Medinan, and it is twenty-four verses [revealed after Al-Bayyina] 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'.

The Banu Nadir made a pact with the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, that they would not be against him nor for him. When he triumphed on the Day of Badr, they said: 'He is the prophet described in the Torah, to whom no banner is turned back.' When the Muslims were defeated on the Day of Uhud, they became doubtful and broke their pact. Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf went out with forty riders to Mecca and allied with Quraysh at the Kaaba. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, commanded Muhammad ibn Maslama al-Ansari to kill Ka'b treacherously, as he was his foster brother. Then he attacked them with battalions while riding a donkey adorned with palm fibers and said to them: 'Leave the city.' They replied: 'Death is more beloved to us than that.' They called for war [[I did not find a chain for this, but Al-Thalabi mentioned it like this without a chain.]]. It was said: They requested the Messenger of Allah to grant them ten days to prepare for departure. Abdullah ibn Ubayy the hypocrite and his companions sent to them: 'Do not leave the fortress, for if they fight you, we are with you and will not forsake you. If you leave, we will also leave with you.' So they fortified the alleys [[The phrase 'So they fortified the alleys' means they narrowed the entrances with wood and stones, as will be taken from what follows regarding their destruction of their houses by their own hands. In the authentic reports, 'the alley' means the narrow passage in the mountain. (A)]] and fortified them. He besieged them for twenty-one nights. When Allah cast terror into their hearts and they despaired of the hypocrites' support, they sought peace, but he only accepted their expulsion, on the condition that every three houses would be carried on one camel with whatever they wished of their belongings. They were expelled to the Levant, to Jericho and Adhri'at, except for the people of two houses among them: the family of Abi al-Huqayq and the family of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, for they joined Khaybar, and a group joined Al-Hirah. The 'lam' in 'for the first of the gathering' is related to 'expelled', and it is the 'lam' in the saying of Allah: 'Oh, I wish I had sent forth for my life' [[Mawlid said: 'The 'lam' in the saying 'for the first of the gathering' is like the 'lam' in the saying 'I sent forth for my life.' Ahmad said: It is as if he means it is the 'lam' that accompanies the date, as in the saying: 'I wrote for the year such-and-such and for the month such-and-such.' ]] and your saying: 'I came to him at such-and-such time.' The meaning is: 'Expel those who disbelieved at the first of the gathering.' The meaning of the first of the gathering is that this is their first gathering to the Levant, and they were from a tribe that had never been expelled before, and they are the first of the People of the Book to be expelled from the Arabian Peninsula to the Levant. Or this is their first gathering, and their last gathering was the expulsion by Umar from Khaybar to the Levant.

It was said: Their last gathering is the gathering on the Day of Resurrection, because the gathering will be in the Levant. And from Ikrimah: Whoever doubts that the gathering here - meaning the Levant - should read this verse. And it was said: Its meaning is that He expelled them from their homes for the first time they were gathered for fighting, because this was the first battle the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, fought against them. What did you think that they would come out due to their great strength and their fortifications, and the multitude of their numbers and equipment? They thought that their fortifications would protect them from the might of Allah, so the command of Allah came to them from where they did not expect: it was the killing of their leader Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, treacherously at the hands of his brother, and that weakened their strength and diminished their power, and filled their hearts with fear and anxiety due to the terror cast into them, and inspired them to agree with the believers in destroying their houses and to aid in their own destruction, and discouraged the hypocrites who used to support them from assisting them. All of this was not in their calculations. From this came their destruction. If you say: What is the difference between your saying: 'And they thought that their fortifications would protect them' or 'what they were described' and the structure that came upon it? I say: In presenting the news before the subject, there is evidence of their extreme confidence in its fortification and its protection of them, and in making their pronoun a name for 'and' and attributing the sentence to it: there is evidence of their belief in themselves that they were in honor and protection, not caring for anyone who might confront them or aspire to confront them [[The phrase 'or aspire to confront them' means to contend with them, as in the authentic reports. (A)]]; and this is not the case in your saying: 'And they thought that their fortifications would protect them.' And it was read: 'So what came to them from Allah,' meaning: 'So what came to them was destruction.' And terror is the fear that terrifies the chest, meaning it fills it, and 'cast' means to establish and fix.

And among them, they said regarding the description of the lion: it is a thrower, as if it were thrown with flesh, a throw that does not involve its parts being separated or intertwined. And it was recited: "they devastate" and "they destroy," in both heavy and light forms. Devastation and destruction refer to corruption by means of tearing down and demolishing. And corruption means: they were corrupting its interiors while the Muslims were its exteriors. This was due to what Allah intended of uprooting them. [The saying: "of uprooting them" in the dictionaries refers to a sore that comes out from the bottom of the foot and is cauterized until it goes away. It is said in the proverb: "May Allah uproot his sore," meaning: may Allah remove him as He removed that sore by cauterization.] And that there would remain for them in the city neither a house nor any of their dwellings. What led them to destruction was their need for wood and stones to block the mouths of the alleys. And that they would not lament after their expulsion for its remaining as residences for the Muslims, and that they would take with them what was in their buildings of wooden and beautiful cedar bodies. As for the believers, their call was to remove their fortifications and defenses, and for them to have a wider scope for war. If you say: what is the meaning of their destruction by the hands of the believers? I say: since they exposed them to that and were the cause of it, it is as if they commanded them to do it and imposed it upon them. So reflect on what Allah has planned and facilitated regarding their expulsion and the domination of the Muslims over them without fighting. It was said: the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, promised the Muslims that Allah would grant them their land and wealth without fighting, and it was as he said.