Surah Ali 'Imran 3:149-155 - Quran Translation Commentary

151. Soon shall we cast awe¹⁷⁸ into the hearts of the infidels, for the reason that they ascribe partners to Allah, for which He had sent no authority. Their abode will be the fire, and evil is the abode of the wrong-doers.

152. And Allah verily made good His promise to you when you were extirpating them¹⁷⁹ by His leave until you exhibited weakness and you disagreed about the command and disobeyed after He had shown you that for which you longed. Some of you desired the world ¹⁸⁰ and some of you desired the Hereafter. Then He diverted you from your foes¹⁸¹ in order to test you, but He forgave you. And Allah is full of grace to those who believe¹⁸².

153. When you were vacating your posts and would not look back at anyone, and the messenger in your rear was calling to you,¹⁸³ wherefore Allah inflicted upon you one¹⁸⁴ sorrow after the other, so that you , should not grieve for that which you have lost nor for that which might befall you. And Allah is well aware of all that you do.

154. Then after grief, He sent down calm on a group among you, overcome with slumber,¹⁸⁵ while another group concerned about themselves thought unjustly of Allah, the thought of ignorance. They said: “Have we any part in this affair?” Say: “The affair wholly belongs to Allah.” They hide in their hearts what they dare not reveal to you. They say: “If we had, had anything to do with this affair, we would not have been slain here.”Say: “Even if you had remained in your homes, those for whom death was decreed would certainly have gone forth to the place of their slaughter¹⁸⁶ but (all this was) that Allah might test what is in your breasts and purge what is in your hearts. And Allah knows the secrets of your hearts.

155. Those of you who turned back on the day when the two hosts met,¹⁸⁷ it was Satan who caused them to slip,¹⁸⁸ because of some (evil) they had done. Allah forgave them. Allah is Oft-forgiving, most forbearing.

Commentary

178. Faith is the foundation of determination and courage, therefore the morale of the faithful is always high and this high morale creates awe in the hearts of the disbelievers. The Prophet has said:

(I was helped with such awe that if the enemy was at a distance of one month’s journey, he would feel terror.) –(Tafseer Ibn Katheer Vol. 1, P. 411)

And events have confirmed this. Accordingly not only Cyrus and Caeser were in awe of Muslims but the people in India and Spain were also awed by them.

179. That is: The promise of Allah was fulfilled even at the time of the battle of Uhud. The Muslims, inspite of their being less in number and ill-equipped, were superior to the polytheists, which is testified by the fact that their standard- bearers were being killed one after the other until their flag fell to the ground, which was the sign of defeat in those days. But after this the Muslims showed some weaknesses as a result of which they had to see the reversal.

180. These were the weaknesses and the error of the Muslims seen at the Battle of Uhud. First of all, when the Muslims saw that they were in a winning position, they slackened their efforts, thinking that victory was in their pocket.

Secondly, the Prophet had stationed a squad in the rear at the pass for security and had warned them not to leave it at any cost, but when they saw their side winning they thought that there was nothing wrong in leaving the post and collecting the booty although the commander of the squad, Abdullah bin Jubair had tried to stop them; but except for a few all disobeyed.

Thirdly, by disobeying the commands of the Prophet they busied themselves in collecting the booty of the battle and only a few persons stuck to their posts. The enemy took advantage of this situation and struck from the rear, which terribly affected the morale of the Muslims.

Fourthly, some of the Muslims hastened to collect the spoils of the battle, giving undue preference to the wealth of the world over the success in the Hereafter.

181. That is: The outcome of these weaknesses was this that you had no courage to resist the enemy.

182. “It means that for Muslims the promise of Allah’s help is not unconditional and that they cannot adopt any attitude they like and God’s help will always be with them. The help comes under the condition that Muslims should not slacken or show laxity in performing their duties, should not dispute the commands of their leaders, and should not disobey the commands of Allah and His messenger. They should not become desirous of the world in preference to the Hereafter. If such a thing is found in Muslims, Allah does not subject them to His wrath immediately, but He puts them to such tests as remove their weaknesses and make them deserving of Allah’s help. This is also a form of His forgiveness and magnanimity. Accordingly at the end of the verse, a reference is made to this forgiveness and magnanimity. –(Tadabbur-i-Quran, Vol. I page 795).

183. When the battle lines of the Muslims were disrupted, the Prophet with some of his brave companions that included Ali, Abu Bakr and Talha, stood firm at his post and called the Muslims to come to him that he was the messenger of Allah. After this the prophet was wounded.

184. Distress or grief for the reversal that Muslims suffered in this battle. Seventy Muslims were martyred, in which were personalities like Hamza and Abdullah bin Jahash. Besides a large number of Muslims were wounded. In addition there was that rumour that the Messenger of Allah had attained martyrdom.

185. There came an occasion in the battle when Allah imposed a state of slumber on Muslims to remove fear from their hearts. This state of slumber was imposed when the battle was stopped for some time and the Muslims had gathered round the prophet and were trying to consolidate their position.

186. That is: One group among you was nursing some sort of misgiving about Allah. That group thought that if the battle were offered staying in Madina, then they would not have been killed. In refutation of this thought, it was stated that their misgiving was ill founded: had you been in your homes. the written command of Allah would have taken effect and your death would have taken place at the spot where it was destined to take place, for Allah has written down the time and place of everyone’s death, and this fact is confirmed by the events that take place every day. A man goes to a place and dies where he had never imagined that he would die.

187. Means the Battle of Uhud (please see Note No.152)

188. By the mischief of the hypocrites, some weak kind of Muslims were also affected, but afterwards they realised their error therefore, Allah forgave them. Reviewing this position, it is stated that on account of some of their past sins Satan caused them to falter, because the weapon of Satan becomes effective in the case of those persons who are lax in the matter of avoiding sins.