Badr, Uhud, the Trench and Hudaybiyyah

Badr (2 AH)

Three hundred and thirteen against a thousand — and a clear victory. Prisoners were treated astonishingly well: a captive could buy his freedom by teaching ten Muslim children to read.

Uhud (3 AH)

The archers left their hill and victory turned to loss. Seventy were killed and the Prophet ﷺ himself was wounded. The Quran draws the lesson: numbers do not help when the order is disobeyed.

The Trench (5 AH)

Ten thousand came. On Salman al-Farisi's advice a trench was dug along the open side of the city. After a month of siege a storm sent the armies home.

The treaty of Hudaybiyyah (6 AH)

Its terms looked like defeat to many companions, yet the Quran called it “a clear victory”. With the fighting stopped, people met Islam up close: more accepted it in two years than in the nineteen before.