His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Certainly, Allah has bestowed a favor upon the believers when He sent among them a Messenger from themselves who recites to them His verses and purifies them and teaches them the Book and wisdom. And if they had been before in clear error." "And when a disaster struck you, although you had struck with one twice as great, you said, 'How is this?' Say, 'It is from yourselves. Indeed, Allah is over all things competent.'"

The 'lam' in "Certainly" is the lam of swearing, and "bestowed a favor" in this verse means He has conferred and favored. It may also be said: He has conferred favor by mentioning it. Thus, it is a shared term.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "from themselves" means in kind, language, and proximity. His being from their kind necessitates familiarity with him and less discomfort from him. His being in their language necessitates good understanding and closeness of comprehension. His being a neighbor and relative necessitates belief and reassurance, as they have known him and recognized his truthfulness and trustworthiness. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, was sent from the lineage of his people, and likewise the other messengers. Al-Naqqash said: There is no tribe among the Arabs except that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, was born from their mothers, except for Banu Taghlib due to their Christianity. The verses in this verse may refer to the Qur'an or to the signs, and the first is more apparent.

And "purifies them" means: He cleanses them from the filth of disbelief and sins. Some of the interpreters said: It means He takes the zakat from them, and this is weak.

And "the Book": the Qur'an, and "wisdom": the Sunnah learned from his tongue, peace be upon him. Then He mentioned their initial state of error to show the difference by juxtaposition of the two opposites. And "before" is a term built upon what the addition contains, resembling the letters in containing meanings, thus it was built.

Then He, exalted and majestic is He, addressed the believers about their error in their anxiety over the calamity that befell them, and their disregard for what befell the disbelievers, and He informed them that this was due to themselves.

And the 'wa' in His saying: "And when" is the conjunction of one sentence to another, which has been entered upon by the alif of affirmation, meaning it obligates the believers to this statement in this situation. The calamity that befell the believers is the story of Uhud and the killing of seventy of them. There is a difference regarding the two instances that befell the believers. Qatadah, al-Rabi, Ibn Abbas, and the majority of the interpreters said: This was on the day of Badr, when the believers killed seventy of the disbelievers of Quraysh and captured seventy. Al-Zajjaj said: One of the two instances is the killing of the seventy on the day of Badr, and the second is the killing of twenty-two of the disbelievers on the day of Uhud, so it is killing for killing. There is no inclusion of the captives in this verse; this is the meaning of his words, for the captives of Badr were captured and then ransomed, so there is no comparison between their state and the killing of seventy of the believers. And "how" means: how? And from where? Then He commanded His Prophet, peace be upon him, to say to them: It is from yourselves.

And the people disagreed on how it was from themselves and for what reason. The majority of the interpreters said: Because they opposed the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, in his opinion when he saw that he should remain in Medina and leave the disbelievers of Quraysh in the worst of confinement, but they insisted on going out until the story unfolded. And a group said: His saying, the Exalted, ﴿from yourselves﴾ is an indication of the disobedience of the archers and their causing the defeat of the believers. Al-Hasan and Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with them, said: Rather, this was when they accepted the ransom on the day of Badr. And that is because Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "When the defeat of the polytheists at Badr was complete, Gabriel, peace be upon him, came and said: O Muhammad, indeed Allah has disliked what your people are doing in taking the captives, and He has commanded you to choose between two matters: to execute the captives or to take the ransom, on the condition that a number of your companions will be killed as those captives. So the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, called the people and mentioned that to them, and they said: O Messenger of Allah, our tribes and brothers, rather we will take their ransom so that we may strengthen ourselves against fighting our enemy, and a number of them will be martyred from us, so there is nothing in that which we dislike. He said: So seventy men were killed from them on the day of Uhud.