His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿When Allah showed you them in your dream as few, and if He had shown you them as many, you would have failed and would have disputed in the matter. But Allah granted you safety. Indeed, He is Knowing of what is in the breasts.﴾ ﴿And when He showed you them, when you met, as few in your eyes, and He made you appear as few in their eyes, so that Allah might accomplish a matter already destined. And to Allah belong the matters.﴾ Al-Mahdawi said: "'When' is in the accusative, meaning: and remember." (p-205) Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Or it is a substitute for the previous 'when', and this is better. The narrations have agreed that this verse was revealed regarding a dream that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, saw, in which he saw the number of the disbelievers as few. He informed his companions of that, and their spirits were strengthened, and they were encouraged for the encounter. This is the meaning of His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿in your dream﴾ meaning: in your sleep, as said by Mujahid and others. It was narrated from Al-Hasan that the meaning of His saying: ﴿in your dream﴾ means: in your sight, as it is the place of sleep. According to this interpretation, the narration would be in wakefulness. Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And this saying is weak, and on this interpretation, Al-Naqqash explained and mentioned it from Al-Mazini. The pronoun in both interpretations, from His saying: ﴿He showed you them﴾ refers back to the disbelievers from the people of Mecca. What weakens what was narrated from Al-Hasan is that the meaning of this verse is repeated in the one that follows it, because the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, is also addressed in the second one. The narration has agreed that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, awoke and said to his companions: "Rejoice, for I have seen the places of the people’s downfall," and similar to this. He had known that they were between three hundred and a thousand, so how could he see them with his sight contrary to what he knew? The apparent meaning is that he saw them in his sleep as few in number, and their state and their defeat as vanquished and fallen. It is possible that he saw them as few in number, so the interpretation of his vision was their defeat. Thus, the fewness and multitude are, in the apparent sense, metaphorical and not literal, as they say: "A person is abundant with his brother," and other similar examples. And failure is the retreat from the matter, either after engaging in it or after the determination to engage in it. And ﴿and you would have disputed﴾ means: you would have disagreed, and ﴿in the matter﴾ means: in the encounter and the war. And ﴿granted you safety﴾ is a term that encompasses every fear that is connected to the matter or presented before it, so Allah granted safety from all of that. Some people expressed it by saying: "He has granted you safety in your matter," and similar to this falls under what we have mentioned. And His saying: ﴿Indeed, He is Knowing of what is in the breasts﴾ means: of your faith and disbelief, so He will reward according to that. (p-206) And the majority of people read: "But Allah granted safety" with a strong 'n' and the accusative of the written word. A group read: "But Allah" with the nominative of the written word.

'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And when He showed you them when you met﴾, the word 'And' is a conjunction to the first. This vision is in wakefulness by consensus. It is the vision that occurred when they met and the eye fell upon the eye. The meaning is that when Allah, exalted is He, intended to carry out His decree in supporting Islam and manifesting it, He diminished each group in the eyes of the others. Thus, there was a disruption in the estimation and conjecture that people use in this spying, each group upon the other, which causes the reasons for war. It has been narrated in this regard from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: I said to a man beside me that day: Do you think they are seventy? He said: No, they are a hundred. He said: So when we defeated them, we captured a man from them and asked him: How many were you? He said: A thousand. The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: What has been narrated regarding this meaning of diminishment is what has been reported: 'That the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, when he asked about how many they slaughter every day, and it was informed that they slaughter one day ten and another day nine, he said: