SURAH AL-IMRAN (3)
(FAMILY OF IMRAN)

101. The original Arabic text may imply either of the two things: "Allah desired to give some of you the honour of martyrdom. " Or it may mean, "He willed to winnow the Believers from the hypocrites so that the true witnesses of the Truth, who may really be worthy of performing the mission that has been assigned to the Muslim Community, may be distinguished from the false ones." 

102. This alludes to those who were so desirous of martyrdom that they had persuaded the Holy Prophet against his wish to go out of Al-Madinah to fight with the enemy. 

103. This is the answer to the mischievous talk of those hypocrites who had accompanied the Muslims in the battle of Uhd. When the rumour spread that the Holy Prophet had been slain, naturally the we Muslims lost heart, but the hypocrites began to say, "Let us go to `Abdullah bin Ubayy and request him to obtain amnesty for us from Abu Sufyan. " Others who were more impudent, went even so far as to say, "If Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him) had been a true Prophet of Allah, he could not have been slain. Let us now turn to our ancestral Faith." Allah rebukes them as if to say, "Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him) is a Prophet, and is mortal like other Prophets who came before him: therefore, if your attachment to Islam is because of the person of Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him), and if it stands on such flimsy ground that with his death you will again return to disbelief, then Allah's religion does not stand in need of you."

This verse was also meant to impress that Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him) was mortal like all other Prophets. According to a tradition, on the morning when the Prophet died, Abu Bakr came into the mosque at Al-Madinah and found the people all distracted, and `Umar telling them that it was a sin to say that he was dead. Abu Bakr went and ascertained the truth, and coming back into the mosque, cried, "Lo! as for him who worshipped Muhammad, Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him) is dead, but as for him who worships Allah, Allah is alive and does not die." Then he recited this verse "and it was as if the people had not known till then that such a verse had been revealed."

104. This is meant to teach the Muslims that fleeing from fear of death will be of no avail, because none shall die a moment before the time ordained for death by Allah, nor can one live a moment after it. Therefore, what one should care for, is not how to escape from death but how best to spend the time that has been given in this world. The important question is this: Is it to be spent for the sake of this worldly life or for the Life-after-death? 

105. As the consequences of all actions follow them inevitably, the most important question from the Islamic point of view is whether one's struggle in life is to be directed towards the transitory interests and enjoyments of this world or towards the ever-lasting joys of the Next World. The answer to this will determine one's moral attitude in regard to good and evil. 

106. "Grateful servants" are those people who appreciate fully the blessings of Allah, which He has bestowed upon them by giving them the correct answer to the question posed in E. N. 105. He has informed them that there is a limitless life beyond the limited life of this world and that the consequences of the actions of this life are not confined to this life alone, but follow inevitably in the Life-after-death. Hence he is really a grateful servant who trusts in God's promise of sure reward of good deeds in the Next World, and then goes on performing those deeds, disregarding whether his deeds flourish in this life or produce the reverse results. On the other hand, those people are ungrateful who are not ready and willing to spend their time or money or energy on anything that is not expected to produce immediate "good" results in this world. They are ungrateful because they do not appreciate the correct knowledge which has been bestowed by God about the consequences which inevitably follow in the everlasting life in the Next World. 

107. That is, "They did not surrender to the worshippers of falsehood, even though they were less in number and worse off in equipment than their enemies. " 

108. That is, "They will take you back to the state of un-belief from which you had come out." This warning was timely because after the reverse at Uhd, the hypocrites and the Jews tried to seduce the Muslims from their Faith. Their fallacious reasoning was like this: "Had Muhammad been a Prophet, he would never have suffered a defeat. It is obvious from this that he is an ordinary man who gets victory one day and suffers defeat another day. It is sheer propaganda that Allah had given him any promise of help and success."

108a. This refers to the conduct of the archers. When they were commanded to abstain from taking spoils, they argued with and disobeyed their leader and deserted their positions with the result that the scales of victory were turned against the Muslims.

109. That is, "Your desertion was an act which would have resulted in your total destruction, if Allah had not pardoned you. It was God's grace and succour that saved you from its grave consequences, and the Quraish, in spite of their victory, retreated of their own accord without any apparent reason. " 

110. It was the courage and firmness of the Holy Prophet that saved the situation from utter ruin in the confusion caused by the sudden attack of the enemy who was charging from the front and from the rear. When some of the Muslims were fleeing towards Al-Madinah and the others were climbing up the Uhd, the Holy Prophet stood firm and resolute at his post with a dozen or so of his Companions who had stood the test. He was rallying those who were taking to flight, calling out, "O servants of Allah, come to me." 

111. Sorrow was caused by the reverse and by the rumour that the Holy Prophet had been martyred and by the loss of their companions and by the misery of their wounded and by the insecurity of their homes and by the fear that the victorious Quraish army, that out-numbered the total population of Al-Madinah, would crush the routed army, enter into .the town and reduce it to ruins.

112. This was a favour shown to those Muslims who had remained firm in the battle. They experienced such a strange sense of security that in spite of their sorrow, they began to feel drowsy. Hadrat Abu Talhah, who had taken part in the battle, says that they were so overpowered by drowsiness that even their swords began to fall from their hands.

113. These were their vain regrets which were the result of their wrong thinking. The fact is that the decrees of God are inevitable. Such regrets produce only grief and anguish in the hearts of those who do not trust in Allah but in their own plans and designs. However, when their efforts also end in utter failure, they wring their hands, saying, "Oh! had it been thus and thus, the result would have been so and so."

114. This is the answer to the suspicion of the archers about the honesty of the Holy Prophet in regard to the division of the spoils. When they saw their companions plunder the enemy, the archers feared that the former would get the whole of the spoil and they would be deprived of it at the time of division; just because they had not taken part in the plunder. That is why they spontaneously deserted their posts. When later on they put forward some lame excuses, these were not accepted. Then the Holy Prophet said, "The real thing is that you had no trust in me. You suspected that I would deal dishonestly with you and would not give you your due share." In this verse Allah has taken them to task for cherishing such wrong ideas about the Holy Prophet, by putting searching questions as if to say, "How is it that you suspected that your interests would not be safe in the hands of the Prophet of Allah? Can you ever expect that the Messenger of Allah would divide unjustly the wealth that is in his trusteeship."

115. This verse is meant to remove the confusion caused in the minds of the common Muslims by the reverse at Uhd. Though the intimate Companions close to the Holy Prophet were under no delusion that his mere presence among them was a sure guarantee of success, yet the common Muslims were suffering from this misunderstanding. They thought that the disbelievers could in no way win a victory over them because the Holy Prophet was present among them and the help and succour of Allah was with them. Therefore, when contrary to their expectations, they met with a reverse at Uhd, they began to ask questions like this: why has this misfortune befallen us, who were fighting for the cause of Allah, and that, too, at the hands of the disbelievers, who had come to destroy Islam? Above all, they could not understand this because Allah had promised to help and succour them and the Holy Prophet was himself present in the battlefield. They have been told that they themselves were responsible for the disaster. 

116. In the battle of Uhd, 70 Muslims were martyred whereas in the battle of Badr, 70 disbelievers were killed and 70 taken as prisoners. 

117. That is, "It is the result of your own weakness and wrong acts: you did not show patience; you did things which were against piety; you disobeyed the order of your leader; you became victims of greed and you got engaged in disputes among yourselves: still you ask, "Where has this disaster come from?" defeat.

118. That is, "Allah is able to give victory and is also able to bring about 

119. This was the pretext with which `Abdullah bin Ubayy returned to AlMadinah with his 300 men from his way to the battlefield. When the Muslims perceived that he was about to desert the Muslim army, they tried to persuade him to accompany them but he replied, "We are quite certain that there will be no battle today. That is why we are returning home; we would have most surely accompanied you, if we had expected any battle today." 

120. Please refer to E. N. 155', AI-Baqarah.