AL ANFAL (The Spoils of War)
In the Name of God1, the Gracious, the Merciful2
1 They ask you concerning spoils of war. Say: “Spoils are at the disposal of God and the messenger. So fear God, and keep straight the relations between yourselves. Obey God and his messenger, if you believe. 2 For, believers are those who, when God is mentioned, feel a tremor in their hearts, and when they hear his signs rehearsed, find their faith strengthened, and put their trust in their Lord; 3 who establish regular prayers and spend out of the gifts we have given them for sustenance. 4 Such in truth are the believers. They have grades of dignity with their Lord, and forgiveness, and generous sustenance.”
5 Just as your Lord ordered you out of your house in truth, even though a party among the believers disliked it, 6 disputing with you concerning the truth after it was made manifest, as if they were being driven to death and they saw it. 7 Behold God promised you one of the two parties, that it should be yours. You wished that the one unarmed should be yours, but God willed to justify the truth according to his words, and to cut off the roots of the unbelievers; 8 that he might justify truth and prove falsehood false, distasteful though it be to those in guilt. 9 Remember you implored the assistance of your Lord, and he answered you, “I will assist you with a thousand of the angels, ranks on ranks.” 10 God made it but a message of hope, and an assurance to your hearts. There is no help except from God, and God is exalted in power, wise. 11 Remember he covered you with a sort of drowsiness, to give you calm as from himself, and he caused rain to descend on you from heaven, to clean you therewith, to remove from you the stain of Shaitan, to strengthen your hearts, and to plant your feet firmly therewith. 12 Remember your Lord inspired the angels, “I am with you. Give firmness to the believers. I will instil terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. Strike their necks and cut all their fingertips off.” 13 This is because they contended against God and his messenger. If any contend against God and his messenger, God is strict in punishment. 14 Taste then of the penalty of the fire for those who resist God.
15 O you who believe! When you meet the unbelievers in hostile array, never turn your backs to them. 16 If anyone turns his back to them on such a day unless it be in a stratagem of war, or to retreat to a troop, he draws on himself the wrath of God, and his abode is hell, an evil refuge! 17 It is not you who slew them; it was God. When you threw a handful of dust, it was not your act, but God’s, in order that he might test the believers by a gracious trial from himself. For God is he who hears and knows. 18 That, and also because God is he who makes feeble the plans and stratagems of the unbelievers. 19 If you prayed for victory and judgment, now has the judgment come to you. If you desist, it will be best for you. If you return, so shall we. Your forces will not be the least good to you even if they were multiplied; for truly God is with those who believe!
20 O you who believe! Obey God and his messenger, and turn not away from him when you hear. 21 Nor be like those who say, “We hear,” but do not listen. 22 For the worst of beasts in the sight of God are the deaf and the dumb, those who do not understand. 23 If God had found any good in them, he would indeed have made them listen. If he had made them listen, they would but have turned back and declined.
24 O you who believe! Give your response to God and his messenger, when he calls you to that which will give you life; and know that God comes in between a man and his heart, and that it is he to whom you shall be gathered. 25 And fear tumult or oppression, which affects not in particular those of you who do wrong; and know that God is strict in punishment.
26 Call to mind when you were a small group, despised through the land, and afraid that men might despoil and kidnap you; but he provided a safe asylum for you, strengthened you with his aid, and gave you good things for sustenance that you might be grateful. 27 O you that believe! Betray not the trust of God and the messenger, nor misappropriate knowingly things entrusted to you. 28 And know that your possessions and your children are but a trial; and that it is God with whom lies your highest reward. 29 O you who believe! If you fear God, he will give you discretion, remove evil from you, and forgive you; for God is the Lord of unbounded grace.
30 Remember how the unbelievers plotted against you, to keep you in bonds, or slay you, or expel you. They plot and plan, and God too plans, but the best of planners is God. 31 When our signs are rehearsed to them, they say, “We have heard this. If we wished, we could say words like these. These are nothing but tales of the ancients.” 32 Remember how they said, “O God, if this is indeed the truth from you, rain down on us a shower of stones from the sky, or send us a grievous penalty.” 33 But God was not going to send them a penalty while you were among them; nor was he going to send it while they could ask for pardon. 34 But what plea have they that God should not punish them, when they keep men from the sacred mosque and they are not its guardians? No men can be its guardians except the righteous; but most of them do not understand. 35 Their prayer at the house is nothing but whistling and clapping of hands. Taste the penalty because you blasphemed. 36 The unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder men from the path of God, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have regrets and sighs. At length they will be overcome, and the unbelievers will be gathered together to hell 37 in order that God may separate the impure from the pure, put the impure on one another, heap them together, and cast them into hell. They will be the ones to have lost. 38 Say to the unbelievers that if they desist, their past will be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already given as a warning. 39 And fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and justice and faith in God prevail there altogether and everywhere; but if they cease, truly God sees all that they do. 40 If they refuse, be sure that God is your protector the best to protect and the best to help.
41 And know that out of all the booty that you may acquire, a fifth share is assigned to God, and to the messenger, and to near relatives, orphans, the needy, and the wayfarer—if you believe in God and in the revelation we sent down to our servant on the day of testing, the day of the meeting of the two forces. For God has power over all things. 42 Remember you were on this side of the valley, and they on the farther side, and the caravan on lower ground than you. Even if you had made a mutual appointment to meet, you would certainly have failed in the appointment. But thus you met, that God might accomplish a matter already enacted; that those who died might die after a clear sign, and those who lived might live after a clear sign. And truly God is he who hears and knows.
43 Remember in your dream God showed them to you as few. If he had shown them to you as many, you would surely have been discouraged, and you would surely have disputed in your decision. But God saved you, for he knows well what is in the heart. 44 And remember when you met, he showed them to you as few in your eyes, and he made you appear as contemptible in their eyes, that God might accomplish a matter already enacted. For to God do all questions go back.
45 O you who believe! When you meet a force, be firm, and call God in remembrance much that you may prosper. 46 Obey God and his messenger, and fall into no disputes, lest you lose heart and your power depart. Be patient and persevering, for God is with those who patiently persevere. 47 Be not like those who started from their homes insolently to be seen by men, and to hinder men from the path of God, for God comprehends all that they do. 48 Remember Shaitan3 made their acts seem alluring to them, and said, “No one among men can overcome you this day, while I am near to you.” But when the two forces came in sight of each other, he turned on his heels, and said, “I’m not with you anymore! I see what you don’t see! I’m afraid of God, for God is severe in punishment!”
49 The hypocrites and those whose hearts are diseased say, “These people’s religion has misled them.” But if any trust in God, behold God is exalted in might, wise. 50 If you could see when the angels take the souls of the unbelievers, they strike their faces and backs saying, “Taste the penalty of the blazing fire 51 because of what your hands sent forth. For God is never unjust to his servants.” 52 They are like the people of Firaun4 and those before them. They rejected the signs of God, and God punished them for their crimes, for God is strong, and strict in punishment. 53 God will never change the grace which he has bestowed on a people until they change what is in their souls, and truly God hears and knows. 54 Like the people of Firaun and those before them, they treated as false the signs of their Lord. So we destroyed them for their crimes, and we drowned the people of Firaun, for they were all oppressors and wrongdoers.
55 The worst of beasts in the sight of God are those who reject him. They will not believe. 56 They are those with whom you made a covenant, but they break their covenant every time, and they have no fear. 57 If you gain mastery over them in war, so deal with them that those who follow them may remember. 58 If you fear treachery from any group, throw their treaty back to them fairly, for God loves not the treacherous. 59 Let not the unbelievers think that they can get the advantage, they will never frustrate. 60 Mobilize your forces against them to the utmost of your power including warhorses to strike terror into the enemies of God and your enemies, and others besides whom you may not know, but whom God knows. Whatever you shall spend in the cause of God, shall be repaid to you, and you shall not be treated unjustly. 61 But if the enemy inclines towards peace, you should incline towards peace, and trust in God, for he is the one that hears and knows. 62 Should they intend to deceive you, truly God is sufficient for you. He it is that has strengthened you with his aid and with the believers. 63 He has united their hearts. Even if you had spent all that is in the earth, you would never have produced that unity, but God has done it, for he is exalted in might, wise. 64 O prophet! Sufficient for you is God, and for those who follow you among the believers. 65 O prophet! Rouse the believers to the fight. If there are twenty among you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred. If a hundred, they will vanquish a thousand of the unbelievers, who are a people without understanding.
66 For the present, God has lightened your task, for he knows that there is a weak spot in you. But if there are a hundred of you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred. If a thousand, they will vanquish two thousand with the permission of God, for God is with those who patiently persevere.
67 It is not fitting for a prophet that he should have prisoners of war until he has thoroughly subdued the land. You look for the temporal goods of this world; but God looks to the hereafter; and God is exalted in might, wise. 68 Had it not been for a previous decree from God, a severe penalty would have reached you for what you took. 69 So enjoy what you took in war, lawful and good. But fear God, for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful.
70 O prophet! Say to those who are captives in your hands, “If God finds any good in your hearts, he will give you something better than what has been taken from you. He will forgive you, for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful.” 71 But if they have treacherous designs against you, they have already been in treason against God, and so has he given you power over them. And God is he who has knowledge and wisdom.
72 Those who believed, and adopted exile, and fought for the faith, with their property and their persons, in the cause of God, as well as those who gave them asylum and aid, these are friends and protectors of one another. As to those who believed but came not into exile, you owe no duty of protection to them until they come into exile. But if they seek your aid in religion, it is your duty to help them, except against a people with whom you have a treaty of mutual alliance. God sees all that you do.
73 The unbelievers are protectors, one of another. Unless you do this, there would be tumult and oppression on earth, and great mischief. 74 Those who believe, and adopt exile, and fight for the faith, in the cause of God, as well as those who give asylum and aid, these are in very truth the believers; for them is the forgiveness of sins and a provision most generous. 75 And those who accept faith subsequently, and adopt exile, and fight for the faith in your company, they are of you. But those related by blood are nearer to one another in the decree of God. Truly God is well acquainted with all things.
- God, in Arabic allah, referring to the one true God, as opposed to an idol or “god.” It is the Arabic equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew), alaha (Syriac), and theos (Greek), all of which accurately translate into English as “God.” This translation choice is consistent with respected English Quran translations including those of A. Yusuf Ali (original edition), S.H. Nasr (Study Quran), T.B. Irving, and T. Itani (Clear Quran). ↩︎
- the Gracious, the Merciful, the highlighting of God’s grace and mercy predates the Quran, coming down from the many hundreds of references in the Taurat, Zabur, and Injil. A few samples follow:
Taurat, Exodus 34:6 — …YAHWEH, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Zabur 145:8 — YAHWEH is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
Taurat, Joel 2:13 — Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to YAHWEH your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Taurat, Yunus 4:2 — …I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.”
Injil, 1 Timothy 1:2 — …Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and AL-MASIH ‘ISA our Lord.
Injil, Hebrews 4:16 — Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. ↩︎ - 8:48 Shaitan, is derived from the Hebrew Satan, which means “adversary” or “accuser.” ↩︎
- 8:52 Firaun, an Arabic term derived from the Hebrew title Pharaoh, used for the kings of ancient Egypt. ↩︎