The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 396
CH. 2 AL-BAQARAH PT. 2 وَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَفِرِيْنَ us, and make our steps firm, and "help us against the disbelieving people. '257 هُمُ بِإِذْنِ اللهِ وَقَتَلَ دَاوُدُ So they routed them by the. 252 فَهَزَمُوهُمُ الْمُلْكَ command of Allah; and David جالوت والله الله المُل وَالْحِكْمَةَ slew Jalut, and Allah gave him ۖ وَعَلَمَهُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَلَوْلَا دَفْعُ اللَّهِ النَّاسَ. taught him of what He pleased بَعْضَهُم بِبَعْضٍ تَفَسَدَتِ الْأَرْضُ وَلَكِنَّ اللهَ ذُو فَضْلِ عَلَى الْعَلَمِينَ sovereignty and wisdom, and And had it not been for Allah's repelling men, some of them by the others, the earth would have become filled with disorder. But Allah is peoples. 258 Munificent 257. Commentary: to all "2:287; 3:148. 22:41. The trial by water referred to in the preceding verse and the subsequent exhortation mentioned in the concluding clause of that verse seem to have filled the Israelites with hope courage. Consequently their prayer in the verse under comment does not betray a defeatist tendency as heretofore shown by them, but a buoyant spirit of hope and good cheer. and 258. Commentary: Talut or Gideon was able to defeat Jālūt or the Midianites and curb their rising spirits, but their crushing defeat to which the verse refers as the killing of Jālūt came in the time of David about two hundred years afterwards. This is why, whereas the defeat of Jālūt by Talūt has been spoken of by the Quran asi. e. routing, the complete crushing of their power has 396 i. e. been referred to by the world killing. The Bible speaks of the man defeated by David as Goliath (1 Sam. 17:4), which is similar to Jālūt. Probably the attributive name given by the Quran to the people was also borne by their leader in the time of David. The last clause of the verse, i. e. and had it not been for Allah's repelling men, some of them by the others, the earth would have become filled with disorder, gives, in a nutshell, the whole philosophy of all wars of truth and justice. War should be resorted to only as a means of checking disorder and restoring peace, and not for creating disorder and breaking peace. The clause also serves as a criterion between Muslims and their adversaries and beautifully points to the party destined for final victory in the struggle.