3. Aal-i-Imraan

Allah kept the promise He gave you of victory over your enemies on the day of Uḥud, when you were engaging them in battle, by Allah’s permission, until you became weaker in your resolve to do as the Messenger had commanded you, and you disagreed about whether to stay at your posts or leave them in order to obtain the gains of war. You disobeyed the Messenger’s command to stay at your positions no matter what may happen. This occurred after Allah showed you the victory over your enemies that you wanted so much. Among you are those who desire the goods of this world, and it was those who left their positions; and among you are those who desire the reward of the Afterlife, and it was those who stayed at their positions, obeying the Messenger’s command. Then Allah turned you away from them and gave them power over you so as to test you, and to make clear who were the believers who were patient with trials and who were those who abandoned their positions and became weak. Allah has indeed forgiven you for what you committed when you went against the Messenger’s command, and Allah’s grace for the believers is great: guiding them to faith, forgiving their disobedience, and rewarding them for the difficulties they go through.

Remember, O believers, when you ran away on the day of Uḥud, when failure came upon you because you went against the command of the Messenger. None of you looked at anyone else, and the Messenger called you from behind, between you and the idolaters, saying, ‘Come to me, servants of Allah! Come to me, servants of Allah!’ Allah repaid you for this with pain and distress, followed by pain and distress: first because of the victory and gains of war you lost; and then with the rumour that the Prophet had been killed that spread among you. Later you came to know that the Prophet had not been killed, so that you would not grieve about the victory and gains of war that you lost, or the deaths and wounds that you received, as a way of making misfortune and pain easier on you. Allah is aware of everything you do and of everything in your hearts.

Then He sent down on you, after the pain and distress, peace and security. A group among you, who trusted in the promise of Allah, became overcome by sleep because of the peace and serenity in their hearts. Another group were not blessed with security or sleep, and they were the hypocrites, who only worried about their own safety, and felt upset and scared. They thought badly of Allah, thinking that He would not help His Prophet or support His servants, like those of the time of ignorance before Islam did, who did not understand Allah’s reality. These hypocrites said, due to their ignorance of Allah, that they did not have a say in whether they went out to fight; and if they had, they would not have done so. Tell them, O Prophet, in reply, that everything that happens is up to Allah, and that He decreed that they would go out to fight. These hypocrites hide in themselves doubt and bad opinion which they do not show to you, saying that if they had a say in whether they had gone to fight, then people would not have been killed in this place. Tell them, O Prophet, in reply, that if they had been in their houses far from the places of battle and death, those whom Allah had destined to be killed would inevitably go out to the places of their death. Allah only did this to test the intentions and motives in your hearts, and to reveal the faith and hypocrisy in them. Allah knows what is in the hearts of people, and nothing is hidden from Him.

Those of you who were defeated, O Companions of Muhammad (peace be upon him), on the day the army of the idolaters and the army of the Muslims met at Uḥud, it was Satan who made you slip, because of what you had earned from doing wrong. Allah has forgiven them, and will not take them to account for it, out of His favour and mercy. Allah forgives those who repent to Him, and is Forbearing, not quick to punish.

O you who have faith in Allah and follow His Prophet, do not be like those among the hypocrites who disbelieve, who do not have faith in destiny and Allah’s decree, and who say of their relatives if they travel to earn a living or go out to fight and they die or are killed: If they had stayed with us, and not gone or not fought, then they would not have died or been killed. Allah makes this belief in their hearts increase their regret. Allah alone gives life and death as He wills: staying behind would not stop His decree, and going would not bring it more quickly. Allah sees what you do. None of what you do is hidden from Him and you will be rewarded according to what you do.

If you are killed or die in Allah’s path, O believers, Allah will forgive you and be merciful with you, and that is better than this world along with what the people of this world collect of its passing pleasures.

If you die – however you may die – or you are killed in Allah’s path, you will all return to Allah alone, and He will reward you according to what you have done.

Due to Allah’s great mercy, your character, O Prophet, was made to be gentle with your Companions. If you were harsh in your words and actions and hard-hearted, they would have left you. So, pardon them their shortcomings with you and ask Allah to forgive them for what is between them and Allah; and ask their opinion in whatever needs to be agreed upon. Then if you decide on something after agreeing together, then go ahead with it, and trust in Allah. Allah loves those who trust in Him, giving them success and support.

If Allah supports you with His help and aid, then no one can overcome you, even if everyone in the earth came together against you; yet if He does not help or protect you, then no one can help you after Him. Help is in His Hands alone. So let those who have faith depend on Him and on no one else.