Suraqah ibn Malik ibn Ju’shum al-Madlajī raced after Muhammad right away. As he was gaining on them, suddenly the hooves of his stallion sagged in the desert sand and his limbs became paralyzed. So he begged him for mercy. At his entreaty, Muhammad prayed for his relief and let him get away scot-free by making a treaty of maintaining the secrecy of their whereabouts as well as warding off the other pursuers. When Suraqah was completely certain that Muhammad had reached Madīnah, he returned to Makkah relating his miraculous incident to everyone. Since Suraqah was the leader of Banu Madlaj, Abu Jahl feared that his tribe would accept Islam influenced by this story. So Abu Jahl wrote a letter to the Banu Madlaj tribe warning them of the deviation of Suraqah, despised him for his cowardice and selfishness and advised them to disobey him. Suraqah, however, replied to this letter saying, "O Abu’l Ḥakam! By Allah, had you witnessed how my horse got pinned into the sand, you also would not doubt the prophethood of Muhammad. I truly see that he will soon dominate all of Arabia and everyone will be his followers!" Prior to the Battle of Badr, Sa'd ibn Mu‘ādh had visited Mecca once to perform his Umrah with his non-Muslim friend Umayyah ibn Khalaf, when they came across 'Amr. They had an argument, and as it became heated, Sa’d threatened him with stopping the Meccan trade route to Syria and 'Amr informed Umayyah that his life was threatened by Muhammad. 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud narrated:  The Meccans would not leave Muhammad at peace even in Madinah. So they sent Abu Jahl leading three hundred riders to terrorize the Muslims. Muhammad immediately dispatched a group of thirty Muhajirūn led by Ḥamza ibn ‘Abdu’l-Muṭṭalib (Ibn Sa’d, 2: 9). The two parties confronted each other on the seashore in the neighbourhood of aI-‘Īṣ (in the territory of Juhayna) standing face to face in preparation for battle. In the heat of the moment, Majdi ibn 'Amr al-Juhani intervened and compelled them to lay down their arms.