tell me about you.” They did so, and after their headmen had spoken to them they came back to God’s Messenger and told him they were agreeable and had given permission.
Jubair b. Mut'im reported the Prophet as saying about the prisoners taken at Badr, “If al-Mut‘im b. ‘Adi* had been alive and spoken to me about these filthy ones, I would have left them for him.”
* He was head of the B. Naufal. He agreed to give Muhammad protection after his return from at-Ta'if where he had gone after Abu Talib’s death. Al-Mut‘im died before the battle of Badr. He did not become a Muslim.
