in the morning, the prophet [pbuh] called his men to offer the prayers and then urged them to fight in the way of allâh. as the sun rose over the desert, the prophet [pbuh] drew up his little army, and pointing with an arrow which he held in his hand, arranged the ranks.

quraish, on the other hand, positioned their forces in al-‘udwat al-quswa opposite the muslim lines. a few of them approached, in a provocative deed, to draw water from the wells of badr, but were all shot dead except one, hakeem bin hizam, who later became a devoted muslim. ‘umair bin wahab al-jumahi, in an attempt to reconnoiter the power of the muslims, made a scouting errand and submitted a report saying that the muslim army numbered as many as 300 men keen on fighting to the last man. on another reconnaissance mission he came to the conclusion that neither reinforcements were coming nor ambushes laid. he understood that they were too brave to surrender and too intent on carrying out their military duties to withdraw without slaying the largest number possible of the polytheists. this report as well as kindred relations binding the two belligerent parties together, slackened the desire to fight among some of the quraishites. to counteract this reason-based opposition advocated by a rival of his, ‘utbah bin rabi‘a and others, abu jahl started an anti-campaign seeking vengeance on muhammad [pbuh]’s followers for the quraishites killed at nakhlah. in this way, he managed to thwart the opposite orientation, and manipulated the people to see his evil views only.