بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
Whatever there is in the heavens and whatever there is in the earth glorifies Allah, and He is the All-mighty, the All-wise.
هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَخْرَجَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ مِن دِيَٰرِهِمْ لِأَوَّلِ ٱلْحَشْرِ ۚ مَا ظَنَنتُمْ أَن يَخْرُجُوا۟ ۖ وَظَنُّوٓا۟ أَنَّهُم مَّانِعَتُهُمْ حُصُونُهُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ فَأَتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَمْ يَحْتَسِبُوا۟ ۖ وَقَذَفَ فِى قُلُوبِهِمُ ٱلرُّعْبَ ۚ يُخْرِبُونَ بُيُوتَهُم بِأَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَيْدِى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَٱعْتَبِرُوا۟ يَٰٓأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَبْصَٰرِ
It is He who expelled the faithless belonging to the People of the Book from their homes at the outset of [their] en masse banishment. You did not think that they would go out, and they thought their fortresses would protect them from Allah. But Allah came at them from whence they did not suppose and He cast terror into their hearts. They demolish their houses with their own hands and the hands of the faithful. So take lesson, O you who have insight!
وَلَوْلَآ أَن كَتَبَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْجَلَآءَ لَعَذَّبَهُمْ فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا ۖ وَلَهُمْ فِى ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ عَذَابُ ٱلنَّارِ
If Allah had not ordained banishment for them, He would have surely punished them in this world, and in the Hereafter, there is the punishment of the Fire for them.
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ شَآقُّوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ ۖ وَمَن يُشَآقِّ ٱللَّهَ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ شَدِيدُ ٱلْعِقَابِ
That is because they defied Allah and His Apostle; and whoever defies Allah, Allah is indeed severe in retribution.
مَا قَطَعْتُم مِّن لِّينَةٍ أَوْ تَرَكْتُمُوهَا قَآئِمَةً عَلَىٰٓ أُصُولِهَا فَبِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ وَلِيُخْزِىَ ٱلْفَٰسِقِينَ
Whatever palm trees you cut down or left standing on their roots, it was by Allah’s will and in order that He may disgrace the transgressors.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The sura opens, like it closes, with universal glorification -- 'Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God' -- and then turns at once to a concrete event of the fourth year of the Hijra: the expulsion of the Jewish clan of Banu al-Nadir 'at the first gathering (li-awwal al-hashr),' from which the sura takes its name. All six sources anchor these verses in that history.
The occasion. Tabarsi, Tusi, Qummi and Bahrani converge on the narrative: Banu al-Nadir had a non-aggression pact with the Prophet, which they broke after the reverse at Uhud, plotting (via Ka'b b. al-Ashraf, and later an attempt to drop a rock on the Prophet as he sought help with a blood-money debt) to kill him. Forewarned, he besieged them; the hypocrite 'Abd Allah b. Ubayy secretly urged them to resist and promised aid that never came. Qummi and Bahrani add the distinctly Imami detail that the Prophet gave the banner to 'Ali (Amir al-Mu'minin), who led the advance. The clan finally left for Adhri'at in Syria and Khaybar -- Tabarsi noting a camel and water-skin for every three, and Ibn 'Abbas's name for the sura, 'Surat Banu al-Nadir.' (Web-verified: the episode is dated to 4 AH, after Uhud, with destinations Khaybar and Syria.)
The reading of the verses. Al-Mizan and Tabarsi stress that the whole event is ascribed to God: it was He who 'came upon them whence they did not reckon' and 'cast terror' into hearts that trusted in fortresses. On 'they wreck their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers,' Tusi and Tabarsi (from al-Hasan) explain that the Jews demolished from within to flee while the Muslims breached from without. Al-Mizan reads the deeper point: God's will penetrated 'by the route of their hearts,' not their walls. On 'take heed, O you of insight,' Tabarsi and Tusi both pause to insist that this admonition (i'tibar) lends no support to juristic analogy (qiyas) -- a characteristic legal-theological aside.
The palms. Verses 3-5 explain that banishment (jala') was itself God's decree, sparing them the worse fate of Banu Qurayza, 'because they opposed God and His Messenger.' On the felling of the date-palms (v.5), the sources note the Jews' taunt -- 'Muhammad, you forbade corruption; why cut the palms?' -- and the verse's answer that it was 'by God's leave, that He might disgrace the transgressors.' Al-Mizan (with Raghib) takes lina as any fine palm; Tabarsi and Tusi report the dispute (every palm but the 'ajwa, per Ibn 'Abbas and Qatada; or all palms, per Mujahid). Bahrani alone preserves a saying of al-Sadiq that the 'ajwa is 'the mother of dates, sent down from Paradise for Adam,' identifying it with the lina -- rendered strictly as attributed.