And when He glorified His Most Sacred Self, it indicated that exaltation and dignity and wisdom are evidenced by the proof that He has enforced what He has decreed. He prevails over [His] self and His messengers. He has subdued those who opposed Him and disappointed the hopes of those who were hypocrites. They turned to the Jews from the People of the Book to take pride in them. So, He humiliated the Jews and expelled them from the place of revelation and disgraced the hypocrites who made them the basis of their reliance and the place of their allegiance and affection. He said: "He is" meaning alone without the urging of horses or mounts "the One who expelled" in a manner of overpowering "those who disbelieved" meaning concealed what was in their books of the evidences that testify to Muhammad ﷺ being the final prophet and what was in their original natures that following the truth is more rightful. He made their disbelief ugly to them by His saying, the place of "from the Banu Nadir" or "the Jews" for example: "from the People of the Book" meaning that which Allah revealed to His messenger Musa, blessings and peace be upon our Prophet and upon him. In the expression of "disbelieved" there is an indication that they are the ones who removed by alteration or concealment what they could from what remained of the Torah, indicating the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ.

And when the homeland is equivalent to the soul, for it is to the body as the body is to the soul, the departure from it is extremely difficult. This indicates further oppression of them by His saying: "from their dwellings." And when some of them were expelled from the noble city to Khaybar, they are the family of Abu al-Haqiq and the family of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, and the rest of them joined others in Ariha from the land of the Levant, the land of the gathering. Some of them joined in al-Hirah. He hinted at the opening of Khaybar and their second gathering from it by His saying, explaining or timing: "for the first" meaning for the purpose of the first or at the first "gathering." In that is an indication that every land to which they are gathered will be opened, and they will be shaken from it with another shaking. The calamities upon them by the people of Islam will continue until the greatest gathering at the Day of Resurrection. And the gathering is the collection from one place and the driving to another with reluctance. It was named the first because they were the first to be expelled from the Jews from the Arabian Peninsula, and the second gathering for them from Khaybar during the time of Umar, may Allah be pleased with him. And according to Ibn Ishaq, their expulsion occurred during the return of the Prophet ﷺ from Uhud and the opening of Qurayzah in his return from the Confederates, and between them were two years. "The Prophet ﷺ said to them: 'Leave.' They said: 'To where?' He said: 'To the land of the gathering.'" And Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, said: "Whoever doubts that the gathering is in the land of the Levant, let him read this verse." This ends, and this gathering indicates the greatest gathering, and it is based on His saying ﷺ: "I was sent forth along with the Hour like these two."

And when it was informed that their gathering was not due to anything other than His pure power, he began to explain that by saying: ﴿What did you think﴾ meaning, O believers, ﴿that they would escape﴾ meaning, that they would cause an escape from something you inherited from them due to your weakness and their strength because of their multitude and the severity of their might and their cunningness, and the proximity of Banu Qurayzah [to them]. They were on the verge of supporting them, and the people of Khaybar were also not far from them, and all of them were of their religion. The hypocrites among their supporters and their families had their expectations fail in all of that, and their opinions faltered, and the believers were empowered over them despite their fewness and weakness. And when Allah intends to grant victory to a servant, He makes his rabbit fierce, and when He intends to overpower an enemy, He makes his lion fierce.

And when the fortresses were preventing until the reinforcements arrived, he said: ﴿And they thought that they﴾ and this indicated the strength of their thought and its stability with the nominal sentence. So he said: ﴿Their fortresses prevented them﴾ meaning, it is established for them the prevention and they have the ability to resist. They said: And in the precedence of the news over the subject, there is evidence of their excessive confidence in its fortification and its prevention of them. And in making their pronoun the name of (Indeed) [and] attributing the sentence to it, there is evidence of their belief in themselves that they are in honor (p-409) and protection with no hope of assistance with it in their support. And it indicated the weakness of their minds by expressing his army with his name and with his greatest name, so he said: ﴿From Allah﴾ meaning the greatest King who has no honor except for Him, and you are His army. You do not fight except in Him and by Him; your might is from His might. Thus, both thoughts converged on one thing. And when attributing what is for the added to the one added to it is common in the language of the Arabs and very much so because it does not confuse one who has some knowledge of their speech, and very eloquent due to its greatness, he said: ﴿So Allah gave them﴾ [Aal 'Imran: 148] meaning, the greatest King who they cannot bear His coming due to what He has made apparent to them of their own insignificance which compelled them to flee ﴿from where they did not expect﴾ meaning, from the direction which they did not carry themselves to consider, and it is the abandonment of the hypocrites towards them in fear like their fear and in weakness like the weakness of their souls from resisting the army of Allah after the devil had adorned for them otherwise, and filled their hearts with empty hopes until they cut off what they were promised and brought near to them and deceived them.

And when the decree was: So Allah weakened them by that, He followed it with His saying: ﴿And He cast﴾ meaning He sent down a sending as if He had cast it with stones. So it settled and rooted ﴿in their hearts the terror﴾ (p-410) meaning the fear that resided in them, which overwhelmed them and filled them and passed from them to all their powers, uprooting it from its origin. Then He clarified their state at that time or explained the casting of terror by His saying: ﴿They are destroying their houses﴾ meaning they are exaggerating - according to the reading of Abu Amr with emphasis - in their destruction, meaning their corruption, for destruction is corruption. And the reading of others understands the absolute action that does not contradict the restricted ﴿with their own hands﴾ weakness from them - as indicated by the gathering of the few, and despair from their strength to take what they found pleasing from its tools. So a man among them [when] they prepared for departure would demolish his house from the threshold of his door and what he found pleasing from its wood, placing it on the back of his camel to take it, and he would break the wall and demolish the roof out of envy for the Muslims to inhabit it after them because the Prophet ﷺ commanded them to leave it for him and for them what their camels carried.

And when the cause of the destruction of the companions may Allah be pleased with them for their houses was what they burned them with from deceit and treachery, they were as if they commanded them to do that, so they acted on their behalf in it. He also said with the gathering of the few to indicate that the action is solely for Him, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And the hands of the believers﴾ meaning the firmly rooted in faith, taking over and dominating them. And indeed the believers would destroy what constrained their space from it for the sake of fighting, and He preceded (p-411) their destruction because it was more astonishing.

And when it was extremely strange for a person to act against himself as his enemy does to him, He caused that by His saying: ﴿So take heed﴾ meaning carry yourselves by reflecting on the greatness of Allah's power, exalted is He, to cross from the apparent knowledge in this matter by what Allah has planned in bringing them out to the depths of wisdom by not counting for yourselves a supporter from the creation nor relying on anyone other than Allah. For indeed, taking heed - as Al-Qushayri said - is one of the laws of the Shari'ah, and whoever does not take heed from others, others will take heed from him - it has ended. And the proponents of analogy have used this verse as evidence, for it is a transference from the origin to the branch, and transference is taking heed, and it is commanded in this verse, so it is obligatory.

And when consideration is of great benefit, it is only attained by the complete ones. He increased its significance by His saying, 'O people of insight,' by looking with your eyes and your understanding at the strangeness of this creation so that you may confirm what He has promised you through the tongue of His Messenger, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding the manifestation of His religion and the honor of His Prophet. And do not rely on anyone other than Allah, as these people relied on the hypocrites. For whoever relies on a created being, that will lead him to his humiliation and disgrace. And do not commit treachery as they intended to betray the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, by dropping a stone from the roof while he was sitting in the courtyard of one of their houses to kill him with it - they claimed. And do not do anything of their vile actions, lest you suffer a similar punishment as they did, as confirmed by his saying, blessings and peace be upon him, 'You will certainly follow the ways of those who were before you.' And that treachery from them came after they incited Quraysh against the Battle of Uhud and guided them to some of the vulnerabilities. Al-Baghawi said: Indeed, Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf came to Quraysh after Uhud with forty riders and allied with them against the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. Then Gabriel, peace be upon him, descended to inform him of that. And he said: When he intended to go to them, they sent to him that he should go out with thirty and that thirty of them should come out to hear from him. If they believed in him, then all would believe. So he responded to them, and they sent that the gathering was large, so go out with three, so three of us would go out. A woman from them sent to her brother who was a Muslim that they had gathered with daggers intending to attack the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him. So he refrained from that. And all that has been mentioned regarding the causes of their story revolves around deceit; rather, it is the essence of deceit.