Al-Anfal

This chapter was revealed after the battle of Badr (2 A.H.). In this battle the Muslims were victorious and thereafter considerable spoils of war fell to their lot. After the battle a dispute arose over the distribution of the booty. All such quarrels go against the God-fearing spirit. The fear of God develops the psychology of responsibility in man. The attention of a believer is focussed on his duties and not on his rights. Instead of looking at himself, he should look towards God. His heart softens in obedience to God and His prophet. He becomes a praying and worshipping subject of God. He derives satisfaction from giving to people and not from snatching things away from them. These qualities create in man the attitude of realism and readiness to admit the truth. The inevitable result of realism and admission of truth is that all mutual quarrels vanish and if at all quarrels emerge incidentally, a warning given once is enough to set matters right. 

In Sha‘ban, (2 A.H.) the eighth month of the Islamic calendar, it came to be known that a commercial caravan of the Quraysh, carrying goods worth about fifty thousand guineas, was returning from Syria to Makkah. It was on a route which passed close by Madinah. It was feared that the Muslims might attack this caravan of their enemies. So, the chief of the caravan, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, sent word to the people of Makkah that they should rush to him with aid, otherwise the Muslims would capture the caravan. This news created a lot of fervour in Makkah. So, a troop of 950 horsemen (600 of them fully armoured) set out from Makkah for Madinah. The Prophet was also receiving all the news. Now the Muslims of Madinah were in between two groups—one was the caravan returning from Syria, and the other was the army advancing from Makkah to Madinah. One section of the Muslims had the idea that they should advance towards the caravan. Since this caravan had only 40 guards, it could be overcome and its goods captured. But God’s plan was different. In fact, God wanted to crush the strength of those who deny the truth rather than permit the Muslims to make some material gain. God, therefore, created special conditions and caused all the chiefs of the opponents to set out from Makkah and reach Badr, a place 20 miles from Madinah, so that they should finally perish forever after clashing with the Muslims. When the Prophet informed the Muslims of God’s plan, they all agreed and proceeded towards Badr. Their strength was only 313 and they were ill-equipped. But God gave them special aid, and they routed the army of the Quraysh. Seventy of their chiefs were killed and seventy were taken prisoner. The battlefield of Badr became the scene of Islam’s victory over the deniers of the Truth. Whenever it happens that there is material benefit on the one hand and religious benefit on the other, this division itself proves that God’s will and pleasure centre upon religious benefit and not upon material benefit.The target of Islamic effort is never the attainment of economic advantages. The purpose of Islamic struggle is always to break the strength of falsehood, either by ideological superiority or, through material power as dictated by the circumstances.

The battle of Badr took place under very critical conditions. Only 313 Muslims were pitted against about one thousand well-armed enemies. The Muslims were scantily armed. The enemies had already reached the venue of battle (Badr) and had captured a vantage point and the spring of water. Seeing this, the Muslims were beset by doubts that perhaps they would not be supported by God in the mission for which they had been sacrificing their lives. Had truth been on their side, God would not have helped the enemies on this critical occasion and all the favourable opportunities would have slipped from their grasp and passed on to their enemies. But at that time, Almighty God caused heavy rains to fall in the area of Badr. Muslims made ponds and stored the water. The enemy had deprived Muslims of the water of the land; God then arranged for them to have water from the sky. God furthermore blessed them with an extraordinary favour—that of sleep. Sleep is very necessary for a man to be refreshed, but the conditions in the battlefield are so terrible that it is impossible to have sound sleep. In spite of this, Almighty God blessed them with His special succour; on the eve of the battle, He made it possible for them to have sound sleep. In the night they slept free of all mental pressure and got up in the morning fully refreshed. Out of conditions which were causing Muslims to have misgivings, God created such possibilities that they developed new faith and a sense of self-reliance.

See note to 2:191.

At the time of confrontation what is required of the people of Truth is steadfastness. They should not be disheartened under any circumstances. The gift readily given by God in return for this steadfastness is the striking of terror into the hearts of the enemies of Truth, and nothing can save from defeat any such group as is terror-stricken by its opponents.

When the clash between believers and those who deny the truth reaches the battlefield, it is a moment of reckoning for both the parties. If at that critical moment a believing individual or group, turns tail and flees from the battlefield, it amounts to committing the worst kind of crime. Such people consider it more important to save themselves rather than to defend the Truth. They do this when what is at stake is the life of that Truth which they have admitted as the greatest Truth and which they have embraced in all good faith. On such critical occasions, even a minor defection can cause a major debacle. One person’s or one group’s flight from the battlefield lowers the morale of the whole army. One person’s running away can finally turn into a mass stampede. However, the exception to this is when a soldier or an army unit retreats for some strategic purpose, perhaps to leave one front and join another. Retreat is undoubtedly an unpardonable crime, but when carried out on strategic grounds, it is legitimate. The aforesaid commandment originally relates to battle. However, other similar cases may also come within its purview. For example, a missionary may call people to engage in the peaceful and constructive propagation of Islam, but after some time, when he sees that his call is not very popular, he may lose patience and, abandoning the constructive approach, may rush towards that type of Islam through which fame and status among the general public can very soon become a reality. Running away from the battlefield occurs consciously and with intention. But ‘running away’ from the struggle going on outside the battlefield often takes place at the unconscious level. Man happens to be result-loving by nature. He likes to be admired for his work. He wants his work to be accepted and recognised. Such a temperament gradually removes him from the tasks from which an immediate result does not seem to follow. Barely conscious of the factors working within him, he is attracted towards such things as apparently give him the hope of immediate honour and success. Every deviation of this type is an example of what has been described in the above-mentioned verse as ‘running away from the battlefield.’

It has been handed down in traditions that, when the battle of Badr was in full swing the words uttered by the Prophet, in prayer, were: ‘O, my Lord! If this class of people is killed, You will never be worshipped on earth.’ Helping believers is a responsibility borne by Almighty God. By His devices He renders ineffective whatever conspiracies their enemies hatch. He causes them to be overwhelmed so that the faithful may dominate. But when does this happen? This happens when the believers merge their will with that of God, in such a way that God’s will and their will become one and the same. When a subject of God aligns himself with God in such a way, whatever belongs to God becomes his, because he would have already given to God whatever was his. Before leaving for Badr, the chiefs of Makkah went to the House of God and, catching hold of the curtain of the Ka‘bah, prayed like this: ‘O, God help the better of the two armies; the more respectable of the two groups; and the better of the two tribes.’ At the battle of Badr, the chiefs of Makkah were totally defeated and the Faithful were completely victorious. So, by the very standard set by the chiefs themselves, it was proved that, before God it was not they who were superior and more honourable but the followers of Islam. In spite of this, they did not accept Islam. For those who conduct themselves in this way, there shall be grave punishment both in the Hereafter and in this world. ‘Bless with victory the side which is superior and the more honourable of the two.’ This was ostensibly a prayer, but in fact was an expression of boastful self-confidence. The rationale behind this was that they were the Trustees of the Ka‘bah; they were the progeny of Abraham and Ishmael. When they had such superior factors on their side, victory was bound to be theirs. But, before God, real value is attached to personal deeds and not to external connections. However great an external connection may be, it will be of no avail to anybody on Judgement Day.

When a Truth is presented before a man, ideally he apprehends it with all the human faculties granted to him by God. He gives his full attention to it, he feels the weight of its veracity and then he utters that correct response which a man’s nature should present in the face of Truth. One who behaves in this way has been receptive to the presented matter in the manner of a true human being. However, there is the type of individual who listens as if he has no ears to hear with. His mind fails to grasp the veracity of what he hears. And so he is unable to give the requisite response in view of the facts. One who behaves in this way has heard the presented matter as if he were an animal. The truth becomes clear only to one who hears it with a receptive mind. By contrast, one whose temperament is flawed by jealousy, haughtiness, self-interest and love of outward show will not regard the issue of Truth as worth considering and will not pay serious attention to it. So, he will certainly fail to discover its veracity. Faith on the face of it, is a statement of trust in God. But in reality it is a human decision. Faith is not merely repetition of words of testimony, but the verbal expression of one’s inner feeling. If a man’s condition is really the same as that declared by his words, he is a real believer in the eyes of God. A believer is the most serious human being and as such can never, by his words, show himself to be something other than what his inner condition actually is. A man whose faith reflects his inner reality, will, as soon as he admits his faith, make God his object of worship and will be a follower of His commands in all aspects of his life. For him oral acceptance of faith will be not just a verbal profession, but an indicator of the direction of his journey. Just the opposite is the condition of one who heard the voice of Truth, but did not let it enter his soul and did not let it become part of his heart-beats, even though he had no answer for its arguments. Outwardly he may have uttered the words, ‘Yes, it is true,’ but, his real life, even after that, remained the same as it had been earlier. This second attitude is hypocritical, and before God such a hypocritical ‘faith’ has no value.

Here the ‘call of life’ means the call for the struggle to convey the Truth to others. Initially this struggle starts by preaching by word of mouth or by means of the pen. But the belligerent attitude of those to whom the call is given takes this struggle to various other stages, even to the extent of migration or war. Man formulates his religious life in accordance with his ideas, at the individual level. He makes his life so consistent with his circumstances that it appears to be an island of safety for him. He has the feeling that if he exerts himself to reform others, this well-established abode will be destroyed; his well organised life will be disturbed and the regulation of his time and the system devised by him to govern his property—keeping his personal requirements in view—will be upset. Such fears prevent him from making efforts to call upon others to the Truth and to sacrifice his life and property for that cause. But this is utter stupidity. The fact is that the abode of peace which he considers his ‘life’ is his graveyard, and hidden in the sacrifice in which he sees his death, lies the secret of his life. Giving the call to the people and their reformation are extremely important tasks, provided that they are aimed at the Hereafter and are not for worldly purposes. It makes a dead religion a living religion. It links man with God at the highest level. It introduces man to such religious experiences as he could never have if he remained in his individual shell. If, in spite of hearing such an important call on behalf of God, people are still unmindful of it, they incur the risk of creating a psychological barrier between themselves and the Truth; they risk losing their natural capacity to hear the voice of Truth, to rush towards it and discover their Lord. Man’s life is social in nature. Nobody can go on living on his own on an isolated island. If a man is content with his personal righteousness, he always incurs the risk that, as a result of perversion in society, he himself will also be affected, for he is also a part of the same society. His struggle to reform the people would serve as a practical demonstration that he was not involved directly or indirectly with evil people. Every evil starts in a small way and then gradually becomes greatly enlarged. If it happens that when an evil is in the initial stages, it is opposed by a number of people at that time, it will be easily crushed. But once the evil has spread, it becomes so deep-rooted that it becomes impossible to eliminate it.

In Makkah, Muslims were in a state of helplessness. They were always in fear of being uprooted at any time. They were like a weakling who is oppressed in every way and denied even his legitimate rights. At last the way to Madinah opened for them. They were given the opportunity to go to Madinah, form a centre of their own there and live in freedom and with respect in that atmosphere. This providing of easy circumstances after difficulties is meant to infuse feelings of gratefulness in man. When a man’s living conditions reach the point where he feels himself helpless, at that time suddenly God’s help appears and everything changes for the better. It happens in this way so that man should firmly believe that whatever happened was at the behest of God, and on the basis of this realisation, he should be overflowing with gratitude for the Grace of God. Man embraces faith in God and His Prophet. In this way, he vows that he will tread the path of God and His Prophet. But, while adopting the way of Faith, the compulsions of his property and children come in the way. Then, he shuns the requirements of Faith and gives all his attention to property and children. This is an open betrayal of his pledge of Faith. The gravity of this betrayal becomes painfully obvious when it is realised that the things for which man betrays God are in themselves gifts from God. What are a man’s property and his children? Are they not gifts from God? They are a trust given by God to his subject. The best use of this trust is that when its Donor wants it, it should be willingly surrendered to Him. But when God exhorts the people to rise and strive with all their might in the cause of His religion, they make an excuse of that very trust of God which they should have sacrificed for God’s religion and thus fulfilled their pledge of Faith to Him. In this way, after being on the verge of success, they add their names to the list of failures. An action becomes a crime in the eyes of God only when it is perpetrated in the full knowledge that it is wrong. If a deed is clearly wrong, yet the doer of that deed refuses to desist, he shall have to face serious consequences. This is because willfully repeating a wrong action amounts to flouting God’s will. God can never forgive such extreme behaviour.

This ability to tell right from wrong (furqan) is almost the same as inner realisation (ma‘rifah) or insight (basirah). The last mentioned creating an inner light in a man which enables him to see everything in its reality without his being deceived by its outward aspects. Whenever a man involves himself in anything to the point of always being careful about it, a particular sort of sensitivity develops in him which makes him recognise the favourable and unfavourable aspects of that matter. This applies to everyone, whether he be a religious man, a trader, a doctor or an engineer. If a man becomes totally devoted to his work, his inner realisation attains a degree when, without being entangled in this or that confusion, he straightway reaches the reality of the matter.Development of this divine insight (furqan) in a man is the greatest guarantee that he will be safe from evils; he will regularise his relations with God, and he finally will become entitled to the grace of God.

If a man fears God, he does whatever God has commanded him to do and refrains from doing whatever God has prohibited; he is inspired to be able to distinguish truth from falsehood. (The word used in the original for the ability to make this distinction is furqan). (Tafsir ibn Kathir). The greatest stimulus to the proper use of human capabilities is fear. Man, in a state of fear, becomes extremely realistic in all matters. Fear removes all veils from his mind so thoroughly that he is able to rise above all omissions, mistakes and misunderstandings and can then form the most correct opinions. This is exactly what happens to that subject of God who goes in fear (taqwa) of the Lord of all the universe. This ability to tell right from wrong (furqan) is almost the same as inner realisation (ma‘rifah) or insight (basirah). Insight creates an inner light in a man which enables him to see everything in its reality without his being deceived by its outward aspects. Whenever a man involves himself in anything to the point of always being careful about it, a particular sort of sensitivity develops in him which makes him recognise the favourable and unfavourable aspects of that matter. This applies to everyone, whether he be a religious man, a trader, a doctor or an engineer. If a man becomes totally devoted to his work, his inner realisation becomes so intense that, he cuts through all confusion, and straightaway understands the reality of the matter. Development of this Divine insight (furqan) in a man is the greatest guarantee that he will be safe from evils; it will enable him to place his relations with God, on a sound footing and he will finally become entitled to the grace of God. The development of this capacity to distinguish between truth and falsehood indicates that a man has attached himself to the truth to the extent that no difference remains between him and the Truth: the Truth and he have become complementary to each other. Thereafter his being saved becomes as necessary as the saving of Truth. Such people come directly under God’s protection. Now, plotting against them amounts to undermining the Truth itself. One who schemes against God is invariably unsuccessful, no matter how great the devices he employs.