یٰۤاَیُّهَا O you الَّذِیْنَ who اٰمَنُوْۤا believe اِنْ If تَتَّقُوا you fear اللّٰهَ Allah یَجْعَلْ He will grant لَّكُمْ you فُرْقَانًا a criterion وَّ یُكَفِّرْ and will remove عَنْكُمْ from you سَیِّاٰتِكُمْ your evil deeds وَ یَغْفِرْ and forgive لَكُمْ ؕ you وَ اللّٰهُ And Allah ذُو (is) the Possessor الْفَضْلِ (of) Bounty الْعَظِیْمِ the Great وَ اِذْ And when یَمْكُرُ plotted بِكَ against you الَّذِیْنَ those who كَفَرُوْا disbelieved لِیُثْبِتُوْكَ that they restrain you اَوْ or یَقْتُلُوْكَ kill you اَوْ or یُخْرِجُوْكَ ؕ drive you out وَ یَمْكُرُوْنَ And they were planning وَ یَمْكُرُ and (also) was planning اللّٰهُ ؕ Allah وَ اللّٰهُ And Allah خَیْرُ is (the) Best الْمٰكِرِیْنَ (of) the Planners وَ اِذَا And when تُتْلٰی are recited عَلَیْهِمْ to them اٰیٰتُنَا Our Verses قَالُوْا they say قَدْ Verily سَمِعْنَا we have heard لَوْ if نَشَآءُ we wish لَقُلْنَا surely, we could say مِثْلَ like هٰذَاۤ ۙ this اِنْ Not هٰذَاۤ is this اِلَّاۤ but اَسَاطِیْرُ tales الْاَوَّلِیْنَ (of) the former (people) وَ اِذْ And when قَالُوا they said اللّٰهُمَّ O Allah اِنْ If كَانَ was هٰذَا this هُوَ [it] الْحَقَّ the truth مِنْ [of] عِنْدِكَ from You فَاَمْطِرْ then (send) rain عَلَیْنَا upon us حِجَارَةً (of) stones مِّنَ from السَّمَآءِ the sky اَوِ or ائْتِنَا bring (upon) us بِعَذَابٍ a punishment اَلِیْمٍ painful وَ مَا But not كَانَ is اللّٰهُ (for) Allah لِیُعَذِّبَهُمْ that He punishes them وَ اَنْتَ while you فِیْهِمْ ؕ (are) among them وَ مَا and not كَانَ is اللّٰهُ Allah مُعَذِّبَهُمْ the One Who punishes them وَ هُمْ while they یَسْتَغْفِرُوْنَ seek forgiveness 8. Al-Anfal Page 181 وَ مَا But what لَهُمْ (is) for them اَلَّا that not یُعَذِّبَهُمُ (should) punish them اللّٰهُ Allah وَ هُمْ while they یَصُدُّوْنَ hinder (people) عَنِ from الْمَسْجِدِ Al-Masjid الْحَرَامِ Al-Haraam وَ مَا while not كَانُوْۤا they are اَوْلِیَآءَهٗ ؕ its guardians اِنْ Not (can be) اَوْلِیَآؤُهٗۤ its guardians اِلَّا except الْمُتَّقُوْنَ the ones who fear Allah وَ لٰكِنَّ but اَكْثَرَهُمْ most of them لَا (do) not یَعْلَمُوْنَ know وَ مَا And not كَانَ was صَلَاتُهُمْ their prayer عِنْدَ at الْبَیْتِ the House اِلَّا except مُكَآءً whistling وَّ تَصْدِیَةً ؕ and clapping فَذُوْقُوا So taste الْعَذَابَ the punishment بِمَا because كُنْتُمْ you used to تَكْفُرُوْنَ disbelieve اِنَّ Indeed الَّذِیْنَ those who كَفَرُوْا disbelieve یُنْفِقُوْنَ they spend اَمْوَالَهُمْ their wealth لِیَصُدُّوْا to hinder (people) عَنْ from سَبِیْلِ (the) way اللّٰهِ ؕ (of) Allah فَسَیُنْفِقُوْنَهَا So they will spend it ثُمَّ then تَكُوْنُ it will be عَلَیْهِمْ for them حَسْرَةً a regret ثُمَّ then یُغْلَبُوْنَ ؕ۬ they will be overcome وَ الَّذِیْنَ And those who كَفَرُوْۤا disbelieve اِلٰی to جَهَنَّمَ Hell یُحْشَرُوْنَۙ they will be gathered لِیَمِیْزَ That may distinguish اللّٰهُ Allah الْخَبِیْثَ the wicked مِنَ from الطَّیِّبِ the good وَ یَجْعَلَ and place الْخَبِیْثَ the wicked بَعْضَهٗ some of them عَلٰی on بَعْضٍ others فَیَرْكُمَهٗ and heap them جَمِیْعًا all together فَیَجْعَلَهٗ and put them فِیْ in جَهَنَّمَ ؕ Hell اُولٰٓىِٕكَ Those هُمُ they الْخٰسِرُوْنَ۠ (are) the losers
(8:29) Believers! If you fear Allah He will grant you a criterion24 and will cleanse you of your sins and forgive you. Allah is Lord of abounding bounty.
(8:30) And recall how those who disbelieved schemed against you to take you captive, or kill you, or drive you away.25 They schemed and Allah did also scheme. Allah is the best of those who scheme.
(8:31) And when Our verses are recited to them, they say: 'We have heard. We could, if we willed, compose the like of it. They, are nothing but fables of the ancient times.'
(8:32) And also recall when they said: 'O Allah! If this indeed be the truth from You, then rain down stones upon us from heaven, or bring upon us a painful chastisement.'26
(8:33) But Allah was not to chastise them while you are in their midst; nor was Allah going to chastise them while they sought His forgiveness. 27
(8:34) But what prevents Allah from chastising them now when they are hindering people from the Holy Mosque, even though they are not even its true guardians. For its true guardians are none but the God-fearing, though most of them do not know that.
(8:35) Their Prayer at the House is nothing but whistling and handclapping.28 Taste, then, this chastisement for your denying the truth.29
(8:36) Surely those who deny the truth spend their wealth to hinder people from the way of Allah, and will continue to so spend until their efforts become a source of intense regret for them, and then they will be vanquished, and then these deniers of the truth will be driven to Hell,
(8:37) so that Allah may separate the bad from the good, and join together all those who are bad into a pile one upon another, and cast them into Hell. They, it is they who are the losers.30
24. 'Criterion' signifies that which enables one to distinguish between true and false; between real and fake. This is the shade of meaning conveyed by the Qur'anic term 'furqan'. If a man is God-fearing and tries his best to refrain from acts which displease God, God will create in him the ability to discern for himself at every step which actions are proper and which are not; which attitude conduces to God's good pleasure and which is likely to incur His wrath. This inner light will serve as a pointer at every turn and crossing, at every up and down in life, guiding him as to when he should proceed and when he should refrain, telling him which is the path of truth and leads to God, and which is false and leads to Satan.
25. Apprehending the Prophet's migration to Madina, the Quraysh convened a high-level council attended by all the tribal chiefs at Dar al-Nadwah (Council House) to decide on a decisive course of action against the Prophet (peace be on him). They realized that once the Prophet (peace be on him) left Makka, he would be beyond their reach, rendering them helpless in face of a formidable threat. A group of them was of the view that the Prophet (peace be on him) should be imprisoned for life and kept in chains. This proposal was, however, turned down on the ground that the Prophet's detention would not deter his followers from preaching Islam and that they would seize the first opportunity to release the Prophet (peace be on him) even at the risk to their own lives. Another group suggested that the Prophet (peace be on him) should be exiled, for this would remove the mischief and subversion far from Makka, and it would not matter where he spent his days nor what he did, for Makka would be immune from his influence. This proposal, too, was discarded for fear of the Prophet's persuasiveness and eloquence, and his ability to win the hearts of the people of other tribes and thus pose a greater threat in the future. Finally, Abu Jahl suggested that a band of young men drawn from all the different clans of the Quraysh should jointly pounce upon the Prophet (peace be on him) and kill him. In such a case the responsibility for his blood would rest upon all the clans of the Quray'sh. It would thus become impossible for 'Abd Manaf, the Prophet's clan. to take revenge on any one particular clan. Such a move would compel the Prophet's relatives to drop their claims for retaliation and force them to settle for blood-money. Accordingly, the young men charged with the execution of this plan were selected, and were advised of the exact place and time at which they were expected to carry out the crime. Not only that, the would-be assassins did indeed arrive at the appointed place at the appointed time. However, before they could harm him the Prophet (peace be on him) managed to escape safely. The Quraysh plot was thus frustrated at the eleventh hour. (See Ibn Hisham, vol. 1, pp. 480-2. See also Ibn Kathir's comments on the verse - Ed.)
26. These words were uttered by way of challenge rather than a prayer to God. What they meant was that had the message of the Prophet (peace be on him) been true, and from God, its rejection would have entailed a heavy scourge, and stones would have fallen on them from heaven. Since nothing of the sort happened, it was evident that the message was neither true nor from God.
27. This is a rejoinder to the challenge implicit in the above-mentioned remark of the unbelievers. In response it was explained why people were spared heavenly scourge during the Makkan period of the Prophet's life. The first reason being that God does not punish a people as long as the Prophet is in their midst, busy inviting them to the truth. Such people are rather granted respite and are not deprived of the opportunity to reform themselves by sending a scourge all too quickly. Second, if there are a good number of people in a land who recognize that they have been negligent and heedless and have been guilty of iniquity, who seek God's forgiveness and strive to reform themselves, there remains no legitimate ground for subjecting them to a heavenly scourge. The time for such a scourge comes when a Prophet who has spared no efforts to reform his people feels that he has exhausted all his efforts, and concludes that his people have no justification to persist in their iniquity, and departs from that land or is banished from it by its people or is murdered by them. A scourge from on high then becomes imminent since the people of that land have proven by their deeds their inability to tolerate any righteous element in their midst.
28. This is to dispel a misconception common among the Arabs of those days. They were generally inclined to assume that since the Quraysh were the guardians and keepers of the Ka'bah and were also engaged in worship at that holy spot, they were recipients of God's special favours. Here people are told that the defacto guardianship of the Ka'bah should not be confused with its de jure guardianship. For only the God-fearing and pious are the rightful guardians of the Ka,bah. As for the Quraysh, far from behaving in a manner becoming of the guardians of the Ka'bah, they had virtually installed themselves as its masters, and were guilty of preventing people from worshipping there at will. This attitude blatantly betrayed their impiety, and un righteousness. As for their worship in the Ka'bah. it was altogether devoid of religious devotion and sincerity. They neither turned earnestly to God, nor displayed any genuine submission or humility, nor engaged in worshipfully remembering Him. Their worship consisted of meaningless noise and clamour, of acts which seemed closer to play and jest than acts of religious devotion. How could such a guardianship of the Ka'bah and such non-serious acts in the name of worship win God's favour for them, or secure for them immunity from God's scourge?
29. The Quraysh believed that God's punishment necessarily takes the form of some natural calamity or a rain of stones from the sky. They are, however, told that their decisive defeat in the Battle of Badr, which ensured the survival of Islam and spelled death for their much-cherished Jahiliyah was a form of God's punishment for them.
30. What can be more calamitous than a person's discovery at the end of the road that all the time, energy, ability and the very quintessence of his life which he has devoted has driven him straight to his utter ruin; that his investments far from yielding any interest or dividend will require from him the payment of a grievous penalty instead.