Number of Angels in Greater Battle of Badr
3-5-2017 | IslamWeb
Question:
In Surat ’Aal ‘Imran [Quran 3], Allah Almighty mentioned that He supported the Muslims with 3,000 and then 5,000 angels. Meanwhile, in Surat Al-Anfal [Quran 8], Allah Almighty mentioned that He supported the Muslims with 1,000 angels. The two verses, however, talk about the same battle of Badr. What was the actual number of the angels that were sent by Allah, the Exalted, to support the Muslims? How to reconcile between the two verses?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
In his interpretation of the Quran called At-Tahreer wa At-Tanweer, Ibn ‘Ashoor 
explained this point clearly. He said:
It is mentioned in Surat Al-Anfal while talking about the battle of Badr that Allah Almighty promised the Muslims to reinforce them with 1,000 angels. Allah says (what means): {[Remember] when you asked help of your Lord, and He answered you, "Indeed, I will reinforce you with a thousand from the angels, following one another."} [Quran 8: 9]. In Surat ’Aal ‘Imran, however, Allah mentioned that He promised to reinforce them with 3,000 and then increased the number to 5,000. The convergence between the two verses can be identified as follows: Allah first promised the Muslims to reinforce them with 1,000 angels, and He made them ambitious to get more by describing them with the word 'murdifeen', which means: to be followed by another number . The context indicates that they remained worried because of the large number of the enemy, so the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said to them, as mentioned in the verse where Allah says (what means): {[Remember] when you said to the believers, "Is it not sufficient for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels sent down?} [Quran 3: 124] Allah Almighty wanted to make them more steadfast and then sent down another 2,000 angels in case they would keep patient and conscious of Him. The majority of the scholars interpreted the verse in this way, as it is the one which the context of the verses implies. It has been established that the angels actually descended to support the believers during the Battle of Badr. Even, some of the Companions saw a group of the angels and others saw the polytheists being killed by them.
Allah knows best.