The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 672
CH. 8 AL-ANFĀL PT. 10 وَلَوْ أَرِيكَهُمْ كَثِيرًا لَّفَشِلْتُمْ if He had shown them to thee as وَلَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ وَلَكِنَّ اللهَ have سَلَّمَ إِنَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ many, you would have surely faltered and would disagreed with one another about the matter; but Allah saved you. Surely, He has full knowledge of what is in your breasts. 1132 your meeting in battle, He made وَإِذْ يُرِيكُمُوْهُمْ إِذِ الْقَيْتُمُ فِى And when at the time of. 45 أعْيُنِكُمْ قَلِيْلًا وَيُقَلِّلُكُمْ فِي them appear to you as few in أَعْيُنِهِمْ اليَقْضِيَ اللهُ اَمْرًا كَانَ مَفْعُولاً your eyes, and made you appear وَإِلَى اللهِ تُرْجَعُ الْأُمُورُة as few in their eyes, that Allah might bring about the thing that was decreed. And to Allah are all affairs referred for final decision. 1133 a3:14. 2:211; 3:110; 35:5. 1132. Important Words: (dream) is derived from bi. e. he slept. means, sleep; place where one sleeps; dream (Aqrab). Commentary: While on his way to Badr, the Holy Prophet was shown the Meccan army in a dream to be less in number than they actually were (Tabarī, x. 9). In the language of dreams, this meant that the Meccan force, in spite of their superior numbers and equip- ment, would be overcome by the Muslims. On the other hand, if the enemy had been shown in a dream to be in large numbers, the interpretation of the dream would have been that the party to which the dreamer belonged would lose heart and would be overpowered by the enemy. 1133. Commentary: Whereas the preceding verse referred to the appearance of the enemy in a dream, the present verse refers to its actual appearance on the battlefield. What happened was that the enemy had kept one-third of their number behind mounds so that, when both parties came face to face, Muslims saw only two-thirds of their army. The Meccan army, about 1,000 strong, was more than three times the number of the Muslims who were only 313, but it so happened that the latter saw them to be only twice their own number. This naturally made the Faithful more hopeful. As hinted above, the enemy had concealed one- 1112