When the believers saw the Confederate forces they said: “This is what God and His Messenger have promised us! Truly spoke God and His Messenger.” This only served to strengthen their faith and their submission to God.
Among the believers are people who have always been true to what they have vowed before God. Some have already fulfilled their pledges by death, and some are still waiting. They have not changed in the least.
God will surely reward the truthful for having been true to their word, and will punish the hypocrites, if that be His will, or accept their repentance. God is indeed Much-Forgiving, Merciful.
God turned back the unbelievers in all their rage and fury; they gained no advantage. He spared the believers the need to fight. God is Most Powerful, Almighty. (The Confederates Al-Ahzab: 33: 22-25)
We commented at length last week on the first two verses in this passage that comes at the end of the Qur’anic comments on the events of the Encounter of the Moat, which represented a hard test for the believers in Madinah. All their enemies colluded in an attempt to annihilate Islam and the Muslim community. That was bound to have a telling effect on the Muslims who were still the weaker side physically and materially. Yet they had to balance their worry at what might happen to them with their readiness to sacrifice all for their faith.
When we see ourselves weaken under stress, shaken by danger or worry at what lies ahead, we must not allow despair to overwhelm us, or feel that we are lost, unfit to achieve any high standard. What we must not do is hold on to our weak feelings thinking that this must be so because it happens to others who are better than ourselves. We must remember our bond with God and hold to this, because it is through this that we can shed our weakness, and regain our confidence and reassurance. We should look at our worry and fear as a signal that help is on its way. Then we will find renewed strength and self-belief.
It was such balance that molded that unique generation in the early days of Islam, which the surah praises in the following terms: “Among the believers are people who have always been true to what they have vowed before God. Some have already fulfilled their pledges by death, and some are still waiting. They have not changed in the least.” This is set against the other type of person who pledged to God that they would never run away, but who were untrue to their vows: “They had previously vowed before God that they would never turn their backs in flight. A vow made to God must surely be answered for.” (Verse 15)
One of the young companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) reports: “I was named after my uncle Anas ibn Al-Nadr. He did not take part in the Battle of Badr, and he was sad. He thought: ‘This was the first major battle the Prophet fought and I was absent. Should I live to fight in another battle with the Prophet, God will see what I will do.’ He then felt that this was a serious pledge and he feared to say anything more. He was later in the Muslim army in the Battle of Uhud. Before the battle, he saw Saad ibn Muadh and said to him: ‘Abu Amr! I can smell heaven! I smell it coming from the side of Uhud.’ He fought hard until he was killed. He received 80 odd strikes variously from a sword, spear and arrow. Indeed, he was unrecognizable. His sister, my aunt, Al-Rubayyi’ bint Al-Nadr, said: ‘I could only identify my brother by his finger.’ When the verse saying, ‘Among the believers are people who have always been true to what they have vowed before God,’ was revealed, people felt that this referred to him and others who did as he did.” (Related by Ahmad, Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi and Al-Nassaie.)
The surah then includes a comment stating the purpose of testing believers and the outcome of honoring a vow or breaking it: “God will surely reward the truthful for having been true to their word, and will punish the hypocrites, if that be His will, or accept their repentance. God is indeed Much-Forgiving, Merciful.” Comments like this, which are often found within the description of events, serve to outline the purpose behind what takes place, making it clear that everything is determined by God’s will. Nothing occurs by coincidence. Everything is according to plan and for a definite purpose. All events reflect God’s grace and confirm that His forgiveness and mercy are always close at hand. “God is indeed Much-Forgiving, Merciful.”
The surah’s discussion of the Encounter of the Moat concludes by stating its outcome which confirmed the believers’ expectations and showed how far in error the unbelievers and hypocrites had gone: “God turned back the unbelievers in all their rage and fury; they gained no advantage. He spared the believers the need to fight. God is Most Powerful, Almighty.”
From start to finish, God was in control of the battle, turning it the way He wished. The surah confirms this in its presentation, attributing to God every event and its outcome, so that we can understand this fact making it part of our overall Islamic concept.
It was not only the Quraysh and the Ghatafan that suffered a miserable defeat. Their allies, the Jews of Qurayzah also shared the same outcome: “He brought down from their strongholds those of the people of earlier revelations who aided them, casting terror in their hearts: some you slew, and some you took captive. And He passed on to you their land, their houses and their goods, as well as a land on which you had never yet set foot. God has power over all things.” (Verses 26-27) However, before we discuss these verses we need to throw some light on the attitude the Jews in Madinah adopted toward Islam.