When the polytheists withdrew from Uhud and reached Rawha, they said to one another, "You have neither killed Muhammad nor carried off the young women behind you on your mounts. What a wretched thing you have done. Go back."Word of this reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so he called on the people to march out, and they responded, until they reached Hamra Asad and the well of Abu Inaba. Then Allah Most High revealed, "Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after being wounded" [Al Imran 3:172].Abu Sufyan had said to the Prophet ﷺ, "Our appointment with you is the fair of Badr, where you killed our companions."So the coward turned back, while the brave man took up his equipment both for fighting and for trade. They found no one there, so they carried on their trading. Then Allah Most High revealed, "So they returned with favor from Allah and bounty, no harm having touched them. And they followed the pleasure of Allah, and Allah is the possessor of great bounty" [Al Imran 3:174].
لما انصرف المشركون عن أحد، وبلغوا الروحاء قالوا: لا محمدا قتلتموه، ولا الكواعب أردفتم، وبئس ما صنعتم ارجعوا فبلغ ذلك رسول الله ﷺ فندب الناس فانتدبوا حتى بلغوا حمراء الأسد وبئر أبي عنبة، فأنزل الله تعالى: {الذين استجابوا لله والرسول من بعد ما أصابهم القرح} وقد كان أبو سفيان قال للنبي ﷺ: موعدك موسم بدر حيث قتلتم أصحابنا، فأما الجبان فرجع، وأما الشجاع فأخذ أهبة القتال والتجارة، فلم يجدوا به أحدا وتسوقوا، فأنزل الله تعالى: {فأنقلبوا بنعمة من الله وفضل لم يمسسهم سوء واتبعوا رضوان الله والله ذو فضل عظيم} [آل عمران: ١٧٤].
Nasai narrated it in his Kubra (11017), and Tabarani in his Kabir (11/247), both from Muhammad bin Mansur, from Sufyan, both of them from Amr, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, who related it.Haythami said in Majma (6/121), "Tabarani narrated it, and its narrators are the narrators of sahih, except Muhammad bin Mansur al-Jawaz, who is trustworthy."I say, Muhammad bin Mansur al-Jawaz al-Khuzai is trustworthy. Nasai and Daraqutni both affirmed his trustworthiness, and Ibn Hibban mentioned him among the trustworthy narrators.However, Ibn Abu Hatim narrated it in his Tafsir (3/818), and others narrated it as well, from Sufyan, from Amr, from Ikrima, who said, "This is how it was narrated, as a mursal report." For this reason, Ibn Hajar holds in Fath al-Bari (8/228) that this is the preserved version.I say, Muhammad bin Mansur is trustworthy, as mentioned above, and an addition from a trustworthy narrator is accepted by the majority of scholars, and the hadith of Ayesha supports it.In summary, when the polytheists inflicted the losses they inflicted on the Muslims, they set out to return to their own lands. Then they regretted what they had done, and resolved to return to Madinah to destroy it. When this reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he called on the Muslims to go out after them, to strike fear into them and show them the strength and resolve of the Muslims. He did not permit anyone to go except those who had been present at the battle of Uhud, except for Jabir bin Abdullah, when he spoke to him explaining that his father had left him behind to look after his seven sisters. So the Prophet permitted him to go out.