8. Al-Anfaal

If they incline to a truce to give up fighting, then, O Messenger, do the same: enter into a truce with them and place your reliance and faith in Allah, because He will never desert you. He is the One Who hears your statements and knows your intentions and actions.

If, by inclining to a truce, their goal is to deceive you, O Messenger, so that they can prepare to fight you, then Allah is sufficient for you against their plot and deception. It is He Who strengthened you with His help and with those Emigrants and Helpers who have faith in you.

He brought the hearts of the believers, with whom He assisted you, together after they were disunited. If you had spent all the wealth on earth to bring their disunited hearts together, you would not have been able to do so. But Allah alone brought them together. He is Mighty in His dominion and nothing can overpower Him. He is Wise in His decree, handling of affairs and sacred laws.

O Prophet, Allah is sufficient for you against the evil of your enemies and He is sufficient for the believers who are with you. So trust in Allah and rely on Him.

O Prophet, urge the believers on to fight and encourage them to do so with words that will strengthen their determination and lift their spirits. If there are among you, O believers, twenty who are patient in fighting against the disbelievers, they will overcome two hundred of the disbelievers. And if there are among you one hundred who are patient, they will overcome one thousand of the disbelievers. That is because the disbelievers are a people who do not understand Allah’s custom of aiding His friends and defeating His enemies. They do not realise the goal of fighting and they therefore only fight in order to gain supremacy in the world.

Now Allah has lightened the burden from you, O believers, since He knows your weakness. He has lightened your burden out of His grace and has made it a duty that one of you remains patient against two disbelievers instead of ten. So if there are one hundred among you who remain patient in fighting against the disbelievers, they will defeat two hundred. And if there are one thousand among you who remain patient, they will defeat two thousand of the disbelievers with Allah’s permission. Allah, with His support and assistance, is with those believers who remain patient.

It is not right for a prophet to take captives from the disbelievers who fight against him until he kills many of them, so that this makes other disbelievers fear fighting him. By taking captives from Badr, O believers, you want to receive ransom, but Allah wants the Afterlife for you, which is gained by making religion victorious and powerful. Allah is Mighty in His essence, His attributes and in His domination. Nothing can overcome Him. He is Wise in His decree and sacred laws.

Were it not for a decree from Allah – in which it had already been decided that He would make the gains of war lawful for you and permit you to ransom captives – a severe punishment from Allah would have afflicted you because of the gains of war and ransom you took from the captives at Badr before the coming of revelation from Allah that permitted it.

O Prophet, say to those idolater captives who have come into your hands after the Battle of Badr: If Allah knows of any good intentions in your hearts, He will give you something better than the ransom that was taken from you; so do not grieve over what was taken from you. Allah will also forgive your sins because He is Forgiving and Compassionate to those of His servants who repent to Him. This promise of Allah was fullfilled for ‘Abbās, the uncle of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and for others like him who accepted Islam after being captured.