سُورَةُ الأَنفَالِ
Reading Tafsir al-Jalalayn by Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli & Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti
Ayahs 51–60 of 75
ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَيْسَ بِظَلَّٰمٍۢ لِّلْعَبِيدِ
That is for what your hands have put forth [of evil] and because Allah is not ever unjust to His servants."
That chastisement is for what your hands have sent before you — He refers to this their actions exclusively with these hands because most actions are accomplished with them — and know that God is never unjust to His servants’ such that he would punish them for no sin.
كَدَأْبِ ءَالِ فِرْعَوْنَ ۙ وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ كَفَرُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ فَأَخَذَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ بِذُنُوبِهِمْ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَوِىٌّۭ شَدِيدُ ٱلْعِقَابِ
[Theirs is] like the custom of the people of Pharaoh and of those before them. They disbelieved in the signs of Allah, so Allah seized them for their sins. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and severe in penalty.
The way of these people is like the way of Pharaoh’s folk and those before them they disbelieved in God’s signs and so God seized them with chastisement because of their sins the sentence beginning with kafarū ‘they disbelieved’ explains the previous one. Truly God is strong in what He wills severe in retribution.
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمْ يَكُ مُغَيِّرًۭا نِّعْمَةً أَنْعَمَهَا عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا۟ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ ۙ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌۭ
That is because Allah would not change a favor which He had bestowed upon a people until they change what is within themselves. And indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing.
That chastisement of the disbelievers is because God would never change a grace that He had conferred on a people substituting it with affliction until they have changed that which is in themselves until they have exchanged the grace conferred upon them for unbelief in the way that the Meccan disbelievers exchanged their being ‘fed against hunger’ their being made ‘safe from fear’ cf. Q. 1064 and the sending of the Prophet s to them for unbelief for barring against the way of God and for fighting Muslims; and know that God is Hearing Knowing.
كَدَأْبِ ءَالِ فِرْعَوْنَ ۙ وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِ رَبِّهِمْ فَأَهْلَكْنَٰهُم بِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَأَغْرَقْنَآ ءَالَ فِرْعَوْنَ ۚ وَكُلٌّۭ كَانُوا۟ ظَٰلِمِينَ
[Theirs is] like the custom of the people of Pharaoh and of those before them. They denied the signs of their Lord, so We destroyed them for their sins, and We drowned the people of Pharaoh. And all [of them] were wrongdoers.
Like the way of Pharaoh’s folk and those before them they denied the signs of their Lord so We destroyed them for their sins and We drowned the folk of Pharaoh his people together with him and all disbelieving communities were evildoers.
إِنَّ شَرَّ ٱلدَّوَآبِّ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ فَهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
Indeed, the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are those who have disbelieved, and they will not [ever] believe -
The following was revealed regarding Banū Qurayza Surely the worst of beasts in God’s sight are the ungrateful who will not believe
ٱلَّذِينَ عَٰهَدتَّ مِنْهُمْ ثُمَّ يَنقُضُونَ عَهْدَهُمْ فِى كُلِّ مَرَّةٍۢ وَهُمْ لَا يَتَّقُونَ
The ones with whom you made a treaty but then they break their pledge every time, and they do not fear Allah.
those of them with whom you have made a pact not to support the idolaters and then break their pact every time they conclude one and they are not fearful of God in their treachery.
فَإِمَّا تَثْقَفَنَّهُمْ فِى ٱلْحَرْبِ فَشَرِّدْ بِهِم مَّنْ خَلْفَهُمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَذَّكَّرُونَ
So if you, [O Muhammad], gain dominance over them in war, disperse by [means of] them those behind them that perhaps they will be reminded.
So if fa-immā here the letter nūn of the conditional particle in ‘if’ has been assimilated with the extra mā you come upon them if you find them anywhere in the war deal with them so as to cause those fighters behind them to scatter to disperse by making an example of them and punishing them so that they the ones behind them might remember that they might take heed from their example.
وَإِمَّا تَخَافَنَّ مِن قَوْمٍ خِيَانَةًۭ فَٱنۢبِذْ إِلَيْهِمْ عَلَىٰ سَوَآءٍ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلْخَآئِنِينَ
If you [have reason to] fear from a people betrayal, throw [their treaty] back to them, [putting you] on equal terms. Indeed, Allah does not like traitors.
And if you fear from any folk who have concluded a pact with you some treachery in a pact through some indication that comes to you then cast it back to them dissolve their pact with fairness ‘alā sawā’ is a circumstantial qualifier that is to say while you and they have equal knowledge that the pact has been broken by your apprising them thereof lest they accuse you of treachery. Truly God does not love the treacherous.
وَلَا يَحْسَبَنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ سَبَقُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ لَا يُعْجِزُونَ
And let not those who disbelieve think they will escape. Indeed, they will not cause failure [to Allah].
The following was revealed regarding those who escaped capture on the day of Badr And do not O Muhammad (s) let those who disbelieve suppose that they have outstripped God that is that they have eluded Him indeed they cannot escape they cannot elude Him a variant reading has wa-lā yahsabanna ‘and do not let them suppose’ so that the first direct object is omitted actually being an implied anfusahum ‘themselves’ sc. ‘and do not let them suppose themselves to have outstripped’; and according to another variant reading anna is read instead of inna with an implicit lām sc. ‘because they cannot escape’.
وَأَعِدُّوا۟ لَهُم مَّا ٱسْتَطَعْتُم مِّن قُوَّةٍۢ وَمِن رِّبَاطِ ٱلْخَيْلِ تُرْهِبُونَ بِهِۦ عَدُوَّ ٱللَّهِ وَعَدُوَّكُمْ وَءَاخَرِينَ مِن دُونِهِمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُهُمْ ۚ وَمَا تُنفِقُوا۟ مِن شَىْءٍۢ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ يُوَفَّ إِلَيْكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تُظْلَمُونَ
And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged.
Make ready for them for fighting them whatever force you can the Prophet s said that this refers to ‘archers’ as reported by Muslim and of horses tethered ribāt is a verbal noun meaning ‘restraining them for use in the way of God’ that thereby you may dismay terrify the enemy of God and your enemy namely the disbelievers of Mecca and others besides them that is other than those — namely the hypocrites or the Jews whom you know not God knows them. And whatever thing you expend in the way of God its requital shall be repaid to you in full and you will not be wronged you will not be diminished anything thereof.
Commentary: Tafsir al-Jalalayn by Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli & Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti. Qur'an text and translation via AlQuran Cloud.
