Appearance
Summaries of Sūrat al-Anfāl
The summary with which Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī opens his commentary on each verse of Sūrat al-Anfāl, in the order of the verses. To read the summary of one verse, type it on the Summary page.
8:1 — They ask you concerning the anfaal
They ask you concerning the anfaal. Say, ‘The anfaal belong to Allah and the Apostle.’ So be wary of Allah and settle your differences, and obey Allah and His Apostle, should you be faithful.
The Muslims disagreed about the ruling on the anfāl (their ownership and how they are to be divided), which made them turn to the Prophet (s.a.w.) for judgment, because on the basis of the teachings of revelation they regarded the Prophet’s word as “decisive speech” in any dispute, just as they counted his ruling as “the settling of the quarrel”. That is why God, Glorified is He, asks His Prophet to say to people: the anfāl all belong to God and the Messenger (s.a.w.).
The “the” in “they ask you about the anfāl” refers to what was in the minds of those who asked about the spoils of the battle of Badr; but the divine answer is not limited to the spoils of war; rather it fits the needs of the Muslims in every age. That is why the “the” in the sentence “say: the anfāl belong to God and the Messenger” is for the genus or for comprehensiveness; that is, everything to which the title anfāl applies, in every age and place, belongs to God and the Messenger (s.a.w.). The repetition of the explicit noun in the verse (instead of using the pronoun) is to make this general principle clear.
God’s share of the anfāl is in the hand of the Prophet (s.a.w.). That is why in the time of the Prophet all the anfāl were under his authority (s.a.w.); then in the era of each infallible Imam they are under the authority of that Imam, and in the period of the occultation of Imam al-Mahdī (a.s.) they are in the hand of his deputy. So the anfāl belong to Islam, and are owned by the Islamic state and the legal person of the infallible Imam and his deputy, and must be spent on the interests of Islam and the Muslims.
The three moral counsels at the end of the verse (the call to Godwariness, setting relations right, and obeying God and the Messenger (s.a.w.)) are the foundations and pillars for acting on the legal ruling that came at the start of the verse. The reminder to observe Godwariness before the call to set things right between people is because the reform of society comes about only in the light of Godwariness.
What is meant by faith at the end of the verse is its stage of perfection; that is: if you are truly faithful, then be Godwary, set things right between you, and obey the command of God and His Messenger (s.a.w.).
8:2–3 — The faithful are only those whose hearts tremble [with awe] when Allah is mentioned
(2) The faithful are only those whose hearts tremble [with awe] when Allah is mentioned, and when His signs are recited to them, they increase their faith, and who put their trust in their Lord, (3) maintain the prayer and spend out of what We have provided them.
The opening of the first verse restricts perfect faith, not the root of faith, to five traits. This restriction is relative and comparative, not intrinsic and absolute; that is, it relates to the perfections mentioned in the previous verse, for these traits prepare the self of the faithful person for Godwariness, setting relations right, and obeying God (s.w.t.) and the Messenger (s.a.w.). The first three traits count as acts of the heart, and the other two as acts of the heart and the limbs together.
The first trait is fear of God: the heart of the truly faithful person, when God is mentioned, beats at His greatness and power and is abashed before Him. What is meant by “trembling” is “rational fear”, not emotional fear of punishment and Hell.
The second trait is the increase of faith in quality and perfection, which appears in the heart of the faithful person as a result of silence joined with reflection while the divine verses are recited; for it is a recitation in which the hearer comes to know the meanings and teachings of the noble Qur’an, since the quality of faith will not increase without knowledge of the Book and wisdom.
The third trait is trust in God: the perfected faithful always rely on their Lord in all their affairs, because they grasp their own poverty and know that no one can meet their needs but God.
The fourth trait is establishing the prayer: once faith has settled in the heart of the faithful person and reached the degree of perfection, he turns to servanthood to the Real and worships God with sincerity and humility.
The fifth trait is spending in the way of God: the perfected faithful are not miserly with what God has given them; they always spend their material and spiritual provision in the way of God and meet people’s needs.
8:4 — It is they who are truly the faithful
It is they who are truly the faithful. They shall have ranks near their Lord, forgiveness and a noble provision.
Those who are adorned with the five traits of perfect faith and join the perfections of the heart with those of the outward are the truly faithful. Faith has become firm and rooted in their hearts; they have degrees with their Lord, reach the ranks of divine nearness, the lofty station and spiritual honour; their sins are forgiven, and they enjoy the bliss of the Garden.
Each of the truly faithful has in the Garden a rank of perfection and a particular degree, and will stay fixed in his station, with no way to the higher ranks; but those settled in the high ranks can come down to the lower ranks to look into the condition of their people.
This verse, according to the context of the other verses, points to the middle rank of this group of the faithful in the Garden, and it appears from it that their station and rank are higher than some and lower than others; for the degrees with God are among the effects and requirements of faith, and since the faith of the faithful has different ranks, so it is with their degrees.
The order of the rewards in this verse does not match the order of the five traits in the previous verses; but by way of affinity and the fit of rewards to deeds we can say that “degrees” are the recompense of the three virtues of the heart, “forgiveness” is the reward for establishing the prayer, and “generous provision” is the reward for spending.
It appears from the description “generous”, which describes God’s provision for the faithful, that they have in the Garden a standing like that of the angels, and that they are honoured servants and do not grieve.
8:5–6 — As your Lord brought you out from your home with a just cause
(5) As your Lord brought you out from your home with a just cause, a part of the faithful were indeed reluctant. (6) They disputed with you concerning the truth after it had become clear, as if they were being driven towards death as they looked on.
The displeasure of some Muslims at how the spoils of Badr were distributed resembled their displeasure at the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) leaving Madinah to fight the polytheists. Just as leaving Madinah was a right initiative, so God’s ruling on the anfāl was a right ruling, even though this ruling did not please the group of those weak in faith.
God, Glorified and Exalted is He, regards this group’s displeasure at their leaving Madinah as disputing with the truth, and says to His Prophet: although the truth had become clear to them and they knew God’s command in this matter (leaving Madinah), they dispute with you and do not stop opposing you, because fear has overcome them, as if they were being driven to death and seeing their destruction with their own eyes.
This verse speaks of legislation, not creation; that is, the Muslims left Madinah by the command of God to fight the faithless, and it appears from ascribing the displeasure to the faithful that they were acting by choice in leaving. Even if the verse pointed to a matter of creation, that would be an expression of the tawḥīd of acts, not compulsion; meaning that the Prophet (s.a.w.) and the Muslims were a complete manifestation of the divine will and the divine act.
The verse refers to those who were displeased at accompanying the Prophet in this war as “the faithful”, and this is nothing but a confirmation of their faith; that is, their displeasure was at “the affair of people”, as a result of applying the ruling to the case, and they were not displeased at “the command of God”.
The proof that the truth was clear to them is that the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) promised them victory over the trading caravan or the army of the enemy; so their disputing with the Prophet (s.a.w.) was out of place. Whoever insists on obstinacy and opposition when the truth is clear will betray others; divine guidance will not reach him, and his end is nothing but misery and punishment.
8:7–8 — When Allah promised you [victory over] one of the two companies
(7) When Allah promised you [victory over] one of the two companies, [saying], ‘It is for you,’ you were eager that it should be the one that was unarmed. But Allah desires to confirm the truth with His words, and to root out the faithless, (8) so that He may confirm the truth and bring falsehood to naught, though the guilty should be averse.
In the context of the verses on the battle of Badr, the address comes to the Muslims who were weak in faith: remember the time when God promised victory over one of the two groups, the caravan (the trading caravan) or the force (the attacking army).
The outward sense of the first verse is a choice, and its inner sense is a fixing; for when they reached the area of Badr, they learned that the trading caravan had changed its route toward Makkah and had gone out of their reach. So they had to face the attacking army, even though this displeased those weak in faith. But God willed to establish the truth and uproot the faithless by His legislative words (commands and prohibitions) and His creative words (the help from the unseen); and this task could only be achieved by fighting and destroying the leaders of polytheism and godlessness, not by seizing the trading goods of the polytheists. God preserved the honour of the displeased faithful when He said to them: you want trading caravans and to face unarmed groups, but God wants to raise high the word of the truth.
In the battle of Badr, to raise the morale of the Muslims, God fulfilled His promise swiftly, with the aid of the help from the unseen. And because God’s will is to establish the truth and destroy the roots of the faithless, He ascribed all the stages of this war to Himself; that is, God, Glorified is He, wills to bring the divine way (the sovereignty and victory of truth over falsehood) about in the outside world.
God gives victory to the truth only by His word, and nullifies falsehood only by the truth; that is why it is not permitted to help the truth except by the truth, not by any means at all.
8:9–10 — When you appealed to your Lord for help
(9) When you appealed to your Lord for help, He answered you: ‘I will aid you with a thousand angels in a file.’ (10) Allah did not appoint it but as a good news, and to reassure your hearts. Victory comes only from Allah. Indeed Allah is all-mighty, all-wise.
In their first battle with the polytheists, when the Muslims who were weak in faith faced the great numbers of the polytheists with their military equipment, anxiety and fear filled their whole being. To save themselves from this unequal war and these terrifying conditions, they took refuge in God and sought His help; but the prayer of the Prophet (s.a.w.) and the elite of his companions was accompanied by peace of mind.
God, the Powerful, answered their call for help, and it was a generous answer, for He sent a thousand angels to help them. Suddenly the soldiers of the Prophet (s.a.w.) felt their numbers grow and felt the tangible answer to their prayer, and they also heard the news of the answer to the prayer from the Messenger of God (s.a.w.).
The expression “following one another” makes clear the state of submission and obedience in the helping angels, and this reading fits better with the description “sent down” in the other verse, which gives the number of angels as three thousand. The angels came only to give the good tidings of victory, create calm and raise the morale of the Muslim army, not to take part in the military operations and kill the polytheists.
Confining victory to God, Exalted, shows that the active cause of victory is God alone, and the angels are preparatory causes; just as describing God by might and wisdom in the final reasoning shows that divine victory and the wisdom of God are both certain.
8:11 — When He covered you with a trance as a [sense of] security from Him
When He covered you with a trance as a [sense of] security from Him, and He sent down water from the sky to purify you with it, and to repel from you the defilement of Satan, and to fortify your hearts, and to make [your] feet steady with it.
In the battle of Badr, besides the descent of the angels as help from the unseen, other outward and spiritual blessings also came upon the Muslims. Because of their extreme tiredness, fear and anxiety, the Muslims needed bodily help and sleep, but fear of the enemy kept them awake; so God (s.w.t.) brought a light sleep over their bodies and turned their fear and tiredness into security and energy.
The polytheists had taken control of the well of Badr and prevented the Muslims from using its water; so God solved this problem by His heavenly mercy. The coming down of the rain carried outward and inward blessings for the Muslims, among them purification from ritual impurity and filth, and the removal of the whisperings of Satan. The lack of water and having to settle on dry, sandy ground had disheartened the armies of Islam, who needed water for ablution and the ritual bath; Satan also tempted them with the thought that if the enemy attacked they would not be able to escape. With the coming down of the rain their problem of purification was solved; the sandy ground became firm and steadied under their feet; they were rid of the satanic whisperings and gained composure.
8:12–14 — Then your Lord signaled to the angels
(12) Then your Lord signaled to the angels: ‘I am indeed with you; so steady the faithful. I will cast terror into the hearts of the faithless. So strike their necks, and strike their every limb joint!’ (13) That, because they defied Allah and His Apostle. And whoever defies Allah and His Apostle, Allah is indeed severe in retribution. (14) ‘Taste this, and [know] that for the faithless is the punishment of the Fire.’
The calm and security of hearts, and their anxiety and agitation, are in the hand of God. He is the One who removed fear from the hearts of the faithful by sending down the angels and cast it into the hearts of the faithless and the polytheists; He turned the confidence of the enemy army into fear and agitation, and changed the terror of the Muslim army into security and safety. In such conditions the Muslims were commanded, in their fighting with the polytheists, to strike their necks from above and cut off the tips of their fingers.
The meaning of “strike above the necks” is cutting off the head and the veins of life; and striking all the fingers points to cutting off the hands and feet, or cutting off the fingers of the faithless, or the fingers of the hired scribes, because the basic aim of cutting off the hands is to cut off conspiracy, strife and hypocrisy.
This severe divine ruling on the faithless was the result of their opposition to and confrontation with the religion of God and His Messenger (s.a.w.), just as was the worldly punishment they tasted. But the punishment they must taste is the fire of Hell, which they will meet.
Mentioning the explicit noun “for the faithless” instead of the pronoun points, besides rebuke, to the cause of their punishment (unbelief); and this is a general rule for all the faithless, not particular to the polytheists in the battle of Badr.
The help of the angels comes in the light of the special divine companionship, and the special companionship is divine help and divine support for His awliyāʾ. As for the angels, this companionship does not mean securing their safety, for they are not in a station and state in which psychological fear rules them, although they have rational fear.
God’s being with the angels in this verse means: I have sent you to help the faithful, and I too help you Myself. This support and backing is a kind of support of the dominion by the realm of might; it means that the deficiency of the dominion in the angels is made up by the might of the Lord of the worlds.
8:15–16 — O you who have faith! When you encounter the faithless advancing [for battle]
(15) O you who have faith! When you encounter the faithless advancing [for battle], do not turn your backs [to flee] from them. (16) Whoever turns his back [to flee] from them that day—unless [he is] diverting to fight or retiring towards another troop—shall certainly earn Allah’s wrath, and his refuge shall be hell, an evil destination.
The faithful may not turn their backs on the enemy and flee from the war if they face the enemy’s great numbers on the battlefield, because this act has a psychological effect: it weakens the spirit of the fighters and raises the morale of the enemy. That is why the man who turns his back on the enemy and flees the battlefield without excuse, outside the exceptional cases, incurs the wrath of God and enters Hell, and an evil end awaits him.
There are two exceptions to the prohibition of turning one’s back on the enemy:
Tactical withdrawal, which is a stratagem of war.
Withdrawing to obtain military equipment or to join another group.
It is clear that if the enemy is few in number, fleeing from the battle is certainly forbidden.
The religion of God is in the place of the honour of the Muslim community. That is why fleeing from war, besides being forbidden as a legal duty, is also a moral vice; it counts as abandoning the virtue of human “honour”, and it brings disgrace. The Qur’an has expressed abandoning honour here by a particular, demeaning term, “turning the back”, the lowest term for turning away, and it shows rebuke.
8:17–18 — You did not kill them; rather
(17) You did not kill them; rather, it was Allah who killed them; and you did not throw when you threw, rather, it was Allah who threw, that He might test the faithful with a good test from Himself. Indeed Allah is all-hearing, all-knowing. (18) Such is the case, and [know] that Allah undermines the stratagems of the faithless.
The victory of the Muslims in the battle of Badr goes back to the divine help, outward and external; that is why God, Exalted, ascribed the killing of the faithless and the triumph over them to Himself and denied it of them, so much so that He ascribed to Himself the act of the Prophet (s.a.w.) in throwing a handful of pebbles at the polytheists.
The secret of this expression being particular to the Prophet (s.a.w.) is his being at the station of the act of God and his reaching the station of the union of union and complete union; for the hand of the Prophet (s.a.w.) in throwing the pebbles at the enemy is an example and a complete manifestation of “the hand of God”.
In the battle of Badr God gave the faithful a precious blessing and let them taste victory, and tested them by this blessing, so that they might be hopeful and ready for the events to come.
The opening of the first verse is put before the second sentence because its content is nearer to tawḥīd, since there is no place in it for other than God; although at the level of action and of being so described, there is no comparing the station of one who has reached the station of the tawḥīd of acts, for whom God has made a share, with one for whom no share was decreed.
The end of the first verse gives the reason for God’s answering the prayer of the faithful and their call for help in this war: the blessing of victory is a sign that God hears their prayer and is aware of their state, which weakens the plans of the faithless against the faithful, strengthens the outward and inward power of the faithful, and provides the means of their advance and victory.
8:19 — If you sought a verdict, the verdict has certainly come to you
If you sought a verdict, the verdict has certainly come to you; and if you cease [your belligerence against the Prophet and his followers], it is better for you, but if you resume, We [too] shall return and your troops will never avail you though they should be ever so many, and [know] that Allah is with the faithful.
The polytheists had made the idols intercessors and sought through them that God would give victory to the true religion in this war. So God, Exalted, reproached them and mocked them, saying: victory has come; God has answered your prayer, given victory to the true religion and made the faithful mighty. If you stop, and leave off quarrelling with God, His Messenger (s.a.w.), Islam and the Muslims, it will be better for you. If you return, you will taste the bitterness of defeat once more, and your great numbers and equipment will not avail you, just as they did not avail you in this war. For the special companionship of God is for the faithful alone, and whoever has God with him, no one will overcome him.
8:20–21 — O you who have faith! Obey Allah and His Apostle
(20) O you who have faith! Obey Allah and His Apostle, and do not turn away from him while you hear [him]. (21) Do not be like those who say, ‘We hear,’ though they do not hear.
Obedience to the Prophet (s.a.w.) is obligatory because he is a messenger, the conveyor of the divine rulings, and also because he is an Imam, a guardian, a ruler and the executor of the rulings of God. The Prophet (s.a.w.) has two aspects: the aspect of prophethood and the aspect of imamate. In some verses these two aspects are treated separately by repeating the command to obey for each, and in some verses the two aspects are combined, as in the verse mentioned.
Each of these two stations calls for a particular obedience, and the Muslims must obey the commands and prohibitions of the Prophet (s.a.w.) on the basis of both aspects. Obeying the Prophet (s.a.w.) when he sets out the rulings of God as “Messenger”, or when he issues a ruling to manage the affairs of the Islamic lands as “Imam”, is obeying the command of God; and disobeying him after hearing and understanding his ruling and after the proof has been established is forbidden.
The second verse warns the faithful against falling into the fate of the polytheists and the hypocrites through committing sins and turning away from the Prophet (s.a.w.); for they used to hear the divine revelation and understand it, but did not truly believe in it. That is why the danger of deviation always threatens the faithful.
8:22–23 — Indeed the worst of beasts in Allah’s sight are the deaf and dumb who do not exercise…
(22) Indeed the worst of beasts in Allah’s sight are the deaf and dumb who do not exercise their reason. (23) Had Allah known any good in them, He would have surely made them hear, and were He to make them hear, surely they would turn away, being disregardful.
The prohibition to the faithful of resembling the faithless and the hypocrites is because they are the lowest and vilest of creatures with God, for they are deaf and dumb and do not use reason.
The faithful are the best of creation with God, and the faithless and the hypocrites are the worst of creation, because other creatures have benefits, while the faithless and the hypocrites have no benefit in them at all.
Evil means lack of harmony and lack of fit. No creature is evil in relation to itself, as the source of its act; rather its evil lies in its not fitting with something else. The faithless and the hypocrites are “the worst of creatures” because they have covered and put out their reason and the light of their innate nature, lost their human life and entered an animal life; and since they have used all their bodily and mental powers in the way of corrupting themselves and others, their conduct is negative.
Most people become knowing through hearing and reason, and the pivot of the words in the second verse is that man should be a listener in conversation; that is, the faithless and the hypocrites do not listen to the words of the Prophet (s.a.w.) and do not act by them.
As for the deaf and dumb condemned in the verses mentioned, they are the ignorant who chose the way of falsehood by their own ill will and after the proof had been established against them; the warnings and good tidings of the prophets have no effect on their souls, for sins have covered them from within and without, and there is no good in them. Had God (s.w.t.) found some good in them and known that they would be affected, He would without doubt have guided them and made them hear; for had there been good in them, God would have known it, since He knows all things.
Even if God made them hear directly and by the nearest way, they would not accept it, because their hearts have been sealed, and they have become deaf, blind and dumb, and will not return [to God]; so making them hear the good has no effect on them.
8:24 — O you who have faith! Answer Allah and the Apostle when he summons you to that which will…
O you who have faith! Answer Allah and the Apostle when he summons you to that which will give you life. Know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that toward Him you will be mustered.
This verse is one of the finest verses of Sūrat al-Anfāl, indeed of the noble Qur’an. It calls the faithful to obey the command of God and His Messenger with complete readiness, with eagerness, speed and racing one another, in order to reach real life.
In the culture of the Qur’an, man’s life is referred to as the godly life, and man is referred to as “the godly living being”, not a rational animal. Answering the call of God and the Messenger (s.a.w.) puts man’s present life in order and grants him a higher life, just as it gains him new knowledge and makes him do better deeds.
The verse came in the context of the verses on the battle of Badr, and what is certain about the pivot of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) call is the call to jihād. That is why striving in the way of God creates life, and the striving nature of a community is the cause of its life; though there is no proof that the content of the verse is limited to jihād.
In this verse there are three kinds of calls, and the faithful person must answer them all:
What God has made obligatory, to which the Prophet (s.a.w.) calls people in the words of the Qur’an, and which goes back to answering God.
What the Prophet has made obligatory, to which the Prophet (s.a.w.) calls by the leave of God and by His teaching, on the basis of the sacred _ḥadīth_s, in the field of rulings.
Measures and matters of guardianship, such as appointment and dismissal by the command of the Prophet (s.a.w.) to manage the affairs of government.
The obligation to answer the call of the Prophet (s.a.w.) is not limited to his lifetime; it is a lasting obligation. Likewise the call of the scholars of religion and the legal opinions of the jurists who derive the divine rulings methodically fall within the call of the Prophet (s.a.w.), and practical response to those rulings is obligatory on the mujtahids and those who follow them.
God’s coming between man and himself is the highest expression of God’s nearness to His servants. God is nearer to man not only than the jugular vein but even than his own reality. When God comes between the faithful person and his heart, this divine intervening covers his other affairs of knowledge, action, perception and motion too, because the essence of man is his heart; that is, God comes between man and the parts of his body and keeps them from slipping. And whoever deliberately goes astray and disobeys God and His Messenger (s.a.w.), and God’s respite for him runs out, the wrath of God comes like a mighty wave and turns his heart and his sight upside down.
God’s coming between man and his heart is at the level of God’s act and His divine manifestation, not in His Essence. Before man perceives his heart and what passes through it, God knows them; that is why man must know that he is always in the sight and presence of God, Exalted.
8:25 — And beware of a punishment
And beware of a punishment, which shall not visit the wrongdoers among you exclusively, and know that Allah is severe in retribution.
The address of this verse is a social address, directed to all the faithful. It calls everyone to unity and to keep away from division and internal disputes, because the ill-omened effects of chaos and the breakdown of public order spread widely.
Fitnah in the Qur’an means testing, and chaos and discord in society. In this verse what is meant is the second meaning; the command to Godwariness and the threat of punishment point to it, and the _ḥadīth_s support it, because fitnah in the first sense is a wise act, and its ruling is not that one must guard against it.
Fitnah is a social sin; otherwise its evil effects would not spread to others, since no one bears the burden of others’ sins. But the verse stresses that the harms and evil effects of this sin are not limited to the wrongdoers and the people of fitnah. The general warning at the start of the verse and the general address at its end confirm this meaning; that is why warding off fitnah (preventing it) and removing it (putting an end to it) is obligatory on everyone.
The fire of fitnah threatens three groups:
Those who stir up the fitnah.
Those who hold back and stay silent.
The innocent, for whom the fitnah counts merely as a wise test.
8:26 — Remember when you were few
Remember when you were few, abased in the land, and feared lest the people should despoil you, and He gave you refuge, and strengthened you with His help, and provided you with all the good things so that you may give thanks.
The faithful should remember their hard position at the start of the call, when they were few in number and weak in every respect in the land, and feared at every moment that the polytheists would snatch them away. Then God sheltered them in Madinah by the command to emigrate there, helped them in the battle of Badr, and provided them with good, lawful provision from the spoils they gained in the war, that perhaps they might thank God for His blessings.
In this verse the faithful are reminded of their hard situation in the past so that they compare it with their present situation, and so avoid fitnah, chaos and division.
The elders of Quraysh had made the Muslims weak politically, militarily and socially, and deprived them of their financial and social security, because the polytheists used to seize their property and kidnap some of them. The empires of Persia and Rome were also another problem for them. God, Exalted, solved all their internal and external problems, turned their weakness into strength, increased their numbers, and guaranteed them financial and social security.
8:27–28 — O you who have faith! Do not betray Allah and the Apostle
(27) O you who have faith! Do not betray Allah and the Apostle, and do not betray your trusts knowingly. (28) Know that your possessions and children are only a test, and that Allah—with Him is a great reward.
The faithful should not betray anything of the commands of God and the Messenger (s.a.w.), whether the matter concerns internal or external affairs. The unqualified prohibition in the verse covers all the divine counsels and rulings. The trusts of God are the legal commands themselves, the rulings, and the divine teachings (the religion of God); the trusts of the Messenger are his sunnah, his way of life, and his secret and political decisions; and the trusts of the people are the deposits that some entrust to others, of property and personal secrets.
In some trusts God, the Messenger (s.a.w.) and the faithful are partners, such as the commands that God (s.w.t.) has commanded, the Messenger (s.a.w.) carries out and the faithful benefit from, in the light of which the Islamic society grows strong.
The last sentence of the first verse is to emphasise the command; that is: do not betray, when you know that the trusts of God and His Messenger (s.a.w.) are your trusts, and you know that betrayal is forbidden and its consequences are painful.
The cause of these betrayals is gaining benefit or avoiding loss, which goes back to man’s love of wealth and children. That is why in the second verse He warns the faithful: your wealth and your children are a trial; so beware lest your attachment to them lead you to commit sin, and do not land yourselves in trouble because of them; and know that the great reward is with God alone.
Wealth and children are not man’s property to dispose of as he pleases. Religion does not set out the principle of ownership in explaining the relation between the servant and his Master; rather ownership is one of the terms of law and jurisprudence, for the purpose of ordering social relations among human beings. Otherwise, man does not even own his own limbs, let alone the matters outside his identity.
8:29 — O you who have faith! If you are wary of Allah
O you who have faith! If you are wary of Allah, He shall appoint a criterion for you, and absolve you of your misdeeds, and forgive you, for Allah is dispenser of a great grace.
According to this verse, which is one of the finest verses of Sūrat al-Anfāl, the condition for the faithful to succeed in their testing by wealth and children is Godwariness. The verse mentions three rewards for the Godwary: the criterion (furqān) in all fields of knowledge and practice, the expiation of evil deeds (minor sins), and the forgiveness of sins.
There is a mutual entailment between Godwariness and the criterion. The Godwary faithful person receives the blessing of the criterion directly from God, Exalted; just as Godwariness affects the understanding of reason, the witnessing of the heart, the correct grasp of mental concepts and the seeing of external realities.
Godwariness of the bodily limbs brings the blessings of acquired knowledge that follows the senses, while Godwariness of the faculties of reason brings, besides the blessings mentioned, the delight of the fruits of witnessing.
The criterion covers, besides personal matters, political and social matters too. That is why the unqualified wording of the verse covers conceptual acquisition and the standard of proof on the one hand, and presence to realities and the scale of gnosis on the other. By the divine criterion the gnostic and the wayfarer know the standard of existence and manifestation; the philosopher and the theologian know the measure of existence and non-existence; and the jurist, the moralist and the jurist of rights know the criterion of what is necessary and what is forbidden.
The criterion is a measure for inner discernment; and since the inner criterion is an outline (a manifestation) of the outer criterion, the Godwary find their way to the divine teachings of the Qur’an, the Torah and the Gospel, and this way is the real criterion. Whoever has not reached the station of the criterion does not have even the least conditions of Godwariness.
Godwariness and the criterion each have degrees, the lowest of which is leaving sins. All three of God’s rewards for the Godwary, that is, making known, lightening and honouring, are a grace from God, for God, Glorified is He, is of great grace to the faithful.
8:30 — When the faithless plotted against you to take you captive
When the faithless plotted against you to take you captive, or to kill or expel you—they plotted and Allah devised, and Allah is the best of devisers.
O Prophet, do not forget the plotting of the polytheists and the hard days in Makkah: days when the chiefs of Quraysh, after consulting, agreed to imprison you, kill you or banish you, and decided to carry out this conspiracy together (with forty men from forty tribes taking part) and at night. But God (s.w.t.) informed you of their intention and commanded you to emigrate from Makkah to Madinah by night.
The polytheists plotted much against the Prophet (s.a.w.) and the faithful, but God, the Mighty and Majestic, foiled all their plots, turned them back on them, promised the Prophet and the faithful victory, and protected them from harm.
Ascribing plotting to God is correct, and is not by way of verbal correspondence; for plotting is a secret plan, sometimes used to bring about good and do good, and this stratagem is right and praiseworthy, though most cases of using plotting are in sin, falsehood and what is wrong.
God being the best of plotters, and His plotting being good, is because He is unique in strength and power, just as He is most perfect in truth and honesty, since it rests on justice mixed with forgiveness and kindness. That is why His plotting is the best plotting, and He is the best of plotters.
8:31 — When Our signs are recited to them
When Our signs are recited to them, they say, ‘We have heard already. If we want, we [too] can say like this. These are nothing but myths of the ancients.’
The polytheists had various plans toward the divine revelation. Sometimes, after hearing the divine verses, they passed over them with complete disregard, as if they had never heard them; sometimes their faces changed. Sometimes they asked the Prophet for a miracle; and sometimes, when the verses of God were recited to them, out of obstinacy and in a contemptuous tone, they would say: we have heard; had we wished, we could have brought the like of it; these words are nothing but fables and legends of the ancients.
By this misleading and conspiracy the polytheists wanted, through their plotting, to belittle the reality of revelation, so as to weaken the faith of the faithful and keep others from believing.
Making light of the Qur’an to the point of counting the speech of God as mere sounds, not observing the rules of courtesy, and treating the Qur’an as a book of legends are all signs of contempt for the divine verses in their words. Calling the Qur’an sorcery and regarding what is in it as legends were based on the decision they had taken in the Dār al-Nadwah.
8:32–33 — And when they said, ‘O Allah
(32) And when they said, ‘O Allah, if this be the truth from You, rain down upon us stones from the sky, or bring us a painful punishment.’ (33) But Allah will not punish them while you are in their midst, nor will Allah punish them while they plead for forgiveness.
The well-known view is that this verse recalls the time when the polytheists said: O God, if this Qur’an is the truth from You, then stone us, or send down on us some other painful punishment of the kind You used to send down on past nations, and destroy us.
The polytheists did not regard either the origin of the Qur’an or its content as true, and did not accept its ascription to God; in their view the Qur’an met neither of the two conditions. Their obstinacy, and their demand for punishment even on the supposition that the Qur’an is true, is a sign of their practical, arrogant unbelief, not unbelief arising from an intellectual doubt.
So God, Exalted, says to His Prophet (s.a.w.): as long as you are among them, and as long as they seek forgiveness, God will not punish them. The Prophet (s.a.w.) being a safeguard relates to the period before the Hijrah, when he lived among the polytheists in Makkah; but in Madinah, after the Hijrah, the barrier to punishment was removed, and God punished them at the hands of the Muslims in the wars they fought with them, such as Badr.
Their seeking forgiveness is realised by embracing Islam; that is, if the polytheist repents and becomes Muslim, he is safe from the divine punishment.
8:34–35 — What [excuse] have they that Allah should not punish them
(34) What [excuse] have they that Allah should not punish them, when they bar [the faithful] from the Holy Mosque, and they are not its custodians? Its custodians are only the Godwary, but most of them do not know. (35) Their prayer at the House is nothing but whistling and clapping. So taste the punishment because of what you used to defy.
The first reason for the punishment of the polytheists is their lack of respect for the safe sanctuary of God, and their preventing the faithful from entering it to worship.
Since the polytheists of Makkah claimed that they were in charge of the Kaʿbah (its custodianship), they prevented the Muslims from entering the Sanctuary. But this House was founded on Godwariness, and none take charge of it but the Godwary faithful, not the guilty polytheists. That is why the polytheists’ claim to be the guardians of the House of tawḥīd counts as one of the major sins, and as another reason for their punishment.
Guardianship of all the holy places must be in the hands of the people of Godwariness, because guardianship of religious centres is a divine matter of the dominion. On the basis of these verses it is never permitted for the House of God to be left deserted, because that brings divine punishment.
The leaders of Quraysh know that the guardianship of the House of God is not in their hands, but most of the polytheists do not know it. This House is an Ancient House (free), owned by no one, so that anyone could buy or sell it by claiming to be its guardian and custodian.
The worship of the polytheists does not prevent their punishment, because their prayer was nothing but whistling (mukāʾ) and clapping (taṣdiyah), that is, amusement and play. Since that was an innovation in religion and an annoyance to the Prophet (s.a.w.), it is a great sin and a cause of the descent of punishment, not a barrier to it. That is why God, Exalted, punished them for their unbelief and made them taste the bitter punishment by their being killed and taken captive in their fighting against the Muslims.
8:36–37 — Indeed the faithless spend their wealth to bar from the way of Allah
(36) Indeed the faithless spend their wealth to bar from the way of Allah. Soon they will have spent it, then it will be a cause of regret to them, then they will be overcome, and the faithless will be gathered toward Hell, (37) so that Allah may separate the bad ones from the good, and place the bad on one another, and pile them up together, and cast them into hell. It is they who are the losers.
The efforts of the polytheists to stop the growth of Islam went step by step. First they cut off the Muslims’ road to the Sacred Mosque; then they tried to bar from the way of God (the divine religion). One of their plans to achieve this hateful aim was using financial means: they spent their wealth to bar from the way of God, to the point of giving away all their wealth to bring down the Islamic order.
All the efforts in this direction ended in failure. It is not only that they did not benefit from spending their wealth in this way; it will also cause them regret. Besides the financial and military failure, which is their worldly punishment, they will also face God’s punishment in the Hereafter (a mixture of regret and grief).
The acts of the faithless are governed by the divine way and move toward the end God has set in the world of creation; that is, the general principle and the way embodied in separating the bad from the good, so that faith is told apart from unbelief, the faithful from the faithless, and the sincere from the hypocrite.
The purpose of separating the bad from the good is to heap the vile faithless one on top of another and throw them into Hell like bundles of firewood.
These verses point to the Qur’an’s news of the unseen, for God, Exalted, told briefly of the future of the polytheists in the war with the Muslims.
8:38 — Say to the faithless, if they cease [their belligerence against the Muslims]
Say to the faithless, if they cease [their belligerence against the Muslims], what is already past shall be forgiven them. But if they resume [their hostilities], then the precedent of the predecessors has already come to pass.
If the faithless stop their unbelief and their fitnah against the Islamic order, their past will be forgiven them and they will not be called to account; but if they stay in their unbelief and continue on their former way of barring from the way of God, the divine way of the punishment of those before them will be carried out on them.
The unqualified promise of forgiveness from God to the faithless covers all the principles and branches, including beliefs, morals, jurisprudence and legal matters within the circle of Islam. But what is meant is the founding matters, not the ratified rulings, such as the rights of people. This ruling is also not particular to the faithless at the time the verse came down; it is general for all times.
What the verb attaches to has been left out in the warning at the end of the verse, as it has in the good tidings at its start. The meaning of “returning” is continuing in unbelief and persisting in it; that is, the ruling of punishment, like that of past nations, is for those who stayed in unbelief after being called to turn back from it, and who continued in their former deeds in opposing the rulings of religion and barring from the way of God.
Pardoning what is past in this verse means dropping something after it has been established; so if the faithless were not charged to follow the Islamic rulings while they were faithless, there would be no meaning to pardon.
8:39–40 — Fight them until persecution is no more
(39) Fight them until persecution is no more, and religion becomes exclusively for Allah. So if they desist, Allah indeed watches what they do. (40) But if they turn away, then know that Allah is your master: an excellent master and an excellent helper!
The divine way in punishing the faithless is either by help from the unseen and sending down a punishment of extermination, or by charging the faithful with defence so that they fight them. The command to jihād is a divine duty for the purpose of testing the faithful. That is why in the first verse God (s.w.t.) made it obligatory on the faithful to fight the leaders of fitnah among the polytheists and the faithless, to establish religion, root polytheism out of the earth, and bring about the rule of Islam over the world. On this basis fighting the leaders of polytheism and unbelief has two aims: removing the causes of fitnah, and preparing the way for the appearance of the truth and the rule of Islam.
God, after threatening the leaders of polytheism and unbelief, gives good tidings once more that if they stop stirring up fitnah against Islam and the Muslims, God is aware of their deeds and will deal with them accordingly. But if they continue stirring up fitnah in their disobedience, then know, O faithful, that God is your Protector and the best Helper for you; so fight them, trusting in God’s help, and do not let fear and weakness take hold of you.
8:41 — Know that whatever thing you may come by
Know that whatever thing you may come by, a fifth of it is for Allah and the Apostle, for the relatives and the orphans, for the needy and the traveller, if you have faith in Allah and what We sent down to Our servant on the Day of Separation, the day when the two hosts met; and Allah has power over all things.
Know that the fifth (khums) of the spoils of war, and of other gains and financial earnings, is not for the fighters and the traders; they must leave it at the disposal of the Imam (a.s.), so that he spends it on its lawful uses.
Khums is one of the economic resources in the Islamic order. The noble Qur’an mentions the name of God at the start of the uses of khums; then come the names of the Prophet (s.a.w.) and the Imams (a.s.); then the three other uses, namely the orphans, the needy and the wayfarer, who must be Hāshimites, that is, descended from Hāshim through the father (not through the mother).
It is very hard to turn away from wealth (the spoils) and pay its fifth to others. God, Exalted, says: if you believe in God, the Powerful, and in the revelation that was sent down to His Prophet on the day of Badr, the day on which the Muslims faced the polytheists and on which truth was told apart from falsehood and the faithful from the faithless, then you must believe in this.
8:42 — When you were on the nearer side
When you were on the nearer side, and they on the farther side, while the caravan was below you, and had you agreed together on an encounter, you would have certainly failed to keep the tryst, but in order that Allah may carry through a matter that was bound to be fulfilled, so that he who perishes might perish by a manifest proof, and he who lives may live on by a manifest proof, and Allah is indeed all-hearing, all-knowing.
In the battle of Badr, the area where the Muslims were spread out and the way they were drawn up militarily were not like those of the polytheists. The army of Islam was on the northern side of the valley of Badr and its wells, near Madinah; this area had a low slope and sandy ground, and was counted an unfavourable base. The polytheists had spread out on its southern side, toward Makkah, which is a high, firm, earthy area, counted a good camp.
Had the Muslims and the polytheists wished to face one another by prior planning, this kind of line-up, which was outwardly in favour of the faithless, would not have happened; yet it would lead to their defeat and the victory of the faithful. Yes, the divine decree created such a scene to disclose to everyone His signs of knowledge and of action, and to complete His proof against everyone.
All this help and guidance rested on the infinite knowledge of the needs of the faithful and on God’s answering the prayer of the Prophet (s.a.w.) and the Muslims, for God pays heed to the request of the faithful.
8:43 — When Allah showed them to you as few in your dream
When Allah showed them to you as few in your dream, and had He shown them as many, you would have lost heart, and disputed about the matter. But Allah spared you. Indeed He knows well what is in the breasts.
Before the battle of Badr, God, the Bestower of favours, showed the noble Messenger (s.a.w.) in a dream the inner reality of the polytheists, their smallness and their fewness. Had He shown their outward great numbers and informed the Prophet (s.a.w.) and the Muslims of that, it would without doubt have led to sluggishness, fear and discord among them; as a result they would not have taken part in the war, or they would have quarrelled over who should be sent first and who later. But God, the Knowing, was aware of what was hidden in their hearts; so, to prevent any unwanted event, He granted the Muslims, through the dream of the Messenger of God, spiritual health and security from weakness and quarrelling.
8:44 — And when He showed them to you as few in your eyes
And when He showed them to you as few in your eyes, when you met them [on the battlefield], and He made you [appear] few in their eyes, [it was] in order that Allah may carry through a matter that was bound to be fulfilled, and to Allah all matters are returned.
God, Exalted, in His special help to the fighters of Badr, and by His acting on the eyes of the Muslims and the polytheists, made each side appear few in the eyes of the other: for the people of the truth, so that they would not fear the war and attacking the enemy; and for the polytheists hostile to the truth, so that they would make light of the faithful and think them weak, sink into luxury and amusement, and not try to increase their equipment. Forced and far-fetched interpretations and justifications of this divine help are nothing but misleading, and such a view of the divine acts is mistaken.
In this way the divine decree was carried out, that is, the supremacy of the faithful over the faithless; and there is no doubt that all causes and their causality are in the hand of God, Exalted.
8:45 — O you who have faith! When you meet a host [in battle]
O you who have faith! When you meet a host [in battle], then stand firm, and remember Allah greatly so that you may be felicitous.
The faithful fighters, in facing the enemy, must seek help in steadfastness and much remembrance of God, and not be content with what they have; for their success on the battlefield goes back to their being equipped with six basic strategies, some of them positive qualities of the faithful person and some of them negative ones. Two counsels are mentioned in this verse: steadfastness on the field of battle, and much remembrance of God.
8:46 — And obey Allah and His Apostle
And obey Allah and His Apostle, and do not dispute, or you will lose heart and your power will be gone. And be patient; indeed Allah is with the patient.
As for the other three of the six qualities of the faithful, they are complete obedience to God and the Messenger (s.a.w.), especially in jihād, which is obligatory on everyone, because it leads to unity and victory over the enemy. Avoiding disputes and quarrels is also obligatory on the community, because any kind of quarrel leads to the destruction of the might and honour of the community. Persevering around the axis of the truth and avoiding quarrels and disputes may seem very hard, but divine help is always with the patient.
Sometimes difference is a sign of the infinite mercy of God, and sometimes it is the secret of the loss of glory and might for those who differ; for quarrelling destroys the strength and dignity of both sides and exposes the weakness of both.
8:47 — Do not be like those who left their homes vainly and to show off to the people
Do not be like those who left their homes vainly and to show off to the people, and to bar [other people] from the way of Allah, and Allah comprehends what they do.
The Muslims may not leave their homes as polytheists, arrogant, hypocritical and rebellious, with the aim of barring from the way of God. The faithless too must know that God, the Knowing, the Powerful, encompasses their deeds and prevents them from reaching their evil aim. Ascribing encompassing to God is a real ascription, for He and His knowledge, which is His Essence, encompass the deeds of the faithless.
The basic axis of victory in early Islam was observing the six main solutions, and the cause of failure was abandoning them.
8:48 — When Satan made their deeds seem decorous to them
When Satan made their deeds seem decorous to them, and said [to the faithless], ‘No one shall overcome you today from among all mankind, and I will stand by you.’ But when the two hosts sighted each other, he took to his heels, saying, ‘Indeed I am quit of you. I see what you do not see. Indeed I fear Allah, and Allah is severe in retribution.’
Besides the three traits of the polytheists (exulting in the blessing of power, showing off, and opposing the truth), Satan, by taking a form for the polytheists and by acting on their channels of perception, will and motion, made going on toward Badr and the war with the Muslims seem fair to them, and said to them: with all this strength you will certainly win; and if a problem arises, I guarantee your safety.
After the battle of Badr broke out, Iblīs saw the angels coming down to help the Muslims, so he fled in the ugliest way, took back his guarantee, disowned the polytheists, and declared, in the manner of a threat, the severity of the punishment of God, Glorified is He. Satan’s making things seem fair was by taking a form and being present among the polytheists, not by enticement and inner whispering. He did not only creep into their thoughts and make their ugly deeds seem fair to them; he also encouraged them in practice and promised them victory.
8:49 — When the hypocrites said, and [also] those in whose hearts is a sickness
When the hypocrites said, and [also] those in whose hearts is a sickness, ‘Their religion has deceived them.’ But whoever puts his trust in Allah, then Allah is indeed all-mighty, all-wise.
Alongside Satan’s support in various forms, and to strengthen the polytheists, the hypocrites and those sick at heart regarded the Muslim fighters at Badr as simple people, deceived by religious promises, who had come with little strength to fight an armed and equipped enemy.
Judging in this way is not reasonable, for one of the divine ways is the victory of the few faithful over the many faithless. Yes, whoever chooses God, the Powerful, the Wise, as his Trustee and hands over to Him the plan of his life will without doubt achieve his aims in the light of divine might and divine wisdom, for all beings are soldiers of God, the Mighty, the Wise.
8:50 — Were you to see when the angels take away the faithless
Were you to see when the angels take away the faithless, striking their faces and their backs, [saying], ‘Taste the punishment of the burning.
When the angels take the souls of the faithless, they send them to the world of the barzakh with humiliation and punishment, striking them on their backs and faces and saying: this is only the beginning of the punishment; as you tasted and saw many of the pleasures of the world, you must suffer here too a burning and painful punishment. Opposing the truth has a punishment in this world and the Hereafter. The polytheists of Quraysh lost their lives and their property on the one hand, and fell into the painful punishment of the angels on the other.
The description of the punishment of the faithless who were about to be moved to the world of the barzakh is in literal language, not by way of representation, metonymy or metaphor.
8:51 — That is because of what your hands have sent ahead
That is because of what your hands have sent ahead, and because Allah is not tyrannical to the servants.’
All those punishments of this world and the Hereafter are the result of the evil conduct you committed with your own hands. God, the Wise, does not allow anyone to wrong anyone; rather He sometimes treats His sinful servants with good.
8:52 — Like the precedent of Pharaoh’s clan and those who were before them
Like the precedent of Pharaoh’s clan and those who were before them, who defied Allah’s signs, so Allah seized them for their sins. Indeed Allah is all-strong, severe in retribution.
In response to the rebellion of the faithless and the guilty, God punishes them for their ugly thoughts and deeds, and in this there is no difference between ages, lands and generations; and God, Exalted, by His wisdom, sometimes punishes them severely. The reference to the end of the leaders of unbelief and rebellion, and the arrogant like them in the past, is to express the helplessness of all powers before God, the Strong, severe in punishment. God, Glorified is He, is not Himself described by severity, but there is nothing to prevent divine punishment from being described by it.
8:53 — That is because Allah never changes a blessing that He has bestowed on a people unless…
That is because Allah never changes a blessing that He has bestowed on a people unless they change what is in their own souls, and Allah is all-hearing, all-knowing:
The management of the world is built on kindness, and all phenomena are free gifts from God; He never changes the course of His blessings. But the continuation of the divine outpouring depends on the practice of Godwariness by the individual and the society. The only obstacle to it, which causes blessing to turn into wrath, is opposing God (s.w.t.) and His messengers, straying from the path of the truth, and the weakening of the spirit of Godwariness. God takes back the blessings from the people of sins, because by their inner change they have turned to ingratitude for blessings and to fighting the Bestower of blessings, and have become of those who are prodigal against themselves and wrong themselves. He is the One who watches over every change in thought and conduct; when there is individual rebellion, He may grant the rebel respite without neglecting him, but in the case of a polluted community and a corrupt society He seizes them with punishment swiftly.
8:54 — Like the precedent of Pharaoh’s clan and those who were before them
Like the precedent of Pharaoh’s clan and those who were before them, who denied the signs of their Lord; so We destroyed them for their sins, and We drowned Pharaoh’s clan; and they were all wrongdoers.
The divine way was applied to three generations at three critical stages of history: the blessing was taken from them and wrath sent down on them, and so they were destroyed. These three generations are the faithless who lived before the clan of Pharaoh, the Pharaohs, and the people of Makkah; God, the Avenger, destroyed them all because they practised wrongdoing and denied the divine signs. One must take note that God, the Powerful, punishes severely the faithless and those who deny His signs, even if they have much power and equipment. This verse is not a repetition of the previous verse, for there are differences between them.
8:55 — Indeed the worst of beasts in Allah’s sight are those who are faithless
Indeed the worst of beasts in Allah’s sight are those who are faithless; so they will not have faith.
The worst of creatures (moving beings) with God are the faithless, from the side of faith, and the covenant-breakers, from the side of law; for they have corrupted the relation between themselves and God (s.w.t.) on the one hand, and between themselves and people on the other. It is one of the traits of the arrogant faithless person that there is no hope of his believing in the future, because his refusal to believe in God goes back to unbelief being rooted in his heart; so his future mirrors his past.
8:56 — —Those with whom you made a treaty
—Those with whom you made a treaty, and who violated their treaty every time, and who are not Godwary.
Those faithless who break the covenant, do not fear its consequences and are not wary of God are the worst of creation with God, like the Jews of Madinah who broke their covenant with the Prophet (s.a.w.) several times, joined the polytheists and allied with them against the Muslims. Keeping the covenant is obligatory on everyone and is one of the universal rulings of Islam, and whoever does not keep his covenant is the most treacherous and vile of creation.
8:57 — So if you confront them in battle
So if you confront them in battle, treat them [in such a wise] as to disperse those who are behind them, so that they may take admonition.
God (s.w.t.) commanded the Prophet of mercy (s.a.w.) to fight the tyrannical covenant-breakers in the front ranks of the battle, indeed to bring down the pillars of their army, so that they might take heed from the end of those who broke the covenant and clashed with the truth, and stop opposing the reality.
8:58 — And if you fear treachery from a people
And if you fear treachery from a people, break off [the treaty] with them in a like manner. Indeed Allah does not like the treacherous.
Watchfulness of every kind is obligatory on the Imam and the community. If the Muslims have a non-aggression pact with a people or a government, they must abide by it. If the Muslims learn, by a clear proof, of the likelihood of betrayal and breach of the pact on the other side, they must first declare openly that the pact is dissolved, and then prepare to face the enemy’s conspiracy; for any breach of covenant by anyone counts as betrayal, and the wrath and punishment of God come upon the betrayer. Giving up the covenant is when signs of the other side’s breach of the covenant appear; once the breaking of the covenant has become clear, there is no need to throw it back (in the verse’s expression), because no covenant remains to be thrown back.
8:59 — Let the faithless not suppose that they have outmanoeuvred [Allah]
Let the faithless not suppose that they have outmanoeuvred [Allah]. Indeed, they cannot frustrate [His power].
The power of God, Glorified is He, has no limits. Let the faithless never think that they have the power to escape Him or can get past His decree and measure, or leave the circle of His power, and harm Him, His Messenger and the Muslims. The Muslims must know that conspiracies do not harm their religion, and they should not grieve over the escape of some of Quraysh from the battle of Badr.
8:60 — Prepare against them whatever you can of [military] power and war-horses
Prepare against them whatever you can of [military] power and war-horses, awing thereby the enemy of Allah, and your enemy, and others besides them, whom you do not know, but Allah knows them. And whatever you spend in the way of Allah will be repaid to you in full, and you will not be wronged.
In view of the situation of Madinah and the internal and external dangers the Muslims faced, God, Exalted, commanded the Prophet (s.a.w.) and the Muslims to organise a strong army of experienced men, with advanced tools and means of war, so as to build lasting fear in the hearts of their enemies and the enemies of God, whether known or unknown, and be safe from the harm of both groups of enemies.
There is no doubt that mobilising such a strong army needs financial support, which the Muslims must provide, knowing well that what they offer in the way of religion God will return to them abundantly.
Yes, this is a divine promise: if you have strong military power, your enemies will not look at you with greedy and tyrannical eyes and will not think of attacking; your contributions in the way of God will have their due reward; foreigners will not dare to attack you; and nothing of your reward in the Hereafter will be diminished.
8:61 — If they incline toward peace
If they incline toward peace, then you [too] incline toward it, and put your trust in Allah. Indeed He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.
The noble Messenger (s.a.w.) is the leader of the Muslim community and the one responsible for signing pacts. That is why God, Exalted, commanded him to sign agreements with enemies who truly incline to peace and want peaceful coexistence, and in this work to choose no trustee but God, the Hearing, the Knowing; for He is the capable and well-informed Trustee, and if they have a hidden trick, God will be your help.
Accepting peace (silm) is a primary ruling in the Qur’an, while the expression “reconciliation” (ṣulḥ) points to an earlier conflict or a background of one; that is why the expression “peace” is more fitting than “reconciliation”. In the culture of the Qur’an, conflict and peace each have their own place, and the Islamic ruler decides on war or reconciliation on the basis of religious teachings and the public interest.
8:62 — But if they desire to deceive you
But if they desire to deceive you, Allah is indeed sufficient for you. It is He who strengthened you with His help and with the means of the faithful,
If the enemies whose offer of peace We commanded you to accept, trusting in God, have cunning intentions of strengthening and organising their army under cover of peace, there is no doubt that God, Exalted, who is your Trustee, will nullify their plot and protect you from their evil; for He is your only refuge and will suffice you. And before this too He guarded you and helped you by sending help from the unseen, by mobilising the faithful.
8:63 — and united their hearts. Had you spent all that is in the earth
and united their hearts. Had you spent all that is in the earth, you could not have united their hearts, but Allah united them together. Indeed He is all-mighty, all-wise.
In the light of faith, disputes disappeared and the faithful were united with one another. No one could achieve such an accomplishment by any means; even the noble Messenger (s.a.w.) could not have established this bond of love by gathering all forces and spending all the treasures of the earth.
Perhaps the secret of ascribing the uniting of hearts to the faithful themselves (not to their hearts) is that the reality of man is his heart.
No one possesses this art and skill but God, the Mighty, the Wise; and it also nullifies the tricks of the enemies.
The pivot of this verse is the victory of Islam over the enemies and the ineffectiveness of their tricks in the shade of God’s sufficiency. The uniting of hearts is an implied matter; that is why the end of the verse stresses the might and wisdom of God.
8:64 — O Prophet! Sufficient for you is Allah and those of the faithful who follow you
O Prophet! Sufficient for you is Allah and those of the faithful who follow you.
God’s sufficiency for the Prophet and the faithful has been expressed in a general, principal form, for sufficiency belongs to God alone and cannot be delegated. That is why God, Glorified and Exalted is He, suffices His Messenger and his followers; the others are instruments, and He is the Causer of causes. One must give up the apparent sense of the verse for two reasons, rational and transmitted.
8:65 — O Prophet! Urge on the faithful to fight
O Prophet! Urge on the faithful to fight: If there be twenty patient men among you, they shall overcome two hundred; and if there be a hundred of you, they shall overcome a thousand of the faithless, for they are a lot who do not understand.
The Prophet is commanded to urge the Muslims to fight and to be patient in facing the faithless. Then, by a declarative sentence meant as a command, one of the military rulings is expressed: twenty Muslim fighters must face two hundred soldiers of the army of unbelief, and a hundred of them must face a thousand soldiers of the army of godlessness, and fight with patience; for every faithful fighter, in the shade of patience and understanding, gains a multiplied strength, since the combination of these two virtues in one person gives him strength equal to ten times over, enabling him to face ten people.
It is drawn from the verse, by implication, that the patient faithful are people of understanding, and the faithless who lack patience are foolish. Patience and understanding in the army of faith, and their absence in the army of unbelief, were among the main factors in the victory of the Muslims. Resistance comes from different motives: the faithful for the sake of attaining martyrdom and meeting God, and the polytheists in pursuit of worldly aims and the desires of the self.
8:66 — Now Allah has lightened your burden
Now Allah has lightened your burden, knowing that there is weakness in you. So if there be a hundred patient men among you, they shall overcome two hundred; and if there be a thousand, they shall overcome two thousand, by Allah’s leave; and Allah is with the patient.
God, Glorified is He, lightened the ruling of the previous verse (one person standing against ten) to the double: now every Muslim fighter must stand against two faithless. If a hundred of you stand firm against two hundred, and a thousand against two thousand, they will win by the leave of God, for God is with the patient.
Perhaps the reason for lightening the ruling is the intellectual weakness and the slackening of the foundations of faith and knowledge among the Muslims, as a result of being polluted with the passing material pleasures of the world. The central elements of the steadfast faithful were stronger at the start of the movement and became weaker later, as happened in the battle of Ḥunayn.
The fixed ratio of steadfastness is one to two at all stages; so if there are more than two polytheists facing the faithful fighter, fleeing is permitted, not obligatory. The ruling of lightening is of the kind of specification in time, and God’s being with the patient fighters is companionship in victory.
8:67 — A prophet may not take captives until he has thoroughly decimated [the enemy] in the land
A prophet may not take captives until he has thoroughly decimated [the enemy] in the land. You desire the transitory gains of this world, while Allah desires [for you] [the reward of] the Hereafter, and Allah is all-mighty, all-wise.
Another of the Islamic rulings on fighting the faithless is that no prophet may take enemy forces captive in war before political and social authority has been established.
This ruling is one of the rulings of prophethood in general. That is why the first principle in fighting the polytheists and the enemies of religion is killing them; but after the Islamic order has become settled and firm, taking them captive for the purpose of education, or to secure the indemnities and losses arising from the war, or to exchange them for Muslim prisoners, is not prohibited and is in keeping with human dignity.
The implied blame in the verse is directed at some of the Muslim soldiers who were hasty in deciding to take captives, not at the Prophet, whom God (s.w.t.) praised for his mighty character. The two attributes “Mighty” and “Wise” at the close of the verse mean that those who seek might and look for wisdom must follow the knowing guide, and seek from Him might and steadfastness. Attachment to the world conflicts with might and dignity, and true might lies in seeking the Hereafter.
8:68 — Had it not been for a prior decree of Allah
Had it not been for a prior decree of Allah, surely there would have befallen you a great punishment for what you took.
After some of the fighters at Badr were blamed for taking captives without permission, this verse came down carrying an implied threat and reproach, to the effect that had there not been a divine decree about warding off punishment from you, you would have been exposed to a great penalty. The vagueness of God’s decree in the context of reproach keeps the hearer’s mind occupied with the possibility of any danger, although the commentators have mentioned possibilities in interpreting the decree and the book of God; and the following verse discloses it. The reproach and threat are directed at the fighters who took captives without permission, not at the most noble Prophet. The apparent sense of the verse speaks of a worldly punishment, not one of the Hereafter, at the level of touching and severe collision, not great torment.
8:69 — Avail yourselves of the spoils you have taken as lawful and good
Avail yourselves of the spoils you have taken as lawful and good, and be wary of Allah. Indeed Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
The vague decree of God in the previous verse, which warded off punishment from the faithful, is the lawfulness of ransom and the permission to take captives, which God (s.w.t.) granted the fighters at Badr as a favour, making it lawful for them to benefit from ransom.
The fit between this ruling and the threat in the previous verse is as follows: the fighters at Badr were overbold but did not commit a sin, and ransom was in reality lawful for them; but they took captives without prior permission, with the aim of getting ransom in exchange for releasing them.
The command to Godwariness after setting out the ruling of lawfulness is unqualified. The mention of God’s special forgiveness and mercy gives the reason for the content of the verse.
8:70 — O Prophet! Say to the captives who are in your hands
O Prophet! Say to the captives who are in your hands, ‘If Allah finds any good in your hearts, He will give you [something which is] better than what has been taken away from you, and He will forgive you, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.’
God’s command to the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.) concerns teaching and educating the captives of war, so as to make the captivity of the polytheists a means of acquainting them with the truths of Islam and of their believing in it. He speaks with them with Islamic gentleness and love and conveys to them God’s good for them: if they part from polytheism and join tawḥīd, they will gain what is better than what they lost.
The first “good” in the verse is inward, that is, set against the evil and polytheism within them; the second “good” is a comparative and relative attribute, and what it is set against outwardly is wealth or the means of reaching it.
Putting the material matter (worldly benefit) before the spiritual matter (divine forgiveness and the reward of the Hereafter) rests on their love of wealth, for they regarded paying a small ransom for their freedom as a heavy penalty.
8:71 — But if they seek to betray you
But if they seek to betray you, then they have already betrayed Allah earlier, and He gave [you] power over them; and Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.
The method of the noble Qur’an in dealing with treacherous enemies takes three forms:
Disregarding the covenant with the faithless who show signs of treachery.
Accepting the treaty and acting shrewdly, outwardly, with a group of the faithless who show no signs of treachery, even though they harbour intentions of conspiracy.
Not worrying about those who intend treachery.
In this verse the captives of Badr are made to fear, and the Prophet (s.a.w.) is given the good tidings that if these captives intend to betray you (betrayal in religion, that is, unbelief) and do not keep their covenant, do not fear; they betrayed God (s.w.t.) before and disbelieved in tawḥīd, and this time too God will give you mastery over them.
8:72 — Indeed those who have believed and migrated and waged jihad with their possessions and…
Indeed those who have believed and migrated and waged jihad with their possessions and persons in the way of Allah, and those who gave [them] shelter and help—they are heirs of one another. As for those who have believed but did not migrate, you have no heirdom in relation to them whatsoever until they migrate. Yet if they ask your help for the sake of religion, it is incumbent on you to help them, excepting against a people with whom you have a treaty; and Allah watches what you do.
The Muslims are either Emigrants, or Helpers, or faithful who are constrained. The traits of the Emigrants are faith in God, emigration, and striving with wealth and self in the way of God; and the characteristics of the Helpers are sheltering the Emigrants and helping the religion and its people. These two groups surpass the third group (the faithful who did not emigrate), and have been mentioned with good and praise in many verses.
Striving may be with wealth at one time, with the self at another, and sometimes with both together; and so too emigration. The noble Qur’an put wealth before self, because giving wealth is a preliminary to giving the self, and both are used to strengthen religion.
Among the distinguishing characteristics of the Emigrants and the Helpers is the bond of guardianship that covers inheritance, help and security between them. By this bond of guardianship they inherit from one another and must help one another; and if a Muslim gives someone shelter, the other Muslims must honour it. The verse covers all three kinds of guardianship.
As for the third group (the constrained faithful), they enjoy only the guardianship of help in religious matters, as long as they do not emigrate.
Emigration to Islamic lands is obligatory on Muslims who cannot carry out the rulings of their religion in the land of unbelief, and this ruling shows the merit and importance of emigration in Islam.
8:73 — As for the faithless, they are heirs of one another
As for the faithless, they are heirs of one another. Unless you do the same, there will be strife in the land and great corruption.
Losing insight, and acting on the basis of attachment and disavowal among the faithful, brings the danger of the spread of intellectual and cultural _fitnah_s and the appearance of political and social unrest and corruption; so the faithful must be wary of it. The people of faith should have no tie with the treacherous faithless: no guardianship of help and love, no political or social relation, and no national or tribal one.
The word “fitnah” in the verse points to the power of the faithless and the weakness of the Muslims, the cultural, national and political ties of the Muslims with the faithless, the spread of evil thought and polytheism, and the outbreak of war and its destructive results; and it is the result of disagreement, division and the cutting of ties among them, the lack of unity in facing the faithless, and the breaking of covenants.
8:74 — Those who have believed, migrated
Those who have believed, migrated, and waged jihad in the way of Allah, and those who gave them shelter and help, it is they who are truly the faithful. For them shall be forgiveness and a noble provision.
The Emigrants and the Helpers are the truly faithful, and the reward of forgiveness and the outward and inward blessings from God are set aside for them alone.
The expression “the truly and purely faithful” does not cover all the Emigrants and Helpers, because some of them did not stay firm in their first faith, and some were polluted from the start and their emigration was mixed with conspiracy. Only the few who stood firm, at the start and in continuing, have this attribute. Real faith is the share of those who prefer God, His Messenger (s.a.w.) and striving in His way to every person and every thing. What is meant by “truly” is steadfastness and uprightness in private and in public.
The Emigrants and the Helpers gained two great rewards, forgiveness and generous provision, by their emigration from ignorance to reason and from the age of ignorance to civilisation, and by giving up wealth and self in the way of reviving religion.
8:75 — Those who believed afterwards and migrated
Those who believed afterwards and migrated, and waged jihad along with you, they belong to you; but the blood relatives are more entitled to inherit from one another in the Book of Allah. Indeed Allah has knowledge of all things.
The Qur’an’s explicit denial of the guardianship of inheritance to the faithful who did not emigrate, and its not mentioning them among those who enjoy forgiveness and generous provision, concern the faithful who never emigrated. As for those who emigrated later, God, Glorified is He, said to reassure them together with the truly faithful (the Emigrants and the Helpers): those who believed after you, emigrated and strove with you are of you; they enjoy the guardianship of inheritance, forgiveness and generous provision, even though their rank is below that of those who went before in emigration and striving.
Then the earlier ruling on the guardianship of inheritance was lifted, and the ruling of absolute, fixed priority of relatives in inheritance came; in the end all the wealth of the deceased faithful person goes to his relatives. The qualifier “in the Book of God” points to the unchangeability and importance of this law of inheritance.
Every praiseworthy emigration in Islam relates to what was before the conquest of Makkah; and earlier and later emigration are not like spending and striving before the conquest and after it.
The report of the vastness of God’s knowledge at the end of the verse gives the reason for the content of the whole verse; and it may also be a report meant as a command, expressing a threat.