This is followed by: "Then the Apostle prepared for war in pursuance of Allah's command to fight his enemies and to fight the infidels who Allah commanded him to fight." Fighting was such an essential part of Islam's formation that Tabari devoted the next

This is followed by: "Then the Apostle prepared for war in pursuance of 
Allah's command to fight his enemies and to fight the infidels who Allah 
commanded him to fight." Fighting was such an essential part of Islam's 
formation that Tabari devoted the next sixty pages to a single
conflict-the 
Battle of Badr. It gets five times more attention than Abraham's
pilgrimage 
to the Ka'aba-the establishment of Islam. It gets ten times more ink that 
the first revelation-Muhammad's call to prophethood. It garners twenty
times 
more coverage than Muhammad's migration to Yathrib-the Hijrah that 
instigated the Islamic Era. How is it that a battle became the centerpiece

of a religion?

The initial salvo of the battle to resurrect Islam nearly crucified it. We

are told that Muhammad led his militants on a terrorist raid designed to
rob 
another caravan in of all months, Ramadhan. Tabari VII:26 "In this year
the 
great battle of Badr took place between the Messenger of Allah and the 
Quraysh Unbelievers in the month of Ramadhan." Since fasting was required
in 
the sacred month, since the observance of Ramadhan was a religious 
obligation, a pillar of Islam, why were the first Muslims and their
prophet 
on the prowl during their most holy time? Do you suppose money was more 
im****tant than piety?