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A reference to the weakness of the believers in the early days of Islam, before their exodus from Mecca to Medina. In its wider meaning, it is a reminder to every community of true believers, at all times, of their initial weakness and numerical insignificance and their subsequent growth in numbers and influence.
i.e., Mecca.
On the immediate occasion the Muslims were reminded that they were a small band in Makkah despised and rejected; living in a state of insecurity for their persons, their lives, their property, and those of their dependents, persecuted and exiled and how by the grace of Allah they found a safe asylum in Madinah how they found friends and helpers, how their many needs were cared for, and how at length they gathered strength and numbers enough to defeat the forces of godlessness, injustice, and oppression.
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Lit., "do not be false to your trusts, the while you know". Regarding the deeper meaning of amanah ("trust"), see note [87] on 33:72 .
Trusts may be of various kinds: (1) property, goods, credit, etc.; (2) plans, confidences, secrets, etc.; (3) knowledge, talents, opportunities, etc., which we are expected to use for our fellowmen. Men may betray the trust of Allah and His Prophet by misusing property, or abusing the confidence reposed in them, or the knowledge or talents given to them. On that special occasion, when the plans for the protection of Allah's worshippers against annihilation were of special importance, the Prophet's trust and confidence had to be guarded with special care. Occasions for scrupulously respecting the trust and confidence of our fellow-men occur every day in our life, and few of us can claim perfection in this respect. Hence the special distinction of the Prophet of Allah, who earned the title of Al-Amin, the one who was true to every trust reposed in him.
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Inasmuch as love of worldly goods and a desire to protect one's family may lead a person to transgression (and, thus, to a betrayal of the moral values postulated in God's message), they are described as fitnah - which, in this context, is best rendered by the two words "trial and temptation". This reminder connects with verse {25} above, "beware of that temptation to evil which does not befall only those who are bent on denying the truth," since it is acquisitiveness and a desire to confer benefits on one's own family which often tempt an otherwise good person to offend against the rights of his fellow-men. It is to be borne in mind that, contrary to the New Testament, the Our'an does not postulate a contempt for worldly attachments as a pre-requisite of righteousness: it only demands of man that he should not allow these attachments to deflect him from the pursuit of moral verities.
A big family-many sons-was considered a source of power and strength: iii. 10, 116. So in English, a man with many children is said to have his "quiver full": Cf. Psalms, cxxvii. 4-5: "As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man, so are the children of thy youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." So with property and possessions: they add to a man's dignity, power, and influence. But both possessions and a large family are a temptation and a trial. They may turn out to be a source of spiritual downfall, if they are mishandled, or if the love of them excludes the love of Allah.
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I.e., the faculty of moral valuation (Manar IX, 648). See also surah {2}, note [38].
Cf. ii. 53 and ii. 185. The battle of Badr is called the Furqan in Muslim theology, because it was the first trial of strength by battle, in Islam, between the powers of good and evil. Evil was defeated, and those who had real faith were tested and sorted out from those who had not faith enough to follow the banner of Faith. See also viii. 41 and n. 1210.
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While the first sentence of this verse is a reference to the persecution to which the Prophet and his followers had been exposed in Mecca before their exodus to Medina, this concluding passage points to the ever-recurring fact of man's religious history that those who deny the truth of divine revelation are always intent on rendering its preachers powerless or destroying them, either physically or, figuratively, through ridicule.
The plots against Al-Mustafa in Makkah aimed at three things. They were not only foiled, but Allah's wonderful working turned the tables, and brought good out of evil in each case. (1) They tried to hold the Prophet in subjection in Makkah by putting pressure on his uncles, relatives, and friends. But the more they persecuted, the more the little Muslim community grew in faith and numbers. (2) They tried to injure or slay him. But the wonderful example of his humility, perseverance, and fearlessness furthered the cause of Islam. (3) They tried to get him and his followers out of their homes. But they found a new home in Madinah from which they eventually reconquered not only Makkah but Arabia and the world. A) Cf. iii. 54.
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Cf. 6:25 . As regards the expression la-qulna - here rendered as "we could certainly [ourselves] compose" - it is to be remembered that the verb qala does not always signify only "he said", but also "he asserted" or "expressed an opinion", as well as - in connection with a literary production - "he composed": thus, qala shi'r means "he composed a poem". In the above context, this expression alludes to the oft-repeated (but never fulfilled) boast of the pagan Quraysh that they could produce a poetic message comparable in merit to that of the Qur'an; in its wider sense, it is an allusion to the attitude of many unbelievers towards revealed scriptures in general.
Cf. vi. 25.
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This sarcastic appeal of the unbelievers - referred to several times in the Qur'an - is meant to stress their conviction that the Qur'an is not a divine revelation. According to Anas ibn Malik, these words were first uttered by Abu Jahl, the Prophet's chief opponent at Mecca, who was killed in the battle of Badr (Bukhari).
This was actually a challenge thrown out by the Infidels in Makkah not seriously but as a taunt. The answer is in the two following verses. Allah punishes in His own good time, not according to the foolish and frivolous taunts of the Unbelievers. While the Holy Prophet was with them, he-the Mercy of the Worlds-conferred a certain amount of immunity to them. There were also other Muslims, just men who asked for forgiveness. And Allah keeps the door of repentance and forgiveness open to all as long as they make it possible. But let them not be puffed up with pride, or think that they have lasting immunity. What became of Abu Jahl? He and some of his greatest warriors were slain at Badr. The little autocratic clique that prevented Muslims from access to the Sacred Mosque had their punishment not long afterwards. They pretended to be its guardians. But were they? Could they be? Only the righteous could be true guardians to Allah's places of worship, and particularly to the Central House of the Ka'ba. It was to be a place of pure worship, while their idolatrous worship was mere mummery,- whistling and clapping of hands. All false worship advertises itself by noise and unseemly riot: it is said that the Pagans used to go naked round the Ka'ba.
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I.e., in Mecca, before the exodus to Medina.
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At the time of the revelation of this surah (the year 2 H.) Mecca was still in the possession of the hostile Quraysh, and no Muslim was allowed to enter it. Owing to their descent from Abraham, the Quraysh considered themselves entitled to the guardianship of the Ka'bah ("the Inviolable House of Worship"), which had been built by Abraham as the first temple ever dedicated to the One God (see surah {2}, note [102]). The Qur'an refutes this contention, just as it refutes the claim of the children of Israel to being "the chosen people" by virtue of their descent from Abraham. (Cf. in this connection 2:124 , and especially the last sentence, "My covenant does not embrace the wrongdoers.") Although they still retained a modicum of belief in God, the Quraysh had entirely forsaken the unitarian faith of Abraham, thus forfeiting any moral claim to the guardianship of the Temple (al-bayt) built by him.
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I.e., devoid of all spiritual contents. Some of the early authorities maintain that dancing around the Ka'bah, accompanied by whistling and hand-clapping, was actually a ritual practiced by the pre-Islamic Arabs. Although this explanation is quite plausible, it would appear from the context that the expression "whistling and clapping of hands" is used here metaphorically, to denote the spiritual emptiness of the religious rituals of people who are wont to attribute a quasi-divine efficacy to all manner of circumstantial "forces" - like wealth, power, social status, "luck", etc.
The chastisement or suffering referred to here was their crushing defeat at Badr.
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It is only when matters are brought to an issue that evil is separated distinctly from the good. Then evil consorts with evil, and good with good. The evil will be piled into a heap. When the cup is full, the punishment will come. There will be no mistake about it. The good should not be discouraged, because in fighting against them, all forces of evil join together and pool their resources together. The more they do so, the easier is the final arbitrament. It is all in Allah's Plan.
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I.e., from their endeavour to turn others way from the path of God and from waging war against the believers.
Lit., "the example (sunnah) of the people of old times has already come to pass": an allusion to the disasters that have overtaken, and are bound to overtake, those who persistently deny moral truths.
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I.e., until man is free to worship God. Cf. the identical phrase in 2:193 , and the corresponding note. Both these passages stress self-defence - in the widest sense of this word - as the only justification of war.
I.e., He knows their motives, and will requite them according to their merits.
Cf. ii. 193 and n.
If they cease from fighting and from the persecution of truth, Allah judges then by their actions and their motives, and would not wish that they should be harassed with further hostility. But if they refuse all terms, the righteous have nothing to fear: Allah will help and protect them.
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According to verse {1} of this surah, "all spoils of war belong to God and the Apostle", i.e., are to be administered by the authorities of an Islamic state in the interests of the common weal. Most of the great Islamic jurists are of the opinion that whereas four-fifths of all spoils may either be distributed among those who actively took part in the war effort or may be otherwise utilized for the welfare of the community, one-fifth must be reserved for the specific purposes enumerated in the above verse, including a share "for God and the Apostle" (which is obviously a metonym for a government that rules in accordance with the laws of the Qur'an and the teachings of God's Apostle); this latter share is to be used for the exigencies of state administration. Since a full discussion of this complex juridical problem would go far beyond the scope of these explanatory notes, the reader is referred, in particular, to Manar X, 4ff., where the views of the classical exponents of Islamic jurisprudence are summarized. - For the term ibn as-sabil occurring in this verse, see surah {2}, note [145]. By "the near of kin and the orphans" apparently the relatives of fallen combatants are meant in this context.
I.e., "He can grant you victory or can withhold it from you". The battle of Badr is described here as "the day when the true was distinguished from the false" (yawm al-furqan) because on that occasion a small and poorly armed group of believers utterly destroyed an infinitely better equipped army more than three times its number. The revelation referred to in this connection was God's promise of victory, given in verses {12-14} of this surah. (See also note [38] on 2:53 .)
The rule is that a fifth share is set apart for the Imam (the Commander) and the rest is divided among the forces. The fifth share reserved is expressed to be for Allah and the Prophet, and for charitable purposes for those to whom charity is due. Ultimately everything is at the disposal of Allah and His Prophet: viii. 1: but four-fifths are divided, and only one-fifth is retained for the special purposes. The Imam has discretion as to the mode of division. In the Prophet's life-time a certain portion was assigned to him and his near relatives.
Testing: Furqan: Criterion between right and wrong, decision between the forces of faith and unbelief. The battle of Badr is called by this name. See viii. 29 and n. 1202.
Allah's power is shown in the events detailed in the three verses following (vv. 42-44), leading to the complete victory of the Muslims over the pagan Quraish.
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Before the beginning of the battle, the Prophet and his followers were encamped in the northern part of the valley of Badr, nearest to Medina, while their enemies, having come from Mecca, occupied its southern part. The Meccan trade caravan, coming from Syria under the leadership of Abu Sufyan, was in the meantime proceeding southwards through the coastal lowlands (see introductory note to this surah).
This is a very free rendering of the elliptic phrase which runs, literally, thus: "And if you had mutually made an appointment, you would indeed have failed to keep the appointment" - i.e., for battle. As already mentioned in the introductory note to this surah, most of the Prophet's followers had been under the impression that their objective was the relatively weak trade caravan, and some of them were dismayed at finding themselves face to face with the powerful Quraysh army advancing from the south.
According to all the commentators, the words interpolated by me between brackets are implied in this highly elliptical sentence. Literally translated, its last words might be rendered as "a thing that was [already] done": meaning that if God decrees a thing, it must inevitably come about, and may therefore be described as already done.
Some of the great commentators understand this sentence in a metaphorical sense, with "destruction" signifying persistence in denying the truth (kufr), and "life" being synonymous with faith. According to this interpretation, the above sentence would have the following meaning: "... so that the denial of the truth on the part of him who has denied it, and the faith of him who has attained to it, might become clearly evident" (Zamakhshari); or "let him who is bent on denying the truth go on denying it after this clear evidence of God's will, and let him who has attained to belief go on believing" (Ibn Ishaq, as quoted by Ibn Kathir). In my opinion, however, it is preferable to interpret the references to death and life in their prima-facie (that is, not metaphorical) sense - namely, as applying to the death or survival of all who took part in the battle of Badr, believers and unbelievers alike: the believers who fell in that battle died conscious of being martyrs in God's cause, and those who survived could now clearly discern God's hand in their victory; while the dead among the deniers of the truth had clearly given their lives for nothing, and those of them who survived must now realize that their crushing defeat was due, in the last resort, to something infinitely greater than the valour of the Muslims (cf. verse {17}, and the corresponding notes).
The battle was not planned since the Muslim force was after the caravan. Had the two armies made plans to meet in battle at that time and place, they both probably would have missed each other.
The little Islamic force from Madinah went out to meet the big Makkan army, and they met on the two sides of a valley at Badr, while the Quraish caravan was on lower ground towards the sea, about 3 miles from Badr.
They were all at cross purposes. The caravan was making for Makkah, but scarcely thought it could get there. The Quraish force was trying to save the caravan and then annihilate the Muslims. The Muslims had decided to attack the Quraish army from Makkah which turned out to be big, more than three times their number. Yet the two forces met, precisely at the spot and at the time when a decisive battle should take place and the Muslims dispose of the pretensions of the Makkans. If they had carefully planned a mutual appointment, they could not have carried it out more precisely. On the Muslim side the few martyrs knew that the victory was theirs and those who survived the battle enjoyed the fruits of the victory. On the pagan side, both those who died and those who lived knew fully the issue joined. Even psychologically both sides went in with full determination to decide the issue.
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Lit., "in thy dream" - obviously relating to a dream which the Prophet had had just before the encounter at Badr. We have no authentic Tradition to this effect, but the tabi'i Mujahid is quoted as having said, "God had shown the enemies to the Prophet, in a dream, as few; he informed his Companions accordingly, and this encouraged them greatly" (Razi and Ibn Kathir, with minor variants).
Lit., "about the matter" - i.e., about the advisability of giving battle or retreating.
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See note [45] above. Since at the time of the actual encounter the Muslims could no longer be in doubt as to the great number of the enemy force, the phrase "He made them appear as few in your eyes" has obviously a metaphorical meaning: it implies that, by that time, the Prophet's followers were so full of courage that the enemy appeared insignificant to them. The Quraysh, on the other hand, were so conscious of their own power and numerical superiority that the Muslims appeared but of little account to them - a mistake which ultimately cost them the battle and a great number of lives.
The Muslim army though they knew their worldly disadvantage, did not realise the full odds against them. The Makkans came exulting in any case, and they despised the contemptible little force, opposed to them. Even though they thought the Muslim force was twice as great as it was (iii. 13), still that number was contemptible, when taken with its poor equipment. Both these psychological visions subserved the main Plan, which was to bring the matter to a decisive issue, whether the Pagans of Makkah were to continue their arrogant oppression, or the religion of Allah was to be established in freedom and honour.
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