And when what has passed of their description is in a manner that includes others among all the disbelievers, He specified them, clarifying the reason for His withholding from them, while they deserved at that time destruction, punishment, and ruin. He said: ﴿They are﴾ meaning: the people of Makkah and those who are with them ﴿those who disbelieved﴾ meaning: they immersed themselves in this description with all their inner selves and the entirety of their outward appearances ﴿and they prevented you﴾ in addition to their disbelief during the Umrah of Al-Hudaybiyyah from ﴿the Sacred Mosque﴾ meaning: Makkah, and the Sacred Mosque itself, and the Ka'bah, for the disruption of what you are in of the rituals of Ihram [during the Umrah] ﴿and the sacrificial animals﴾ meaning: and they prevented what you had brought as offerings to Makkah to slaughter them there and distribute them to the poor, among them forty, and in one narration, seventy camels, which the Prophet blessings and peace be upon him had offered.

﴿Held back﴾ meaning: while it is gathered and confined along with your tending to it and preparing it for what it was offered for ﴿to reach its place﴾ meaning: the location that is the most appropriate for its slaughter, which is the one that, when mentioned, the mind turns to it, and it is in the Umrah, Al-Marwah. It is permissible to slaughter during Hajj and Umrah in any location within the Sacred Precinct, so the location where the Prophet blessings and peace be upon him slaughtered in this instance at the time of the state of Ihram is not the absolute place.

And when the decree was: If it were not for what He indicated regarding the connection of causes with their effects, He would have empowered you over them, and you would have defeated them at the mosque and completed your Umrah as you intended. Then He turned to a more specific matter and said: "And if it were not for men"; meaning: those who are residing among the disbelievers in Mecca, "believers"; meaning: deeply rooted in faith, and for that reason, they were deserving of the description of manhood. "And women who are believers"; meaning: likewise, all were prevented from migration due to the excuse; because the disbelievers, due to their abundance, weakened them and prevented them from migrating. This includes those whom Allah has created for good and knows of their faith, even if at that time they were polytheists. "You did not know them"; meaning: your knowledge did not encompass them from all aspects so that you could distinguish them by their identities from the polytheists, because they did not have the power of distinction in their time by themselves, and you do not know their places to deal with them according to what they are deserving of, especially in times of war, stabbing, and striking. Then He replaced the words "men and women" with His saying: "that you may tread upon them"; meaning: harm them by killing or something similar from wounds, striking, and looting, and so on from the treading which is the infliction of war. From it is His saying, blessings and peace be upon him: "The last tread that Allah inflicted upon a face." This harm from you to them is based on the assumption that they are polytheists, the harm of the trampler to Madus. And you oppress them and take them severely with oppression and dominance, such that you become unable to repel the hand of a toucher nor can you defend yourselves. "So it may befall you"; meaning: it may result from this treading that you may be afflicted "from them"; meaning: from their side and because of them "with a calamity"; meaning: something disliked and harmful, which is like war in its spread and harm, and sin and treachery by fighting without specific permission, and without thorough investigation, and a penalty and expiation and blood money and regret and reproach from those who have no knowledge. Then He linked the treading that causes the affliction of calamity to complete the meaning of His saying: "without knowledge"; meaning: because they are from the believers.

And when the context indicated that the answer to "if it were not" is omitted, its meaning is: He would have empowered you over them and what restrained your hands from them. But He knew that, and He knew that some of the polytheists would believe, so He bestowed upon you by lifting the burden of harming them without knowledge from you, and caused for you the means of victory which was expected due to your empowerment over them by an easy matter, and He restrained your hands and did not empower you over them. "So that Allah may admit"; meaning: He who possesses all attributes of perfection "into His mercy"; meaning: His honor and grace "whom He wills"; from the polytheists by guiding them to Islam, and from the believers by rescuing them from them in the most gentle manner. And when that was the case, it resulted in His saying, the Exalted: "If they had separated"; meaning: if they had parted, and one of the two groups had greatly separated from the other such that no type mixes with another, then the treading of the believers upon them without knowledge would be safe. "We would have certainly punished"; meaning: by your hands through our empowerment or merely by our hands without intermediaries "those who disbelieved"; meaning: those who concealed the veil of faith.

And when this was general for all who are characterized by disbelief among the people of the earth, he explicitly stated what the context indicated, saying: ﴿from them﴾ meaning: the two groups, and they are the ones who turn away. ﴿a painful punishment﴾ meaning: severe in causing pain by your hands or from Us, to bring you to your intended goal of the pilgrimage and triumph over the disbelievers. In it, there is an excuse and training for some of them to be courteous with one another. And in the indication of revealing a secret from the secrets of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, preventing them from being empowered over them, there is encouragement for the servant not to accuse Allah in His decree. For perhaps He makes a matter difficult for him, which appears to him that happiness was in it, while in its essence is a deadly poison. Thus, Allah's prevention of him from it is a mercy in the unseen, even if it is a punishment in the apparent. Therefore, he must adhere to submission while striving for good, being eager for it, and regretting its loss, and beware of objection. And in the verse, there is also [the indication that] Allah, glorified and exalted is He, may protect the disbeliever for the sake of the believer.