Some of the Muhajirun, who had lost old Meccan relatives and friends in the
conflict, saw that their kinsmen among the captives were sad. This feeling was
strong amongst the women. Then this rebuke, came:
0 ye who believe, verily, in your wives and your children ye have an enemy;1
wherefore, beware of them. Sura At-Taghabun (lxiv) 14.
In the week following the battle of Badr, two of the most prominent
offenders, Abu 'Afak and Ibn 'Auf were assassinated. Men then criticized in
private, but that was very soon forbidden:
Hast thou not marked those who have been forbidden secret talk, and return to
what they have been forbidden, and talk privately with wickedness and hate and
disobedience toward the Apostle. Sura Al-Mujadilah (lviii) 9.
The victory was gained by an inferior over a superior force, and the Quraish
lost men who had been the Prophet's determined foes, and so the idea of divine
interposition seemed quite a natural explanation