Surah Al-Anfal 8:65-69 - Quran Translation Commentary

65. O prophet! Rouse the believers to fight. If there are twenty men steadfast among you, they will overcome two hundred, and if there are hundred (such) men among you, they will overcome a thousand disbelievers, for they are people without understanding.⁹⁷

66. Now Allah has lightened your burden, for He knew that there is weakness in you. So if there be a hundred men steadfast among you, they will overcome two hundred, and if there be a thousand, they will overcome two thousand by Allah’s permission.⁹⁸ And Allah is with the steadfast.

67. It is unbecoming of a prophet to have captives unless he has thoroughly subdued the land.⁹⁹ You desire worldly gains and Allah desires (for you) the Hereafter.¹⁰⁰ And Allah is Mighty, Wise.¹⁰¹

68. Had it not been for a previous commandment from Allah, a severe punishment would have been meted out to you for the prisoners that you have taken.¹⁰²

69. So enjoy the booty that you have gained in the battle, that is lawful and pure,¹⁰³ and fear Allah. Verily Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Commentary

97. That is: They are unable to understand what is truth, therefore all their struggles are for wrong objectives, and the party, that fights for wrong and false objectives, will always be weak internally and spiritually. As against this the people of faith understand what is truth and all their struggles and fighting are exclusively for raising the word of truth, and therefore, a great internal and spiritual strength is born within them. They understand that to give up life in the way of Allah is not to lose life, but it is really to find new life and to live for ever after dying apparently, and so they fight most valiantly. The people of faith have been made to feel this spiritual strength of theirs and roused to take up arms for jihad, and they have been directed not to slacken their war efforts, being influenced by the superiority in numbers of the infidels-even if they are ten times more in number than the Muslims. Falsehood can fight successfully against falsehood. but it cannot fight against truth with success.

The number twenty and hundred mentioned here is by way of giving example, and probably these particular figures were mentioned because at that time groupings of soldiers were formed in squads of twenties and hundreds.

98. It means that if the problem is of fighting against the enemy and the enemy has a strength which is ten times bigger than yours, then you should not hesitate to take up cudgels against him, for the real standard for taking up arms for the people of faith is the one that has been mentioned in the foregoing verses; but at present among you there are not sufficiently experienced and tried people who are up to the desired standard of patience and firmness. Accordingly, at the time of the Battle of Badr quite a few errors were committed by them, for which they have been reprimanded in this Surah. Therefore, your responsibility is being lightened. So now even if the enemy is twice as strong as you, there should be no hesitation on your part to engage him in battle.

This facility is for occasions when the Muslims have to take steps in preparation for an impending battle, as the prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wasallam) used to send big and small squads of Muslim warriors to fight against the hostile tribes around Madina. As for the defensive war, it is to be fought in any condition and there is no question of any proportion between the number of warriors on the two sides. Accordingly, in the Battle of Badr Muslims in spite of their poor condition. fought against the idolaters who were three times more in number, and much superior in arms. Similarly, in the Battle of Uhad they had to fight against the enemy who was more than three times stronger, and in the Battle of the Pit (Khandaq) the enemy had ten thousand soldiers while the Muslim army was only three thousand strong, and according to one narrative it was even less than a thousand strong, i.e. the ratio was one to ten.

Generally, the commentators have explained that first there was the command for the Muslims to fight against the enemy even if he was ten times stronger, and that they should not run away from the battlefield. But when this command was considered rather harsh, the second Verse was revealed in which there was a concession that they should fight against an enemy with two times their strength, and if the number of soldiers in the enemy’s army is more than double, then running away could be tolerated.

But this explanation of the verse has no reference to what is actually stated in the Quran nor is it supported by the events. So far as running away from the battlefield is concerned, in Verse No.16 of this Surah it has been strictly forbidden, that is if willy- nilly you are confronted with the enemy’s forces, then Muslims have to fight till the last drop of their blood, whatever may be the enemy’s strength. There is no question of running away from battle, as in the dictionary of Islam there is no such word. The only exception in which leaving the battlefield is allowed is as a tactical step-they may retreat to mount another attack. As regards the support of events for this contention, not a single instance can be found from all the battles that were fought in the lifetime of the Prophet (Sallal lahu Alaihi Wasallam),in which running away from the battle was considered permissible for Muslims, even though in every battle the strength of the opponents was much more than that of theirs, If in the Battle of Uhad some Muslims had committed an error, by leaving the battlefield being overwhelmed by the rumour of the Prophet’s having been killed, the Quran has severely reprimanded them, though in that battle the Muslim warriors numbered only seven hundred while the infidels were three thousand.

The real point to be considered in the Verse under comment is not the providing of concession for running away from fighting but to create a spirit of jihad in the Muslims. That is why, the foregoing Verse Starts with the words: O Prophet! Rouse the faithful to the fight. Therefore, the purport of the Verse is that in connection with wars, when the decision to take initiative is to be taken. before that the strength of the enemy should be estimated. If the strength of the enemy is twice as much as yours, you should not hesitate to take the initiative. You should go on advancing with this spirit. it would not be surprising if you would overcome an enemy ten times as strong as you. After the battle of Badr, when the various Arabian tribes were preparing for attacking Madina, the squads of warriors that were sent by the prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wasallam) were organised under this directive.

99. That is: In the field of battle.

100. In the Battle of Badr Muslims had taken seventy idolaters as captives, among whom were their leaders Uqbah bin Mueet and Nadhar bin Harith. After the battle these two leaders were put to death at a place near Badr, and the remaining captives were taken by Muslims to Madina. Those captives who could pay ‘Fidyah’ (ransom) were freed, and those who could teach reading and writing to Muslims were made to do this work and were subsequently freed. The remaining captives were freed without taking any ransom from them.

The undesirable aspect of this event was that instead of making a clean sweep of the enemy, Muslim warriors started taking the enemy fighters as captives, and this action was prompted by the expectation that a sizeable amount of money would be received in ‘Fidyah’. Allah has taken the Muslims to task on this mentality and on their faulty line of action. The meaning of the Verse is this that in a battle that is being fought under the leadership of a Prophet, the desired goal of the warrior should be that high objective for which the Prophet takes up arms and not the material and worldly gains which a victorious warrior gets incidentally. The purposefulness or the higher aim demanded that when the enemy was facing defeat, he should have been completely routed, especially none Dawatul Qur’an 587 S.8 of the leaders should have been left alive so that he might not create trouble again. But the Muslims started taking prisoners earlier than necessary with a view to earning some money by way of ‘fidyah’. The Muslims are being emphatically told that a prophet takes up arms so that truth may prevail in the land and not for earning ‘fidyah’ by taking enemy soldiers as captives. However, if the enemy has been weakened sufficiently, there is nothing wrong then to take prisoners and later on to release them after taking ransom.

101. Allah is Mighty, that is why He wants to keep the position of His Prophet on a high level and He is Wise, therefore, all His decisions are full of wisdom.

102. Before the Battle of Badr, Surah Muhammad was revealed, in which the following command was given:

“When you meet the infidels in battle, sever their necks till when you overpower them, then tie them strongly. Thereafter do them a favour or take ransom (fidyah), until the fighting is ended.” -(Surah Muhammad-4).

In this command the warriors have been directed to be taken captive after they were satisfactorily overpowered, that is, in the battle so long as the enemy is not convincingly defeated and his strength broken, the fighting and killing of the enemy warriors should be continued. An error was committed by the Muslim soldiers in the Battle of Badr that before inflicting a total defeat on the enemy, they started taking prisoners in the expectation of earning money by way of ‘fidyah’. Although this error was not commited by all the mujahideen, but by only a group of fighters, this was a collective error which could result in these captives again taking up arms after being released. and some of them did take up arms against the Muslims in the Battle of Uhad. Besides such action could promote a tendency among the Muslims to fight their battles for earning fidyah, while jihad is to be fought exclusively for the purpose of raising high the word of Allah and not for obtaining material gains. For this error Muslims have been warned so that they might not commit such an error in future.

In the Verse the words “Kitabum min-Allah” (Allah’s commandment) refers to the Verse quoted above of Surah Muhammad. The reprimand that a severe punishment would have been meted out to you is in respect of those persons who had started taking captives before fully overpowering the enemy in the expectation of material gains, and it is not correct to consider it applicable’ to all the companions of the prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wasallam), asis clear from another example in this Verse of Surah An-Noor:

“If in this world and the Hereafter Allah’s favour and blessings were not on you, you would have received severe punishment on account of what you did.” –(Surah An-Noor-14)

In this Verse also the punishment is said to have been meted out to the general Muslims, but as is clear from the reference to context it is meant for only those who were involved in the ‘Ifk’ incident. Here a question arises that if the Muslims had captured the prisoners before proper time, what could stop them from killing them afterwards? Why was it not done? The answer is that after taking a prisoner, he could be killed only for a specific reason, generality of prisoners could not be put to death, because in this verse of Surah Muhammad the command was already given that after taking them prisoners either do them a favour or release them after taking ransom.

Any way the error that was committed by the Muslims was not on account of any difference of opinion (ijtihad), but it was an error of not acting correctly on a command, which error had become serious as it was commited for earning material gains. That is why they received such a wrathful warning.

It should be noted that the translation of the words “Feema akhaztum” is generally done like this: ‘on account of what you took,’ which means that the Divine rebuke was the result of taking fidyah. If this meaning of the Verse is taken to be correct, then the highly respected companions of the prophet also come among those who were warned. Besides, it becomes incongruous, for the fidyah could be returned if this warning was for taking it. There are other incongruities: also in such a presumption, and therefore, we have translated it as ‘for the prisoners that you have taken. Moreover, in Arabic the word ‘akhaz’, besides meaning ‘taking’ also means arresting’ or ‘taking captive’ and accordingly in Arabic the word ‘akheez’ means ‘prisoner’ (See Lisanul Arab, ‘Akhaz’ Vol.III, page 473). From this explanation it would be clear that the application of the Divine wrath is limited to only those Muslims who had committed the error of taking captives before the proper time. It also removes other incongruities.

103. That is: There is no doubt that the error has been committed by the Muslims, but that does not affect the lawfulness of the booty gained by them in the battle, including the amount of fidyah. There is nothing wrong in using it because it is lawful and pure.

Incidentally an important point of principle is evolved out of this: The property of the infidels which came into the possession of Muslims as the spoils of war might have been earned by the infidels by lawful and unlawful means, but when it has been taken by the Muslims in a lawful way, it has been declared as lawful and pure without going into the details of how it was earned earlier by the infidels. Therefore, it can be concluded that the property that is transferred to Muslims in a collecitve way or which may be added to the treasury of an Islamic state, it is not necessary to argue about the nature of how such a property was obtained by the previous non-Muslim owners. if the transfer to the Muslim owners is of a lawful nature.