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.