8. Al-Anfaal

Remember, when He caused slumber to overcome you as security, against the fear that had befallen you, from Him, from God, and sent down upon you water from the heaven, to purify you thereby, from minor and major ritual impurities; and to remove from you the evil of Satan, his whisperings to you that, had you been on the right path, you would not have been thirsty and impure, while the idolaters enjoyed [access to] water; and to strengthen, to seal, your hearts, with certainty and endurance; and to make firm your feet, lest they sink in the sand.

When your Lord inspired the angels, with whom He reinforced the Muslims, [saying]: ‘I am with you, with assistance and victorious help, so make the believers stand firm, by helping [them] and giving [them] good tidings. I shall cast terror, fear, into the hearts of the disbelievers; so smite above the necks, that is, the heads, and smite of them every finger!’, that is, [smite] the extremities of their hands and feet: thus, when one of them went to strike an disbeliever’s head, it would roll off before his sword reached it. The Prophet (s) threw a handful of pebbles against them and every single idolater was struck in his eye, and thus they were defeated.

That, chastisement befalling them is, because they had contended with, they had opposed, God and His Messenger: whoever contends with God and with His Messenger, surely God is severe in retribution, against him.

That, chastisement, is for you, so taste it, O disbelievers, in this world; and [know] that for the disbelievers, in the Hereafter, is the chastisement of the Fire.

O you who believe, when you encounter the disbelievers inching forward, that is, amassed, advancing slowly because of their large numbers, do not turn your backs to them, fleeing.

Whoever turns his back to them on that day, the day of the encounter with them, unless manœuvring, turning around, for battle — by pretending to be in flight, as a trick, while actually intending to relaunch an attack — or joining another detachment, a company of Muslims, calling on it for assistance, he has truly incurred the wrath of God, and his abode will be Hell — an evil journey’s end!, [an evil] return it is. This [threat] applies so long as the [numbers of] disbelievers do not surpass twice [that of the believers].

You did not slay them, at Badr by your own might, but God slew them, by giving you assistance, and you threw not, O Muhammad (s), [against] the eyes of the [unbelieving] folk, when you threw, the pebbles, for a handful of pebbles thrown by a human being cannot strike the eyes of [every person in] a large troop, but God threw, by making that [throw] reach them. He did this in order to vanquish the disbelievers, and that He might try the believers with a fair test, a [fair] gift, namely, booty; surely God is Hearing, of their sayings, Knowing, of their conditions.

That is, the true gift, for you, and [know] that God weakens the plan of the disbelievers.

If you have sought a judgement, O disbelievers, if you have sought a decisive conclusion [of this battle] — Abū Jahl had said, ‘O God! Whoever among [the two of] us is the one who has severed the ties of kinship and brought us what we had never known, destroy them today!’ — the judgement, the decisive conclusion, has now come to you, by the fact that the one so described has [already] perished: this was Abū Jahl and those killed with him, and not the Prophet (s) and the believers; and if you desist, from unbelief and waging war, it will better for you. But if you return, to fight against the Prophet (s), We shall return, to assist him against you, and your host, your troops, will not avail, will not protect, you in any way, however numerous it be; and verily God is with the believers (read thus inna, indicating a new sentence; or read anna, with an implicit lām [li-anna‘Llāha ma‘a’l-mu’minīn, ‘because God is with the believers’]).

O you who believe, obey God and His Messenger, and do not turn away from Him, by contravening His command, while you are listening, to the Qur’ān and the admonitions.