the prophet wanted to exhaust all means of reconciliation and peace before fighting, because he is the mercy sent by allah to all mankind, so he initiated with a peace initiative so that both armies could return back, to prevent killing and to gain a score over the polytheists.

when the polytheists’ army reached badr, prophet muhammad sent omar bin al khattab to quraish – omar used to be quraish’s representative before embracing islam.

omar advised the polytheists to return back to their homes but hakim bin hizam ( one of quraish’s wise men ) said :” follow this advise because you wont be able to defeat them after this initiative.”

abu jahl replied:” never, we won’t return back.”

notice the difference between the prophet’s attitude and that of the polytheists’; the prophet was concerned of preventing killing, where as abu jahl’s attitude was completely different.

notice this civilized value that our prophet is teaching us; dialogue before clash…