3. Aal-i-Imraan

We will cast terror (read ru‘b or ru‘ub) into the hearts of the disbelievers: after departing from Uhud they resolved to return in order to exterminate the Muslims, but they were terrified and did not return; for what they have associated, because of their associating, with God that for which He has revealed no warrant, that is, [no] argument in support of its worship, namely, idols; their abode shall be the Fire; evil is the abode, the resting place, of the evildoers, the disbelievers.

God has been true to His promise, towards you, of giving you victory, when you slew them by His leave, by His will, until you lost heart, [until] you shrank from battle, and quarrelled, disagreed, over the command, that is, the command of the Prophet (s) that you remain at the foot of the mountain for the arrow attack, some of you saying, ‘Let us depart, for our comrades have been given victory’, others saying, ‘We should not disobey the command of the Prophet (s)’; and you disobeyed, his command, and abandoned your station in search of the booty, after He, God, had shown you what you longed for, of assistance (the response to the [clause containing] idhā is indicated by what precedes it, that is to say, ‘[when you lost heart] He denied you His assistance’). Some of you desired this world, abandoning his station for the sake of the booty; and some of you desired the Hereafter, holding to it until he was slain, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Jubayr and his companions. Then He turned you away (thumma sarafakum is a supplement to the response of the [clause containing] idhā, implied to be raddakum bi’l-hazīma [‘He turned you back in defeat’]) from them, the disbelievers, so that He might try you, that He might test you and so make manifest the sincere ones from those otherwise; yet now He has pardoned you, what you have done, and God is Bounteous to the believers, with pardon.

Remember, when you were ascending, fleeing in the distance, not turning around, [not] stopping, for anyone and the Messenger was calling you from your rear, saying, ‘Come to me servants of God, this way, servants of God!’, so He rewarded you, He requited you, with grief, through defeat, for grief (ghamman bi-ghamm; the bā’ [bi-], ‘with’, is said to mean ‘alā, ‘for’) because of the grief that you caused the Prophet when you disobeyed [his command], that is, [with grief] doubled, [being] in addition to the grief of the booty forfeited, so that (li-kaylā is semantically connected either to ‘afā, ‘He has pardoned’, or athābakum, ‘He rewarded you’; the lā [of kay-lā] is thus extra) you might not grieve for what escaped you, of booty, neither for what befell you, of being slain and [of] defeat; and God is aware of what you do.

Then He sent down upon you, after grief, security — a slumber (nu‘āsan, ‘slumber’ substitutes for amanatan, ‘security’) overcoming (yaghshā or taghshā) a party of you, namely, the believers. They would become dizzy under their shields and their swords would fall from their hands; and a party whose own souls distressed them, that is, they caused them grief, so that their only wish was their deliverance, regardless of the Prophet and his Companions, and they were unable to fall asleep: these were the hypocrites; thinking wrongly of God, thoughts of, those thoughts during the, age of ignorance, the moment they thought that the Prophet had been killed or that he would not be given victory, saying, ‘Have we any part whatever in the affair?’ (read [interrogative] hal as [negative] mā) that is, [we have no part in] the assistance which we were promised. Say, to them: ‘The affair belongs entirely (read accusative kullahu to denote an emphasis, or nominative kulluhu as a subject [of a new sentence], the predicate of which is [what follows]) to God’, that is to say, the decree is His, He does what He wills. They conceal within their hearts what they do not disclose, what they [do not] manifest, to you, saying, (yaqūlūna, ‘saying’, is an explication of the preceding [statement]) ‘Had we had any part in the affair, we would not have been slain here’, that is to say, ‘Had the choice been ours, we would not have set out and thus been slain; but we were forced to set out’. Say, to them: ‘Even if you had been in your houses, with some among you whom God had appointed that they be slain, those, of you, for whom it had been appointed, decreed, that they be slain would have sallied forth, would have gone forth, to the places where they were to lie’, the battleground where they were to fall, and they would have been slain; and their staying put [at home] would not have saved them, for God’s decree will be, inevitably. And, He did what He did at Uhud, that God might try, [that He might] test, what was in your breasts, your hearts, of sincerity or hypocrisy, and that He might prove, [that He might] distinguish, what was in your hearts; and God knows what is in the breasts, what is in the hearts. Nothing can be hidden from Him, and He tries people only to make [matters] manifest for them.

O you who believe, be not as the disbelievers, that is, [as] the hypocrites, who say of their brothers, that is, regarding their affair, when they travel in the land, and then die, or are on raiding campaigns (ghuzzan, ‘a raiding party’, is the plural of ghāzin), and are then slain, ‘Had they been with us, they would not have died and would not have been slain’, in other words, do not say as they say — so that God may make that, saying [of theirs], as a conclusion of their affair, anguish in their hearts. For God gives life, and He gives death, and so no staying put can prevent death, and God sees what you do (ta‘malūna, or ya‘malūna, ‘they do’), and He will requite you for it.

And if (wa-la-in, the lām is for oaths) you are slain in God’s way, in [holy] struggle, or die (read muttum or mittum, from [singular form] māta, yamūtu), that is, if death comes to you thereat, forgiveness, that is, from God, for your sins, and mercy, therefor from Him for you (the clause introduced by the lām [of la-maghfiratun, ‘forgiveness’] is the response to the oath [clause of la’in], and occupies the place of the verbal action as a subject, the predicate of which [is what follows]) are better than what they amass, in this world (read tajma‘ūn, ‘you amass’, or yajma‘ūn, ‘they amass’).

And if (wa-la-in, the lām is for oaths) you die ([read] in both ways [muttum or mittum], or are slain, in the [holy] struggle or otherwise, it is to God, and to none other than Him that, you shall be mustered, in the Hereafter, and He will requite you.

It was by the mercy of God that you, O Muhammad (s), were lenient with them, that is, [that] you showed indulgence [toward them] when they disobeyed you; had you been harsh, ill-natured, and fierce of heart, brutish and coarse towards them, they would have dispersed, split away, from about you. So pardon them, pass over what they have done, and ask forgiveness for them, for their sins, until I forgive them, and consult them, find out their opinions, in the matter, that is, your affair in the battle and otherwise, in order to win their hearts over and so that you may be emulated [in this respect]; and indeed, the Prophet (s) would frequently consult them. And when you are resolved, to carry out what you wish after counsel, rely on God, put your trust in Him and not in [any] counsel; for God loves those who rely, on Him.

If God helps you, [if] He gives you assistance against your enemy, as on the Day of Badr, then none can overcome you; but if He forsakes you, [if] He refrains from assisting you, as on the Day of Uhud, then who is there who can help you after Him?, that is, after His forsaking [you]? In other words, there is no one to help you. Therefore on God, and on no one else, let the believers rely.