Translation
God made slumber [nu’as] descend on you to make you feel secure and send down rain from the cloud to cleanse yourself [of doubts and thirst] and to take away the evil (whispering—creating self-doubt) of the Devil—all these to restore confidence in your hearts and firm up your stance. God revealed Himself to Angels and said: I am with you (and the faithful); so, help those who are believers. I will weaken those who deny faith. So, strike them on their neck and smite every fingertip of them. This is the result of their denial and opposition to God and His Messenger. God is firm in taking accountability. This treatment is for them to taste the consequence of their conducts; (eventually) the deniers are destined to torment by fire. 400
O people of faith, when people who deny faith (truth and justice) march against you in war, do not turn your backs to them. If you turn your backs—unless to maneuver in battlefield or to join a party of yours, know that you will incur God’s displeasure and get closer to Hell Fire which is an evil destination. (Recognize that) when you fought them, it was God who was fighting them and when you engage them, it was God who was engaging them so that God can confer to the faithful a benefit directly from Himself. God knows and He hears. This is how God will weaken the resolve of those who disbelieve. If you (denier of truth) have sought a decision, victory has been granted (to the believers) and if you desist (in future) it will be better for you. But if you return (to fight), We too will return, and your numerical superiority will not change the outcome, since God is with the believers. 401
Interpretation
400 The clamor and uncertainty of the battlefield, especially when you are a small group and are ill equipped, can be very demoralizing. This is ripe for self-doubt, not only to doubt your ability to prevail but to question the very purpose that led to such confrontation. Under such dire circumstances, we need physical and mental restfulness, spiritual clarity, and comfort, all of which are mentioned and gifted to the faithful as explained in these verses. Rain in the dry desert and sleep from exhaustion gave the Muslims the physical rejuvenation they needed and something they could physically confirm as God’s grace to them in the hours of turmoil and anxiety. For spiritual comfort and to gain confidence to their cause, God opens the curtain for them to see that God is asking the Angels to be with the faithful since He is with the faithful. Such divine interactions presented in the Qur’an are God’s ways of assuring the faithful and people of goodness that God is with them as long as they are committed to serve God and humanity. Such divine grace is further reinforced by God’s opposition to all forms of evil deed and evil aspirations.
401 Given those assurances and blessings from God, the faithful are asked to take a firm stance against the enemy and not to retreat in the face of difficulties so that they can truly earn victory from God. They are also reminded that it is God Who ultimately makes things happen and assigns victory or defeat, but in accordance with efforts one puts forth to achieve their purpose. In the same vein, the evil people are warned that God is always with people of faith and goodness.
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REFLECTION
These verses, which were revealed at the time of the first major crisis in the life of the small Muslim community trying to get a foothold in Madinah, show the level of intimacy that God confers to those who are committed to truth and justice. He aids them physically and spiritually in explicit and subtle ways to overcome doubt, remove fear of failure, and raise expectations of success in the long run, provided they remain true to the values and purpose, exert themselves, and commit no excess.
ACTION
Every one of us, at one time or another, will face crises in life and face forks in the road that will test or tempt our faith, our values, and our resolve to remain true to our humanity in large or small ways. As we look at our world today, there are millions of people who are facing crises of untold proportion in ongoing wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen; large-scale migration of people from third-world countries due to war, poverty, political corruption, and environmental dislocations; persecution of religious minorities in many parts of the world; and gross income inequality that threatens the stability of our human societies. On another level, we are constantly being challenged by the prospect of losses of earning, breakdowns of relationships in families and societies, encroachments, and practices of racism and extremism in unjust policy making and financial profiteering, with death and disabilities, mental health crises, drug abuse, and widespread political and financial corruption, all of which affect our daily life all over the world. No society is an exception.
Such crises, large and small, will test our resolve in our faith in God, in our goodness as human beings, and in our values and social norms, where everyone has a right to safety, provision, and freedom of choices. Each one of us has to decide how we conduct ourselves in such crises but also how to minimize such crises for others, which is equally important. We are not only responsible for what we do but also what we do not do, and no numbers of adverse circumstances should ever lead us to act contrary to truth and justice, to not dignify a human being, or to compromise one human life at the cost of another without just cause. This is truly the calling of the day—a call to our generation!
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Key Arabic Term
120. nu’as (slumber, inner calm and tranquility) (8:11)