قُل لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ إِن يَنتَهُوا۟ يُغْفَرْ لَهُم مَّا قَدْ سَلَفَ وَإِن يَعُودُوا۟ فَقَدْ مَضَتْ سُنَّتُ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ
Say to the faithless, if they cease [their belligerence against the Muslims], what is already past shall be forgiven them. But if they resume [their hostilities], then the precedent of the predecessors has already come to pass.
وَقَٰتِلُوهُمْ حَتَّىٰ لَا تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌۭ وَيَكُونَ ٱلدِّينُ كُلُّهُۥ لِلَّهِ ۚ فَإِنِ ٱنتَهَوْا۟ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌۭ
Fight them until persecution is no more, and religion becomes exclusively for Allah. So if they desist, Allah indeed watches what they do.
وَإِن تَوَلَّوْا۟ فَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَوْلَىٰكُمْ ۚ نِعْمَ ٱلْمَوْلَىٰ وَنِعْمَ ٱلنَّصِيرُ
But if they turn away, then know that Allah is your master: an excellent master and an excellent helper!
۞ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّمَا غَنِمْتُم مِّن شَىْءٍۢ فَأَنَّ لِلَّهِ خُمُسَهُۥ وَلِلرَّسُولِ وَلِذِى ٱلْقُرْبَىٰ وَٱلْيَتَٰمَىٰ وَٱلْمَسَٰكِينِ وَٱبْنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ إِن كُنتُمْ ءَامَنتُم بِٱللَّهِ وَمَآ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا يَوْمَ ٱلْفُرْقَانِ يَوْمَ ٱلْتَقَى ٱلْجَمْعَانِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌ
Know that whatever thing you may come by, a fifth of it is for Allah and the Apostle, for the relatives and the orphans, for the needy and the traveller, if you have faith in Allah and what We sent down to Our servant on the Day of Separation, the day when the two hosts met; and Allah has power over all things.
إِذْ أَنتُم بِٱلْعُدْوَةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَهُم بِٱلْعُدْوَةِ ٱلْقُصْوَىٰ وَٱلرَّكْبُ أَسْفَلَ مِنكُمْ ۚ وَلَوْ تَوَاعَدتُّمْ لَٱخْتَلَفْتُمْ فِى ٱلْمِيعَٰدِ ۙ وَلَٰكِن لِّيَقْضِىَ ٱللَّهُ أَمْرًۭا كَانَ مَفْعُولًۭا لِّيَهْلِكَ مَنْ هَلَكَ عَنۢ بَيِّنَةٍۢ وَيَحْيَىٰ مَنْ حَىَّ عَنۢ بَيِّنَةٍۢ ۗ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَسَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
When you were on the nearer side, and they on the farther side, while the caravan was below you, and had you agreed together on an encounter, you would have certainly failed to keep the tryst, but in order that Allah may carry through a matter that was bound to be fulfilled, so that he who perishes might perish by a manifest proof, and he who lives may live on by a manifest proof, and Allah is indeed all-hearing, all-knowing.
إِذْ يُرِيكَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ فِى مَنَامِكَ قَلِيلًۭا ۖ وَلَوْ أَرَىٰكَهُمْ كَثِيرًۭا لَّفَشِلْتُمْ وَلَتَنَٰزَعْتُمْ فِى ٱلْأَمْرِ وَلَٰكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَلَّمَ ۗ إِنَّهُۥ عَلِيمٌۢ بِذَاتِ ٱلصُّدُورِ
When Allah showed them to you as few in your dream, and had He shown them as many, you would have lost heart, and disputed about the matter. But Allah spared you. Indeed He knows well what is in the breasts.
وَإِذْ يُرِيكُمُوهُمْ إِذِ ٱلْتَقَيْتُمْ فِىٓ أَعْيُنِكُمْ قَلِيلًۭا وَيُقَلِّلُكُمْ فِىٓ أَعْيُنِهِمْ لِيَقْضِىَ ٱللَّهُ أَمْرًۭا كَانَ مَفْعُولًۭا ۗ وَإِلَى ٱللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ ٱلْأُمُورُ
And when He showed them to you as few in your eyes, when you met them [on the battlefield], and He made you [appear] few in their eyes, [it was] in order that Allah may carry through a matter that was bound to be fulfilled, and to Allah all matters are returned.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِذَا لَقِيتُمْ فِئَةًۭ فَٱثْبُتُوا۟ وَٱذْكُرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرًۭا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
O you who have faith! When you meet a host [in battle], then stand firm, and remember Allah greatly so that you may be felicitous.
وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ وَلَا تَنَٰزَعُوا۟ فَتَفْشَلُوا۟ وَتَذْهَبَ رِيحُكُمْ ۖ وَٱصْبِرُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ
And obey Allah and His Apostle, and do not dispute, or you will lose heart and your power will be gone. And be patient; indeed Allah is with the patient.
وَلَا تَكُونُوا۟ كَٱلَّذِينَ خَرَجُوا۟ مِن دِيَٰرِهِم بَطَرًۭا وَرِئَآءَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطٌۭ
Do not be like those who left their homes vainly and to show off to the people, and to bar [other people] from the way of Allah, and Allah comprehends what they do.
وَإِذْ زَيَّنَ لَهُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ أَعْمَٰلَهُمْ وَقَالَ لَا غَالِبَ لَكُمُ ٱلْيَوْمَ مِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَإِنِّى جَارٌۭ لَّكُمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَرَآءَتِ ٱلْفِئَتَانِ نَكَصَ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَيْهِ وَقَالَ إِنِّى بَرِىٓءٌۭ مِّنكُمْ إِنِّىٓ أَرَىٰ مَا لَا تَرَوْنَ إِنِّىٓ أَخَافُ ٱللَّهَ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ شَدِيدُ ٱلْعِقَابِ
When Satan made their deeds seem decorous to them, and said [to the faithless], ‘No one shall overcome you today from among all mankind, and I will stand by you.’ But when the two hosts sighted each other, he took to his heels, saying, ‘Indeed I am quit of you. I see what you do not see. Indeed I fear Allah, and Allah is severe in retribution.’
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Sources present (all six non-silent): Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan]; Baḥrānī, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]; al-Qummī [qummi]; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan]; An Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary]. The Arabic sources were fetched and translated here; al-Mīzān is rendered from verified Arabic. al-Qummī is silent on v.38. Full Arabic in each original_ar.
What the passage says. The disbelievers are offered amnesty if they cease, and warned by "the precedent of the predecessors" (38); the believers are commanded to "fight until there is no fitna and religion is wholly God's" (39–40); then comes the law of the spoils — a fifth for God, the Messenger, the kinsfolk, the orphans, needy and wayfarer, on "the Day of Distinction" (41); a recollection of Badr's improbable design (42–44); the call to steadfastness, remembrance and unity, and the warning against boastful display (45–47); and Satan's adornment of the disbelievers' deeds followed by his flight (48).
"Fight until there is no fitna." On 39 the sources read fitna as shirk. [qummi] marks the verse as abrogating the earlier restraint-counsels (Q 4:77; Q 33:48). Distinctively, [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [bahrani_al_burhan] carry the report (al-Bāqir / al-Ṣādiq) that "the taʾwīl of this verse has not yet come" — its full realization awaits the rising of the Qāʾim, when "the religion of Muḥammad will reach as far as the night reaches" (cf. Q 24:55), giving the war-command an eschatological horizon absent from a purely historical reading.
The fifth (khums). Verse 41 is the passage's juridical centre, and here the Imāmī sources speak with one voice against the Sunnī schools. [qummi], [bahrani_al_burhan] and [tabatabai_al_mizan] (citing al-Kāfī) all give the six-share division: God, the Messenger and dhū al-qurbā — devolving upon the Imam, who thus holds half the khums by inheritance — and the orphans, needy and wayfarers of the House of Muḥammad, to whom it belongs as compensation for the ṣadaqa forbidden them as "the people's dirt." [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] lays this beside the four Sunnī reckonings (five-, four-, and three-share divisions of al-Shāfiʿī and Abū Ḥanīfa) and restricts dhū al-qurbā to Banū Hāshim of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib's line. [bahrani_al_burhan] preserves the celebrated taḥlīl al-khums — al-Ṣādiq's release of his Shīʿa from the khums on their gains "that they might be purified." All identify "the Day of Distinction" (yawm al-furqān) as Badr; [tabatabai_al_mizan] argues "what We sent down upon Our servant" is the Qurʾān, not the angels.
Badr's design and Satan's flight. For 42–44 the sources converge: [qummi], [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tabatabai_al_mizan] stress that the two hosts met "without a tryst," and that the enemy was shown "as few" in dream and eye, so "that God might accomplish a matter to be done — that he who perished might perish by a clear proof." On the steadfastness commands (45–47), all read "your rīḥ" as the wind of strength and victory, and [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] supplies the qiṣṣa of Abū Jahl's insistence on marching to Badr "to feast and be feared." On 48 every source narrates Satan in the form of Surāqa b. Mālik adorning their deeds and then recoiling at the sight of the angels; [qummi] gives the fullest theophany ("Advance, Ḥayzūm!", the black cloud, Gabriel's thousand), and [bahrani_al_burhan] the memorable schema of Iblīs's four guises — Badr, ʿAqaba, Dār al-Nadwa, and the day of the Prophet's death.