3. Aal-i-Imraan

When some red velvet cloth went missing on the Day of Badr and some people began to say ‘Perhaps the Prophet took it’ the following was revealed It is not for a prophet to be fraudulent an yaghulla a variant reading has the passive an yughalla meaning to attribute ghulūl ‘fraud’ to him to be treacherous with regard to the spoils so do not presume this of him; whoever defrauds shall bring what he has defrauded on the Day of Resurrection carrying it around his neck; then every soul the fraudulent and the otherwise shall be paid in full the requital of what it has earned what it has done and they shall not be wronged a single thing.

Is he who follows God’s beatitude being obedient and not defrauding like him who is laden one who returns with God’s anger because of his disobedience and fraud whose abode is Hell? An evil journey’s end a resort it is!

Truly God was gracious to the believers when He sent to them a messenger from among their own that is to say an Arab like them not an angel or a non-Arab so that they can understand what he says and feel honoured thereby to recite to them His verses the Qur’ān and to purify them to cleanse them of sins and to teach them the Book the Qur’ān wisdom the Sunna though in is softened in place of inna that is innahum ‘though they…’ before that is before he was sent they were in clear error.

And why when distress befell you at Uhud when seventy of you were slain and you had afflicted twice the like of it at Badr slaying seventy of them and taking another seventy captive did you say in amazement ‘How is this?’ that is how did this defeat happen to us when we are Muslims and God’s Messenger is among us the last statement annā hādhā ‘how is this?’ constitutes the locus of the interrogative of denial. Say to them ‘It is from yourselves because you abandoned your battle stations and were thus defeated. Surely God has power over everything’ including the giving of assistance and the withholding of it and He requited you for your disputing the Prophet’s command.

And what afflicted you the day the two hosts encountered at Uhud was by God’s leave by His will and that He might know through knowledge manifested outwardly the true believers.

And that He might also know the hypocrites and those who when it was said to them after they had fled the fighting namely ‘Abd Allāh b. Ubayy and his companions ‘Come now fight in the way of God His enemies or defend’ us against the enemy by increasing the multitude of our fighters if you are not going to fight; they said ‘If we knew how if we were skilled enough to fight we would follow you’. God then said showing them to be liars They that day were nearer to unbelief than to belief for what they manifested of their forsaking the believers whereas before they had been outwardly nearer to belief; saying with their mouths that which was not in their hearts for even if they had known how to fight they would not have followed you. And God knows best what they hide of hypocrisy.

Those who alladhīna substitutes for the previous alladhīna or constitutes an adjectival qualification of it said to their brothers in religion whilst they themselves had stayed put refraining from joining the struggle ‘Had they the martyrs at Uhud or those who stayed put with us obeyed us they would not have been slain’. Say to them ‘Then avert ward off death from yourselves if you speak the truth’ in that staying put delivers one from it sc. from death.

The following was revealed regarding martyrs Count not those who were slain read qutilū or quttilū in God’s way that is for the sake of His religion as dead but rather that they are living with their Lord their spirits inside green birds that take wing freely wherever they wish in Paradise as reported in a hadīth; provided for by Him with the fruits of Paradise.

Rejoicing farihīna a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person governing yurzaqūn ‘sustained’ in what God has given them of His bounty and they are rejoicing joyful for the sake of those who have not joined them but are left behind from among their believing brothers allādhīna ‘those who’ may be substituted by what follows sc. ‘rejoicing…that no fear’ that no fear shall befall them those that have not yet joined them neither shall they grieve in the Hereafter meaning they rejoice for their brothers’ future security and felicity allā of allā khawfun is an-lā meaning bi-an lā.