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Sūrah 8 · Āyāt 6575

The verses

  1. 65

    يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّبِىُّ حَرِّضِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَى ٱلْقِتَالِ ۚ إِن يَكُن مِّنكُمْ عِشْرُونَ صَٰبِرُونَ يَغْلِبُوا۟ مِا۟ئَتَيْنِ ۚ وَإِن يَكُن مِّنكُم مِّا۟ئَةٌۭ يَغْلِبُوٓا۟ أَلْفًۭا مِّنَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌۭ لَّا يَفْقَهُونَ

    O Prophet! Urge on the faithful to fight: If there be twenty patient men among you, they shall overcome two hundred; and if there be a hundred of you, they shall overcome a thousand of the faithless, for they are a lot who do not understand.

  2. 66

    ٱلْـَٰٔنَ خَفَّفَ ٱللَّهُ عَنكُمْ وَعَلِمَ أَنَّ فِيكُمْ ضَعْفًۭا ۚ فَإِن يَكُن مِّنكُم مِّا۟ئَةٌۭ صَابِرَةٌۭ يَغْلِبُوا۟ مِا۟ئَتَيْنِ ۚ وَإِن يَكُن مِّنكُمْ أَلْفٌۭ يَغْلِبُوٓا۟ أَلْفَيْنِ بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ مَعَ ٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ

    Now Allah has lightened your burden, knowing that there is weakness in you. So if there be a hundred patient men among you, they shall overcome two hundred; and if there be a thousand, they shall overcome two thousand, by Allah’s leave; and Allah is with the patient.

  3. 67

    مَا كَانَ لِنَبِىٍّ أَن يَكُونَ لَهُۥٓ أَسْرَىٰ حَتَّىٰ يُثْخِنَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ تُرِيدُونَ عَرَضَ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱللَّهُ يُرِيدُ ٱلْءَاخِرَةَ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌۭ

    A prophet may not take captives until he has thoroughly decimated [the enemy] in the land. You desire the transitory gains of this world, while Allah desires [for you] [the reward of] the Hereafter, and Allah is all-mighty, all-wise.

  4. 68

    لَّوْلَا كِتَٰبٌۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ سَبَقَ لَمَسَّكُمْ فِيمَآ أَخَذْتُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌۭ

    Had it not been for a prior decree of Allah, surely there would have befallen you a great punishment for what you took.

  5. 69

    فَكُلُوا۟ مِمَّا غَنِمْتُمْ حَلَٰلًۭا طَيِّبًۭا ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ

    Avail yourselves of the spoils you have taken as lawful and good, and be wary of Allah. Indeed Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.

  6. 70

    يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّبِىُّ قُل لِّمَن فِىٓ أَيْدِيكُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَسْرَىٰٓ إِن يَعْلَمِ ٱللَّهُ فِى قُلُوبِكُمْ خَيْرًۭا يُؤْتِكُمْ خَيْرًۭا مِّمَّآ أُخِذَ مِنكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ

    O Prophet! Say to the captives who are in your hands, ‘If Allah finds any good in your hearts, He will give you [something which is] better than what has been taken away from you, and He will forgive you, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.’

  7. 71

    وَإِن يُرِيدُوا۟ خِيَانَتَكَ فَقَدْ خَانُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مِن قَبْلُ فَأَمْكَنَ مِنْهُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ

    But if they seek to betray you, then they have already betrayed Allah earlier, and He gave [you] power over them; and Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.

  8. 72

    إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَهَاجَرُوا۟ وَجَٰهَدُوا۟ بِأَمْوَٰلِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَاوَوا۟ وَّنَصَرُوٓا۟ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَآءُ بَعْضٍۢ ۚ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَلَمْ يُهَاجِرُوا۟ مَا لَكُم مِّن وَلَٰيَتِهِم مِّن شَىْءٍ حَتَّىٰ يُهَاجِرُوا۟ ۚ وَإِنِ ٱسْتَنصَرُوكُمْ فِى ٱلدِّينِ فَعَلَيْكُمُ ٱلنَّصْرُ إِلَّا عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍۭ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُم مِّيثَٰقٌۭ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌۭ

    Indeed those who have believed and migrated and waged jihad with their possessions and persons in the way of Allah, and those who gave [them] shelter and help—they are heirs of one another. As for those who have believed but did not migrate, you have no heirdom in relation to them whatsoever until they migrate. Yet if they ask your help for the sake of religion, it is incumbent on you to help them, excepting against a people with whom you have a treaty; and Allah watches what you do.

  9. 73

    وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَآءُ بَعْضٍ ۚ إِلَّا تَفْعَلُوهُ تَكُن فِتْنَةٌۭ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَفَسَادٌۭ كَبِيرٌۭ

    As for the faithless, they are heirs of one another. Unless you do the same, there will be strife in the land and great corruption.

  10. 74

    وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَهَاجَرُوا۟ وَجَٰهَدُوا۟ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَاوَوا۟ وَّنَصَرُوٓا۟ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ حَقًّۭا ۚ لَّهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌۭ وَرِزْقٌۭ كَرِيمٌۭ

    Those who have believed, migrated, and waged jihad in the way of Allah, and those who gave them shelter and help, it is they who are truly the faithful. For them shall be forgiveness and a noble provision.

  11. 75

    وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مِنۢ بَعْدُ وَهَاجَرُوا۟ وَجَٰهَدُوا۟ مَعَكُمْ فَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ مِنكُمْ ۚ وَأُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْأَرْحَامِ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلَىٰ بِبَعْضٍۢ فِى كِتَٰبِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌۢ

    Those who believed afterwards and migrated, and waged jihad along with you, they belong to you; but the blood relatives are more entitled to inherit from one another in the Book of Allah. Indeed Allah has knowledge of all things.

English translation: Ali Quli Qarai

✦ Synthesisopus-4.8every claim cited to a source below

Synthesis: Sūrat al-Anfāl 65–75 (Six-Source Tafsīr Triangulation)

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.67. Full Arabic in each original_ar.

What the passage says. The sūra concludes by urging the believers to fight, with a ratio first of one against ten, then lightened to one against two (65–66); reproaching the taking of captives before the enemy is subdued, and the desire for "the gains of this world," yet permitting the spoils (67–69); offering the captives forgiveness and recompense if God finds good in their hearts (70–71); and binding the believers — emigrants and helpers — in mutual walāya, severing it with the disbelievers, and finally returning inheritance to kinship (72–75).

The ratio and the law of flight. On 65–66 all read the report as command. [qummi] and [bahrani_al_burhan] supply the juristic precision: the one-against-ten obligation, lightened to one-against-two, fixes the law of firār min al-zaḥf — "whoever flees from two has fled; whoever flees from three has not" (al-Ṣādiq, via al-Ṭūsī's Tahdhīb). [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] stress the "weakness" is of resolve and insight, not body.

The captives — reproach without sin. On 67–69 the sources share the Badr narrative — seventy slain (ʿAlī killing twenty-seven per [qummi] and [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]) and seventy captured, the ransoms, Zaynab's necklace, and al-ʿAbbās's redemption and testimony ([bahrani_al_burhan], [qummi]). But [tabatabai_al_mizan] supplies the decisive theological reading: the reproach falls on taking captives before subduing the land, not on the Prophet's person — whom God has made infallible — nor on the ransom, which followed the verses; the "great punishment" cannot be a threat for a sin (cross-referencing Q 47:4). [qummi] preserves the distinctive gloss that the captives' possible "betrayal" (71) is "in the matter of ʿAlī."

The closing walāya and inheritance. On 72–75 the sources converge with unusual unanimity. All read the passage as legislating mutual protection among the emigrants and helpers and its severance with the disbelievers; [tabatabai_al_mizan] insists the walāya enacted is broader than inheritance (embracing aid and safe-conduct). On the occasion, [qummi], [bahrani_al_burhan] and [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] agree that inheritance had run by the Prophet's instituted brotherhood until "those of kinship are nearer to one another in the Book of God" (75) abrogated it — [qummi] adding that it also abrogates Q 4:33. [bahrani_al_burhan] and [tabatabai_al_mizan] draw the Imāmī juristic conclusion that this establishes inheritance by blood-kinship and overturns taʿṣīb — the maternal uncle and aunt inheriting when none nearer remains (al-Bāqir), and ʿAlī's verdict against ʿUthmān assigning a kinless estate to the relatives — while [bahrani_al_burhan] preserves the narration of Gabriel yielding the dying Prophet's head to ʿAlī, "for you have more right to him… ūlū al-arḥām are nearer to one another."

The tafsīr (6 sources)