Al-Anfal

‘They question you, O Muhammad (s), concerning the spoils of war — the booty — to whom do they belong? Say, to them: ‘The spoils of war belong to God, Who places them where He will, and the Messenger, who divides them according to God’s command. The Prophet (s) divided these [spoils] between them equally, as reported by al-Hākim in his al-Mustadrak. So fear God and set things right between you, that is, [set right] the reality of that [state of affairs] which is between you, through mutual affection and the refraining from quarrelling; and obey God and His Messenger, if you are, truly, believers’.

The believers, those whose faith is complete, are only those who, when God is mentioned, that is, when His threat of punishment [is mentioned], their hearts tremble, fear, and when His verses are recited to them, they increase their faith, their acceptance of the truth, and who rely upon their Lord, [who] put their trust in Him [alone], and not in any other.

Those who observe the prayers, performing them as they ought to be [performed], and who expend, in obedience to God, from that with which We have provided them.

Those, described in the way mentioned, are the true, the real, believers, without doubt. For them are ranks, stations in Paradise, with their Lord, and forgiveness, and generous provision, in Paradise.

As your Lord brought you forth from your home with the truth (bi’l-haqq is semantically connected to akhraja, ‘He brought forth’), and indeed a party of the believers were averse, to going forth (the [last] sentence is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun] kāf in akhrajaka, ‘He brought you forth’; kamā, ‘as’, is the predicate of an omitted subject, in other words: their aversion to this state [of affairs of the booty being God’s and the Prophet’s] is similar to their aversion when you were brought forth [to fight], which had actually been better for them: likewise is this [state of affairs better for them]). It happened that Abū Sufyān was returning from Syria with a caravan. The Prophet (s) and his followers went forth to plunder it; but Quraysh became aware of this, and so Abū Jahl and some Meccan fighters rode out to defend it — these constituted the ‘band’. Abū Sufyān drove the caravan via the coastal route and it managed to escape. Abū Jahl was then advised to return, but he refused and marched on towards Badr. The Prophet (s) consulted with his followers, saying to them, ‘God has promised me one of the two parties’. So they agreed with him to attack the [Meccan] band, but some of them were averse to this, complaining, ‘We have not come prepared for this!’, as God, exalted be He, says:

They dispute with you concerning the truth, [the order] to fight, after it had become clear, [after it had] become evident to them, as though they were being driven to death while they looked, at it [death] with their very eyes, utterly averse to it.

And, remember, when God promised you one of the two parties, either the caravan or the band [of Meccan fighters], that it should be yours, and you longed, you were wishing, that other than the armed one, that is, [other than] the fighting one with the weapons, in other words, [you longed that] the caravan, should be yours, because it had fewer men and less reinforcements than the band [of Mecca fighters]; but God willed that the truth be realised, [He willed] to manifest it, by His, preceding, words, that Islam should triumph; and to cut the root of the disbelievers, to the very last man, by extirpating them, and so He commanded you to fight against the band.

And that He might cause the truth to be realised and annul, efface, falsehood, disbelief, however much the sinners, the idolaters, were averse, to that.

When you sought help from your Lord, asking Him to help you by granting you victory over them, and He answered you [saying]: ‘I shall reinforce you, I shall assist you, with a thousand angels, rank upon rank’, one rank following after the next: God promised them this [number] at first, but it then became three thousand, and then five thousand, as stated in [sūrat] Āl ‘Imrān [Q. 3:124-125] (a variant reading [of alf, ‘thousand’] has the plural āluf, ‘thousands’, similar [in pattern] to aflus, ‘coins’).

And God appointed it, that is, the reinforcement, only as good tidings, and that your hearts might thereby be reassured. Victory comes only from God: surely God is Mighty, Wise.

Remember, when He caused slumber to overcome you as security, against the fear that had befallen you, from Him, from God, and sent down upon you water from the heaven, to purify you thereby, from minor and major ritual impurities; and to remove from you the evil of Satan, his whisperings to you that, had you been on the right path, you would not have been thirsty and impure, while the idolaters enjoyed [access to] water; and to strengthen, to seal, your hearts, with certainty and endurance; and to make firm your feet, lest they sink in the sand.

When your Lord inspired the angels, with whom He reinforced the Muslims, [saying]: ‘I am with you, with assistance and victorious help, so make the believers stand firm, by helping [them] and giving [them] good tidings. I shall cast terror, fear, into the hearts of the disbelievers; so smite above the necks, that is, the heads, and smite of them every finger!’, that is, [smite] the extremities of their hands and feet: thus, when one of them went to strike an disbeliever’s head, it would roll off before his sword reached it. The Prophet (s) threw a handful of pebbles against them and every single idolater was struck in his eye, and thus they were defeated.

That, chastisement befalling them is, because they had contended with, they had opposed, God and His Messenger: whoever contends with God and with His Messenger, surely God is severe in retribution, against him.

That, chastisement, is for you, so taste it, O disbelievers, in this world; and [know] that for the disbelievers, in the Hereafter, is the chastisement of the Fire.

O you who believe, when you encounter the disbelievers inching forward, that is, amassed, advancing slowly because of their large numbers, do not turn your backs to them, fleeing.

Whoever turns his back to them on that day, the day of the encounter with them, unless manœuvring, turning around, for battle — by pretending to be in flight, as a trick, while actually intending to relaunch an attack — or joining another detachment, a company of Muslims, calling on it for assistance, he has truly incurred the wrath of God, and his abode will be Hell — an evil journey’s end!, [an evil] return it is. This [threat] applies so long as the [numbers of] disbelievers do not surpass twice [that of the believers].

You did not slay them, at Badr by your own might, but God slew them, by giving you assistance, and you threw not, O Muhammad (s), [against] the eyes of the [unbelieving] folk, when you threw, the pebbles, for a handful of pebbles thrown by a human being cannot strike the eyes of [every person in] a large troop, but God threw, by making that [throw] reach them. He did this in order to vanquish the disbelievers, and that He might try the believers with a fair test, a [fair] gift, namely, booty; surely God is Hearing, of their sayings, Knowing, of their conditions.

That is, the true gift, for you, and [know] that God weakens the plan of the disbelievers.

If you have sought a judgement, O disbelievers, if you have sought a decisive conclusion [of this battle] — Abū Jahl had said, ‘O God! Whoever among [the two of] us is the one who has severed the ties of kinship and brought us what we had never known, destroy them today!’ — the judgement, the decisive conclusion, has now come to you, by the fact that the one so described has [already] perished: this was Abū Jahl and those killed with him, and not the Prophet (s) and the believers; and if you desist, from unbelief and waging war, it will better for you. But if you return, to fight against the Prophet (s), We shall return, to assist him against you, and your host, your troops, will not avail, will not protect, you in any way, however numerous it be; and verily God is with the believers (read thus inna, indicating a new sentence; or read anna, with an implicit lām [li-anna‘Llāha ma‘a’l-mu’minīn, ‘because God is with the believers’]).

O you who believe, obey God and His Messenger, and do not turn away from Him, by contravening His command, while you are listening, to the Qur’ān and the admonitions.

And do not be as those who say, ‘We hear,’ and they hear not, in such a way as to reflect and heed admonition — these are either the hypocrites or the idolaters.

Surely the worst of beasts in God’s sight are those who are deaf, to hearing the truth, and dumb, [unable] to utter it, those who do not understand.

For had God known of any good in them, any righteousness, were they to listen to the truth, He would have made them hear, in such a way as to understand; and had He made them hear — hypothetically speaking — already knowing that there is no good in them, they would have turned away, from it, averse, to accepting it, out of obstinacy and in denial.

O you who believe, respond to God and the Messenger, with obedience, when He calls you to that which will give you life, in the matter of religion, for it will be the source of everlasting life [for you]; and know that God comes in between a man and his heart, so that he cannot believe or disbelieve except by His will; and that it is to Him that you shall be gathered, and He will requite you for your deeds.

And be afraid of a trial which, if it were to fall upon you, would certainly not fall exclusively upon the evildoers among you, but would encompass them and others, and the way to guard against it is to repudiate that evil which necessarily results in [precipitating] it; and know that God is severe in retribution, against those who oppose Him.

And remember when you were few and oppressed in the land, the land of Mecca, and were fearful lest men should snatch you away, [lest] the disbelievers should seize you swiftly; how He gave you refuge, in Medina, and reinforced you, strengthened you, with His help, on the day of Badr, with the angels, and provided you with the good things, the spoils, that you might be thankful, for His graces.

The following was revealed regarding Abū Lubāba Marwān b. ‘Abd al-Mundhir: the Prophet (s) had dispatched him to the Banū Qurayza so that they would submit to his [the Prophet’s] authority. But they [Banū Qurayza] consulted with him [as to whether they should cede], and he pointed out to them that a slaughter would ensue — for members of his family and his property were among them: O you who believe, do not betray God and the Messenger, and, do not, betray your trusts, that which has been entrusted to you, in the way of religion or otherwise, while you are aware.

And know that your wealth and your children are a trial, for you, impeding you from the concerns of the Hereafter; and that with God is a tremendous wage, so do not forfeit it by giving [undue] attention to wealth and children, acting treacherously for the sake of [preserving] them.

The following was revealed regarding his [Abū Lubāba’s] repentance: O you who believe, if you fear God, by turning [in repentance] to Him and in other ways, He will grant you a [means of] separation, between yourselves and what you fear, so that you will be delivered, and absolve you of your evil deeds, and forgive you, your sins; and God is of tremendous bounty.

And, remember, O Muhammad (s), when the disbelievers — who had gathered to discuss your affair at the council assembly — were plotting against you, to confine you, to chain you up and imprison you, or slay you — all of them [acting as] assassins of one man — or to expel you, from Mecca, and they were plotting, against you, and God was plotting, against them, by devising a way [out] for you, when He revealed to you what they had devised and commanded you to leave [Mecca]; and God is the best of those who plot, the most knowledgeable among them about it.

And when Our verses, namely, the Qur’ān, were being recited to them, they said, ‘We have already heard! If we wish we can speak the like of this — al-Nadr b. al-Hārith said this, for he used to travel on trading business to al-Hīra, where he would buy books containing the tales of the Persians, and would recount these to the Meccans; this, Qur’ān, is nothing but the fables, the lies, of the ancients’.

And when they said, ‘O God! If this, that Muhammad (s) recites, be indeed the truth, revealed, from You, then rain down stones upon us from the heaven, or bring on us a painful chastisement’, in return for [our] denial of it: this was said by al-Nadr and others, in mockery and in delusion that he had some insight and certainty about it [the Qur’ān] being false.

God then says: But God was not about to chastise them, for what they requested, while you were among them, for when chastisement is sent down it is all-encompassing, and no community was ever chastised except after its prophet and the believers had departed from it; nor was God about to chastise them while they sought forgiveness, crying, as they performed the circumambulations: ‘Your forgiveness! Your forgiveness!’; it is also said that this [last clause] refers to those oppressed believers among them, similar to where God says Had they been clearly separated, verily We would have chastised the disbelievers among them with a painful chastisement [Q. 48:25].

But what [plea] have they now, that God should not chastise them, with the sword, after your departure and that of the oppressed [believers] — if this [verse] is understood in accordance with the first opinion [that it refers to the idolaters asking forgiveness], then it abrogates the previous one, for God had chastised them at Badr and in other instances — when they bar, prevent the Prophet (s) and the Muslims, from the Sacred Mosque, [from] performing circumambulations there, though they are not its guardians?, as they claim? Its only [rightful] guardians are the God-fearing, but most of them do not know, that they have no [rightful] custodianship over it.

And their prayer at the [Sacred] House is nothing but whistling and hand-clapping: in other words they do this in place of the prayer which they were ordered to perform — therefore taste now, at Badr, the chastisement for your unbelief!

The disbelievers expend their wealth, in waging war against the Prophet (s), in order to bar from God’s way, and they will expend it until, in the end, it will be a source of anguish for them, a regret, for having lost it and lost what they had intended [by expending it]; then they will be defeated, in this world, and the disbelievers, among them, will be gathered, driven, into Hell, in the Hereafter,

that God may distinguish (read li-yamīza, or li-yumayyiza, is semantically connected to takūnu, ‘it will be’ [from the previous verse]) the wicked, the disbeliever, from the good, the believer, and place the wicked one upon another, and heap them up all together and put them in Hell: those, they are the losers.

Say to the disbelievers, such as Abū Sufyān and his companions, that if they desist, from unbelief and from waging war against the Prophet (s), that which is past, of their deeds, will be forgiven them; but if they return, to waging war against him, the way of [dealing with] the ancients has already gone before!, that is, Our way [in dealing] with them, by destroying them: We will do the same with these ones.

And fight them until sedition, idolatry, is, exists, no more and religion is all for God, alone, none other being worshipped; then if they desist, from unbelief, surely God sees what they do, and will requite them for it.

But if they turn away, from belief, know that God is your Protector, your Helper and the One Who takes charge of your affairs — an excellent Protector, is He, and an excellent Helper!, [He is] for you.

And know that whatever spoils you have taken, [you have] seized from the disbelievers by force, the fifth of it is for God, to have it dispensed as He will, and for the Messenger and for the kinsmen, the kinsmen of the Prophet (s) from among the Banū Hāshim and the Banū [‘Abd] al-Muttalib, and the orphans, children of Muslims, those whose fathers have passed away and are in poverty, and the needy, those Muslims in [dire] need, and the traveller, those Muslims cut off during travel — in other words it [the fifth] is due to the Prophet (s) and [those of] these four categories in the way that he used to apportion it: a fifth of the fifth for each one and the remaining four fifths for those who had captured the spoils, if you believe in God, then be aware of that, and that which (wa-mā is a supplement to bi’Llāhi, ‘in God’) We sent down upon Our servant, Muhammad (s), in the way of angels and signs, on the Day of Discrimination, that is, the day of [the battle of] Badr, which discriminated between truth and falsehood, the day the two armies, the Muslims and the believers, met. And God has power over all things, including giving you victory despite your being few and their being greater in number.

When (idh substitutes for yawma, ‘the day’) you were on the nearer bank, the one nearer to Medina (read ‘udwa or ‘idwa, meaning ‘the side of a valley’), and they were on the yonder bank, the one further from it, and the cavalcade, the caravan, was, in a place, below you, the coastal side; and had you, and the [enemy] band, agreed to meet, for battle, you would have surely failed to keep meeting; but, He brought you together at a different time, that God might conclude a matter that was to be done, through His knowledge — namely, the victory of Islam and the obliteration of unbelief — He did this so, that he who perished might perish, might be a disbeliever [even], after a clear proof, that is, after a manifest proof has been established against him, namely, the triumph of the believers, despite their small number, over the larger [enemy] army; and that he who survived might live, might believe, after a clear proof; surely God is Hearing, Knowing.

Remember, when God showed them to you in your dream, in your sleep, as few, and so you informed your companions of this, and they were delighted, and had He shown them to you as many, you would have faltered, shrunk in cowardice, and quarrelled, fallen into disagreement, over the matter, the matter of fighting; but God saved, you, from faltering and quarrelling. He knows that which is in the breasts, that which is in the hearts.

And when God made you see them, O believers, when you met — in your eyes as few, as 70 or 100, when they were [in fact] 1000, so that you would advance against them; and He made you seem as few in their eyes, so that they would advance and not turn back from fighting you — this was before close combat had begun, but when it began, He made them [the disbelievers] see these [believers] as twice their number, as stated in sūrat Āl ‘Imrān [Q. 3:13] — so that God might conclude a matter that was to be done; and to God all things are returned, reverting.

O you who believe, when you meet a host, a group of disbelievers, then stand firm, to fight them and do not [flee in] retreat, and remember God much, call upon Him for victory, that you may succeed, [that you may] triumph.

And obey God and His Messenger, and do not quarrel with one another, do [not] fall into dispute with one another, lest you falter, become cowardly, and your strength, your power and dominion, fade; and be patient. Surely God is with the patient, giving them victory and assistance.

And do not be like those who went forth from their dwellings, to defend their caravan and but did not return after it had passed safely, in recklessness and to show off to men — when they said, ‘We will not return until we have drunk wine, sacrificed the camels, and have been entertained by singers at Badr, and [until] people have heard about this — barring, people, from the way of God, while God encompasses, in knowledge, what they do (ya‘malūna, also read ta‘malūna, ‘you do’), and will requite them for it.

And, mention, that Satan, Iblīs, adorned their deeds for them, by encouraging them [to go] to meet the Muslims, when they had feared to set out on account of their enemy, the Banū Bakr, and said, to them: ‘Today no person shall overcome you, for I shall be your protector’, from among the [Banū] Kināna — he appeared to them in the form of Surāqa b. Mālik, the chieftain of that region. But when the two armies, the Muslims and the disbelievers, sighted each other, [when] they met and he [Satan] saw the angels, his hand clasping that of al-Hārith b. Hishām, he turned his back, he withdrew, in flight, saying — when they had said to him, ‘Are you abandoning us in such a predicament?’, ‘I am quit of you, of being your protector, for I see what you do not see, in the way of angels. I fear God, lest He destroy me; and God is severe in retribution’.

When the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a sickness, a weakness of faith, said, ‘Their religion has deluded them’, that is, the Muslims, for they had set out to fight a large army despite their small number, in the mistaken belief that they will be victorious because of this. God, exalted be He, says in response to them: but whoever relies on God, [whoever] puts his trust in Him, he will triumph; for truly God is Mighty, His way will prevail, Wise, in His actions.

And if you could only see, O Muhammad (s), when the angels take (read either as yatawaffā or tatawaffā) the disbelievers, beating (yadribūna is a circumstantial qualifier) their faces and their backs, with hooked iron rods, and, they say to them: ‘Taste the chastisement of burning, that is, the Fire (the response to the [clause beginning with] law, ‘if’, would be la-ra’ayta amran ‘azīman, ‘you would truly have seen an terrible sight’).

That, chastisement, is for what your hands have sent before you — He refers to this [their actions] exclusively with these [hands], because most actions are accomplished with them — and [know] that God is never unjust to His servants’, such that he would punish them for no sin.

The way of these people is, like the way of Pharaoh’s folk and those before them: they disbelieved in God’s signs and so God seized them, with chastisement, because of their sins (the sentence beginning with kafarū, ‘they disbelieved’, explains the previous one). Truly, God is strong, in what He wills, severe in retribution.

That, chastisement of the disbelievers, is because God would never change a grace that He had conferred on a people, substituting it with affliction, until they have changed that which is in themselves, [until] they have exchanged the grace conferred upon them for unbelief, in the way that the Meccan disbelievers exchanged their being ‘fed against hunger’, their being made ‘safe from fear’ [cf. Q. 106:4] and the sending of the Prophet (s) to them, for unbelief, [for] barring against the way of God and [for] fighting Muslims; and [know] that God is Hearing, Knowing.

Like the way of Pharaoh’s folk and those before them: they denied the signs of their Lord, so We destroyed them for their sins, and We drowned the folk of Pharaoh, his people together with him, and all, disbelieving communities, were evildoers.

The following was revealed regarding [Banū] Qurayza: Surely the worst of beasts in God’s sight are the ungrateful who will not believe,

those of them with whom you have made a pact, not to support the idolaters, and then break their pact every time, they conclude one, and they are not fearful, of God, in their treachery.

So if (fa-immā: here the letter nūn of the conditional particle in, ‘if’, has been assimilated with the extra mā) you come upon them, [if] you find them, anywhere in the war, [deal with them so as to] cause those, fighters, behind them to scatter, to disperse, by making an example of them and punishing them, so that they, the ones behind them, might remember, [that they might] take heed from their example.

And if you fear, from any folk, who have concluded a pact with you, some treachery, in a pact, through some indication that comes to you, then cast it back to them, dissolve their pact, with fairness (‘alā sawā’ is a circumstantial qualifier), that is to say, while you and they have equal knowledge that the pact has been broken, by your apprising them thereof, lest they accuse you of treachery. Truly God does not love the treacherous.

The following was revealed regarding those who escaped capture on the day of Badr: And do not, O Muhammad (s), let those who disbelieve suppose that they have outstripped, God, that is, [that] they have eluded Him: indeed they cannot escape, they cannot elude Him (a variant reading has wa-lā yahsabanna, ‘and do not let them suppose’, so that the first direct object is omitted, actually being [an implied] anfusahum, ‘themselves’ [sc. ‘and do not let them suppose themselves to have outstripped’]; and according to another [variant reading] anna is read [instead of inna] with an implicit lām [sc. ‘because they cannot escape’]).

Make ready for them, for fighting them, whatever force you can, the Prophet (s) said that this refers to ‘archers’, as reported by Muslim, and of horses tethered (ribāt is a verbal noun, meaning, ‘restraining them [for use] in the way of God’) that thereby you may dismay, terrify, the enemy of God and your enemy, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, and others besides them, that is, other than those — namely, the hypocrites or the Jews, whom you know not: God knows them. And whatever thing you expend in the way of God, its requital, shall be repaid to you in full, and you will not be wronged, [you will not] be diminished anything thereof.

And if they incline to peace (read silm or salm, meaning, ‘settlement’), then incline to it, and conclude a pact with them: Ibn ‘Abbās said, ‘This has been abrogated by the “sword verse” [Q. 9:5]’; Mujāhid said, ‘This [stipulation] applies exclusively in the context of the People of the Scripture, for it was revealed regarding the Banū Qurayza; and rely on God, put your trust in Him; truly He is the Hearer, of words, the Knower, of actions.

And if they desire to trick you, by making a [peace] settlement in order to make preparations [for war] against you, then God is sufficient for you. He it is Who strengthened you with His help and with the believers;

and reconciled, brought together, their hearts, after old feuds [had divided them]. Had you expended all that is in the earth, you could not have reconciled their hearts, but God reconciled their hearts, through His power. Truly He is Mighty, His way prevailing, Wise, nothing being beyond [the scope of] His wisdom.

O Prophet, God suffices you, and the believers who follow you, suffice you.

O Prophet, urge on, exhort, the believers to fight, the disbelievers. If there be twenty of you, steadfast, they will overcome two hundred, of them. If there be (read as yakun or takun) a hundred of you, they will overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, for they are a people who do not understand (this [sentence] is predicative, but functions as an imperative, in other words, let the twenty of you fight the two hundred [of them], and the hundred [of you], the thousand [of them], and let them stand firm against them; but when they became numerous this was abrogated by God’s saying):