And when he mentioned to them the Day of their meeting, he depicted to them their state, clarifying the matter and making evident what they were in, of their acknowledgment of their inability, as a reminder for them to deter them from dispute and to return them to compliance. He said, substituting from: "the Day of Al-Furqan" [Al-Anfal: 41] "when you were" descending "by the near side of the valley" meaning: the vicinity to Al-Madinah, "and they" meaning: the polytheists were descending "by the far side" meaning: the distant side from it, which is close to the sea. The analogy is the conversion of its waw into a ya, and it has come likewise, except that this is more common as it is more frequent to say 'استصوب' and less to say 'استصاب'. And 'العِدْوَةُ' - with the kasrah in the recitation of Ibn Kathir and Abu Amr and Ya'qub, and with the dammah in the recitation of others: the side of the valley and its bank. And its essence - in any arrangement it may be - revolves around disturbance and necessitates proximity, stillness, inclination, return, racing, and the place capable of that. So it is as if it is the location that rises above a place, and the flood was a location for the enemy. "And the caravan" meaning: the trade caravan which you went out to intercept, and its leader was Abu Sufyan. And it was established (p-286) upon the circumstance of his saying: "lower than you" meaning: O two groups by the sea at a distance from a village that you were about to fall upon and extend your hands to it a distance of three miles - as Al-Baghawi said, and this was their intention and your request. So if you had strength to approach it, you would have rushed to the edge and contended for it against destruction. But what prevented you from reaching your hope of it was one who was crouching at that side like a lion, confident in what he had of strength and numbers, as he said, blessings and peace be upon him, to Salamah ibn Salamah ibn Waqsh, may Allah be pleased with him - when he spoke of belittling them after their killing and destruction: 'If we found nothing but old men, it was only that we met them and they granted us their shoulders' - his response was: 'Those, O my nephew, are the elite; if you had seen them, you would have feared them, and if they had commanded you, you would have obeyed them.'" Along with your weakness against them, were it not for our messenger who gives you glad tidings, and our troops that strengthen you. And to such meanings, he indicated the depiction of their location and the location of the caravan, hinting at what the enemy had of strength in numbers and the completeness of their equipment, and the facilitation of the causes of victory, and the weakness of the state of the Muslims, and that their victory in such a state is nothing but an act from Allah. And what is in Al-Baydawi, following Al-Kashaf, that the near side of the valley was sinking in it the feet and there was no water therein, he responded to that at the beginning of the Surah by stating that the well-known in Sahih Muslim and the histories and others is that the believers were the first to the water, and that all the land of that place was sand in which the feet sank. So the Muslims were provided with it from the rain that made the ground firm for them, (p-287) and the polytheists were provided with it what they could not move with it. "And if you had made an appointment" meaning: you and they to meet at those locations at one time, "you would have certainly differed in the appointment" meaning: because the custom dictates that for two matters: one of them is the distance that you were from it and the difficulty of timing the movement of each group with the movement of its companion, and the second is your aversion to meeting them due to what settled in your souls of their strength and your weakness. And indeed, the one who made you dislike meeting them was capable of making them dislike meeting you, so the difference would occur from their side as it was in Badr, the appointed time. And as for in this battle, he called them from the protection of others, a call they could not avoid responding to, and Allah blinded their insights and hardened their hearts along with the words of Abu Jahl, who was the greatest cause of the meeting for those who offered him support with weapons and men: 'If we are fighting people, then we have no weakness against them, and if we are only fighting - as Muhammad claims - Allah, then no one has power against Allah.' And his words also in this battle to Al-Akhnas ibn Shariq: 'Indeed, Muhammad is truthful and has never lied.' So Allah did that when He knew in their meeting with you of the elevation of His word and the manifestation of His religion. "But" meaning: He planned that, glorified is He, until you all met at the place of meeting on one day without an appointment, and you did not differ in meeting that place despite that it was out of the ordinary, for He perfected its causes. So He made you hopeful for the caravan at first along with what you were in of need, then He promised you one of the two groups ambiguously and brought forth Quraysh for the protection of their caravan, a bringing forth from which they found no escape. And when their caravan was saved, vanity and ostentation and arrogance in what they were in of abundance and strength came upon them, as Abu Jahl said: 'We will not return until we reach Badr, so we may slaughter the camels there and drink the wines and the singers will play for us, and we will feed whoever is present from the Arabs, so they will always fear us for a long time.' - "So that Allah may decide" meaning: the One to whom belongs all matters, by honoring His religion through honoring you and humiliating them. "An affair that was" as the natures and dispositions are in their establishment and completion. "Done" meaning: predetermined in eternity from their meeting and what occurred in their killing and capturing in that great manner, so it is done without a doubt to clarify thereby the oaths of whoever believed by relying on Allah and believing in His promise and the disbelief of whoever disbelieved.

And when he explained that arrangement in the meeting by saying: ﴿So that Allah may decree﴾, he explained that reason by saying: ﴿So that He may destroy﴾. This means: for the sake of witnessing that extraordinary decree ﴿whoever is destroyed﴾, meaning: from the two groups: the disbelievers in the state of fighting and after it, and the Muslims, destruction that is surpassing and emerging ﴿from﴾ a state ﴿clear﴾ for what has become evident of the truthfulness of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, in this incident regarding all that he promised and the lies of the disbelievers in all that they were saying, cutting off with it while the apparent state seems to favor them. Thus, this was one of the greatest miracles. ﴿And let live whoever lives﴾, meaning: by Islam, a life that is in the highest perfection, as indicated by the reading of Nafi' and Al-Bazzi from Ibn Kathir and Abu Bakr from Asim by pronouncing the two ي’s, or in the lowest perfection as indicated by the merging of the remaining letters for the sake of ease, a life that is surpassing and emerging ﴿from﴾ a state ﴿clear﴾, meaning: existing after the clarification in the state of the disbelievers being upon falsehood and the believers being upon truth for what will come from them saying: ﴿The religion of these people has deceived them﴾ [Al-Anfal: 49]. At that time, the deceived one became evident and the wonders of the decree were unveiled from the eyes of the hidden hearts.

And when the decree was: Indeed, Allah is, in doing that, Exalted and Wise, he added to it his saying: ﴿And indeed, Allah is Hearing﴾, meaning: of what you were saying and others ﴿Knowing﴾ of what you were concealing and others. So submit to His greatness and turn away from your disputes out of fear of Him.