Chapter 3: Surat Aal-'Imran (The House 'Imran), verse 121-129

Translation:

Remember when you left your people at an early hour to lead the faithful to their battle-posts. God heard  all and knew all. Two of your battalions became faint-hearted, but God was their protector. In God let the faithful put their trust. God had already given you victory at Badr when you were helpless. Therefore have fear of God. Perhaps you will give thanks. You said to the believers: 'Is it not enough that your Lord should send down three thousand angels to help you?' Yes! If you have patience and guard your selves against splendidly accoutred, if they suddenly attack you. God designed this to be but good news for you, so that your hearts might be comforted (victory comes only from God, the Mighty, the Wise One) and that Hem might cut off the flank of the unbelievers or put them to flight, that they might withdraw utterly defeated. It is no concern of yours whether He will forgive or punish them. They are wrongdoers. His is all that the heavens and the earth contain. He pardons who He will and punishes whom He pleases. God is forgiving and merciful.   (121-129)

Commentary:

These verses were revealed after the Battle of Uhud took place. The enemy ranks/forces numbered three thousand, while the Muslims who came out to defend were initially one thousand in number, but when three hundred hypocrite Muslims led by Abdullah ibn Ubayy, deserted, some Medinan Muslims were disheartened at this happening so the Prophet reminded them that they had come out to defend relying on God rather than on themselves.

If due to the severity of circumstances believers show some temporary weakness, God does not leave them alone at that juncture, He sends His special Succor to keep them remain firm in their faith once again. This special succor of God was sent to the believers for the whole group (enmasse) when by exploiting the weakness of Muslims the enemies overcame the believers, and had all the opportunity to crush Muslim forces completely. But this is an astonishing event of military history that the enemy forces retreated the battlefield in spite of being victorious. This was a special divine succor which diverted the direction of the enemy towards “Mecca” rather than “Medina” (Muslim area). Then it was the defeated who pursued the victorious.

Believers should never be upset at the lack of number or resources. When small in number he should have the conviction that God will amply compensate for it by sending angels down to help him. When confronted with inadequate resources he should trust God that He will create such situations as will compensate for his lack of resources, success depends more on patience and God-fearing (taqwa) than on material resources. Those who fear and trust God can receive either of these two forms of divine succor. First, by cutting off a fringe of unbelievers (that is, by bringing a section of them to repentance and to Islam, thus reducing the number of the enemy). Second, by defeating and conquering the enemy. First kind of God’s succor comes by way of d'awah. God makes the heart of those opponents, who have some life (of truth) in them, open to truth and thus they leave the ranks of the unbelievers and embrace the true faith. In this way they weaken the enemy forces and strengthen the believers’ ranks. In this second form thus God gives strength and courage to the believers and makes them dominate over their adversaries through His special succor.

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