Surah Aal-i-Imraan (3) — Ayah 154

(Ayah 154) ➊ {ثُمَّ اَنْزَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ … :} After successive shocks, Allah bestowed His special favor upon the Muslims present on the battlefield by casting drowsiness over them, which brought them peace and reassurance. Abu Talhah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: “Drowsiness overcame us while we were standing in our ranks on the day of Uhud. My sword would fall from my hand, I would pick it up, then it would fall again and I would pick it up again.” [ بخاری، التفسیر، باب قولہ : «أمنة نعاسًا» : ۴۵۶۲ ] Abu Talhah (may Allah be pleased with him) also narrates: “I raised my head on the day of Uhud and began to look at the people, and (what I saw was that) every person, due to drowsiness, had his head bowed under his shield, and this is the meaning of Allah’s statement: «ثُمَّ اَنْزَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِّنْۢ بَعْدِ الْغَمِّ اَمَنَةً نُّعَاسًا» [ ترمذی، أبواب التفسیر، باب ومن سورۃ آل عمران : ۳۰۰۷ ]

➋ {وَ طَآىِٕفَةٌ قَدْ اَهَمَّتْهُمْ اَنْفُسُهُمْ:} Clearly, this refers to the hypocrites and the weak in faith among the Muslims. In such circumstances, they were only concerned about their own lives.

➌ {يَظُنُّوْنَ بِاللّٰهِ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ ظَنَّ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ …:} { ”ظَنَّ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ“ } This is an apposition to { ”غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ“ }, meaning they thought that Islam and its followers were now destroyed, that Muslims would never be helped, and that this call to truth would never flourish.

➍ {يَقُوْلُوْنَ لَوْ كَانَ لَنَا مِنَ الْاَمْرِ شَيْءٌ:} This sentence is an apposition to { ”يَظُنُّوْنَ“ }, and { ”مِنَ الْاَمْرِ“ } refers to victory and help, meaning they began to express complete despair and started saying, “Will we ever achieve victory or gain anything?” Or, { ”مِنَ الْاَمْرِ“ } refers to the decision of the matter, that in this matter our opinion was not considered at all, we were forced to join, otherwise we were not in favor of going out of the city to fight. Some have interpreted it as, “We are completely compelled, we have no choice at all.” (Fath al-Qadeer)

➎ {مَّا قُتِلْنَا هٰهُنَا :} The meaning is that if our opinion had been accepted, that the battle should be fought within the city, then today we would not have suffered this loss of life, but no one listened to us. This statement was either made by those hypocrites who participated in the battle, as Zubair (may Allah be pleased with him) says: “By Allah! I was listening to Mu'tib bin Qushayr, who was from Banu Amr bin Awf, while drowsiness was covering me, I was hearing his words as if in a dream, when he was saying, ‘If we had any say in this matter, we would not have been killed here.’” [ المختارۃ، ح : ۸۶۴، ۸۶۵ ] Ibn Abi Hatim has also mentioned this in his Tafsir with a good chain of narration.

It is also possible that this statement was made by those hypocrites who returned to Madinah with Abdullah bin Ubayy; in this case, the indication of {”هٰهُنَا“} (here) would be towards Uhud near Madinah. (Qurtubi, Shawkani)

➏ {قُلْ لَّوْ كُنْتُمْ فِيْ بُيُوْتِكُمْ …:} This is intended to refute their notion, meaning that even if you had stayed in your homes, those whose fate had already been decreed to be killed would surely have come out of their homes and would have been killed where they are now, because there is no way to escape Allah’s decree.

➐ {وَ لِيَبْتَلِيَ اللّٰهُ مَا فِيْ صُدُوْرِكُمْ … :} This sentence is the reason for the omitted clause, meaning that whatever happened in the Battle of Uhud and the circumstances the Muslims faced, among other wisdoms, was also intended so that the state of your hearts would become apparent and your hearts would be purified from doubts, or that the hypocrisy in the hearts of the hypocrites would be exposed. And that is exactly what happened, and with the setback in the battle of Uhud, everything was exposed.

154. 1 After the aforementioned panic, Allah again bestowed His grace upon the Muslims and cast drowsiness over those Muslims who remained on the battlefield. This drowsiness was a sign of help from Allah. Hazrat Abu Talha ؓ says that I was among those upon whom drowsiness prevailed on the day of Uhud, to the extent that my sword fell from my hand several times; I would pick it up, and it would fall again, then I would pick it up again and it would fall again (Sahih Bukhari). نعاسا is a substitute for امنۃ. طائفہ is used for both singular and plural (Fath al-Qadeer).

154. 2 By this are meant the hypocrites. Obviously, in such circumstances, they were concerned only for their own lives.

154. 3 These were such as: the matter of the Noble Prophet ﷺ is false, the religion to which he calls has an uncertain future, he does not have Allah’s help, and so on.

154. 4 That is, is there now any possibility of victory and help from Allah for us? Or is it that our word can also prevail and be accepted?

154. 5 It is neither in your nor the enemy’s control; help will also come only from Him, and success will also be by His command, and command and prohibition are also His alone.

154. 6 They hide hypocrisy in their hearts, while outwardly they pretend to be seekers of guidance.

154. 7 This they would say among themselves or in their hearts.

154. 8 Allah said, what is the use of such talk? Death will come in any case, and it will come exactly where Allah has decreed it. If you had stayed in your homes and your death was decreed in a battlefield, then fate would certainly have drawn you there.

154. 9 One of the purposes of what happened was to test what is in your hearts, i.e., faith (so that the hypocrites become distinct), and then to purify your hearts from satanic whispers.

154. 10 That is, He knows who is a sincere Muslim and who has donned the cloak of hypocrisy. Among the many wisdoms of jihad is that through it, the believer and the hypocrite become clearly distinguished, so that ordinary people can see and recognize them.

154. Then, after that sorrow, Allah sent down tranquility in the form of drowsiness [143] that overcame a group of you. But another group, whose only concern was for themselves [144], began to entertain false assumptions about Allah, assumptions of ignorance. They said, "Do we have any say in this matter [145]?" Say, "Indeed, all authority in this matter belongs to Allah." They conceal within themselves what they do not reveal to you, saying, "If we had any say in this matter, we would not have been killed here." Say, "Even if you had stayed in your homes, those for whom death was decreed would have surely gone forth to their places of death [146]." And this happened so that Allah might test what is in your chests [147] and purify what is in your hearts. And Allah knows well what is hidden in the hearts.

[143] After such intense sorrows, Allah’s causing drowsiness to overcome the Muslims was an unexpected blessing and extraordinary help. Drowsiness brings both physical and spiritual peace. Bodily fatigue is removed and sorrows are suddenly forgotten. Thus, Hazrat Abu Talhaؓ says that on the day of Uhud, right in the midst of battle, drowsiness overcame me; the sword was about to fall from my hand, I would catch it, then it would be about to fall again, and I would catch it again. [بخاري كتاب التفسير]

[144]
The Condition of the Weak in Faith and the Hypocrites:

Not all the Muslims who participated in the Battle of Uhud were equally strong in faith, resolute, and brave; rather, there were also some weak-hearted ones, and among the Ansar, there were some hypocrites as well. They participated in the battle due to being relatives of the Ansar. And these were in addition to the companions of Abdullah bin Ubayy. These were the people who neither cared for Islam nor for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; they only cared for their own lives. They were thinking, “If Abu Sufyan attacks again, what will become of us?” Sometimes they wondered, “Where are the promises of victory and help that Allah and His Messenger made?” Regarding these people, the narration in Tirmidhi is as follows: “This second group was of the hypocrites, who cared for nothing but their own affairs; they were the most cowardly, the most overawed, and the most averse to supporting the truth among the people.” [ترمذي، ابواب التفسير]

[145] That is, can our opinion also be considered worthy of attention in military strategies and related consultations? In reality, the people of this group also held the view and opinion that the battle should be fought while staying in Madinah, and this opinion was not based on any sound judgment but merely on cowardice. Now, after the defeat, they got the opportunity to say that if their opinion had been acted upon, this bad day would not have been seen, nor would their kinsmen have been killed here.

[146] Because Allah’s decree is that wherever someone’s death is destined to occur, he will, by some means, reach that place at his appointed time. Which place will it be? This is something that no one knows except Allah, as stated in the Divine Word:
﴿ وَمَا تَدْرِيْ نَفْسٌۢ بِاَيِّ اَرْضٍ تَمُوْتُ﴾ [31: 34]
(No one knows in which land he will die.) That is, even if the battle had not taken place, those whose death was destined here would have, by some means, reached here; and if their death was destined in the battlefield, and they made a thousand efforts not to come to the battlefield, they would have, by some excuse or another, reached here. Because Allah’s decree prevails over all other matters.

[147] One benefit that was gained from this battle and the subsequent defeat was that everyone came to know about each Muslim—how strong he was in his faith, how brave and resolute he was; and likewise, everyone came to know about the weak in faith, the cowards, and the hypocrites. In other words, this battle was a testing ground that made clear what was in everyone’s heart. And another benefit is that sincere Muslims can remove their weaknesses, and Allah may purify their hearts from doubts and weaknesses for the future, and the hypocrisy of the hypocrites may become manifest so that people can be protected from their inner evil.