Tafsir of Surah Al-Anfal - Verse 44

Allah made each Group look few in the Eye of the Other

Mujahid said, "In a dream, Allah showed the Prophet the enemy as few. The Prophet conveyed this news to his Companions and their resolve strengthened." Similar was said by Ibn Ishaq and several others. Allah said,

وَلَوْ أَرَاكَهُمْ كَثِيراً لَّفَشِلْتُمْ

(If He had shown them to you as many, you would surely, have been discouraged,) you would have cowardly abstained from meeting them and fell in dispute among yourselves,

وَلَـكِنَّ اللَّهَ سَلَّمَ

(But Allah saved), from all this, when He made you see them as few,

إِنَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ

(Certainly, He is the All-Knower of that is in the breasts.) 8:43.

Allah knows what the heart and the inner-self conceal,

يَعْلَمُ خَآئِنَةَ الاٌّعْيُنِ وَمَا تُخْفِى الصُّدُورُ

(Allah knows the fraud of the eyes, and all that the breasts conceal) 40:19.

Allah's statement,

وَإِذْ يُرِيكُمُوهُمْ إِذِ الْتَقَيْتُمْ فِى أَعْيُنِكُمْ قَلِيلاً

(And (remember) when you met, He showed them to you as few in your eyes) demonstrates Allah's compassion towards the believers. Allah made them see few disbelievers in their eyes, so that they would be encouraged and feel eager to meet them. Abu Ishaq As-Subai`i said, that Abu `Ubaydah said that `Abdullah bin Mas`ud said, "They were made to seem few in our eyes during Badr, so that I said to a man who was next to me, `Do you think they are seventy' He said, `Rather, they are a hundred.' However, when we captured one of them, we asked him and he said, `We were a thousand."' Ibn Abi Hatim and Ibn Jarir recorded it. Allah said next,

وَيُقَلِّلُكُمْ فِى أَعْيُنِهِمْ

(and He made you appear as few in their eyes,) Allah said,

وَإِذْ يُرِيكُمُوهُمْ إِذِ الْتَقَيْتُمْ

(And (remember) when you met. He showed them to you...), He encouraged each of the two groups against the other, according to `Ikrimah, as recorded by Ibn Abi Hatim. This statement has a Sahih chain of narrators. Muhammad bin Ishaq said that Yahya bin `Abbad bin `Abdullah bin Az-Zubayr narrated to him that his father said about Allah's statement,

لِّيَقْضِيَ اللَّهُ أَمْراً كَانَ مَفْعُولاً

(so that Allah might accomplish a matter already ordained, ) "In order for the war to start between them, so that He would have revenge against those whom He decided to have revenge (pagans), and grant and complete His favor upon those He decided to grant favor to, His supporters." The meaning of this, is that Allah encouraged each group against the other and made them look few in each other's eyes, so that they were eager to meet them. This occurred before the battle started, but when it started and Allah supported the believers with a thousand angels in succession, the disbelieving group saw the believers double their number. Allah said,

قَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ ءَايَةٌ فِي فِئَتَيْنِ الْتَقَتَا فِئَةٌ تُقَـتِلُ فِى سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَأُخْرَى كَافِرَةٌ يَرَوْنَهُمْ مِّثْلَيْهِمْ رَأْىَ الْعَيْنِ وَاللَّهُ يُؤَيِّدُ بِنَصْرِهِ مَن يَشَآءُ إِنَّ فِى ذَلِكَ لَعِبْرَةً لاوْلِى الاٌّبْصَـرِ

(There has already been a sign for you (O Jews) in the two armies that met (in combat, the battle of Badr). One was fighting in the cause of Allah, and as for the other, (they) were disbelievers. They (disbelievers) saw them (believers) with their own eyes twice their number. And Allah supports with His aid whom He wills. Verily, in this is a lesson for those who understand.) 3:13

This is how we combine these two Ayat, and certainly, each one of them is true, all the thanks are due to Allah and all the favors are from Him.

In the last verse, along with this, it has also been mentioned: وَيُقَلِّلُكُمْ فِي أَعْيُنِهِمْ (and reduced your number in their eyes - 44). This could also mean that Muslims were, in reality, already few in number, thus, what was shown to disbelievers was their number as it was. And it could also mean that the number shown to them was much reduced than it really was - as it appears in many narrations that Abu Jahl on seeing the Muslim 'army' said to his compatriots: The number of these people does not seem to be any more than the number who would eat a camel as their daily ration. In Arabia of those days, the measure used to find out the number of men in an army was to first guess the number of animals slaughtered for their meals. One camel was understood to be sufficient to feed one hundred people. Right here on this battle site of Badr, the Holy Prophet ﷺ in his effort to find out the number of men in the army of the Quraysh of Makkah, had asked some local people: How many camels are slaughtered in their army camp every day? The answer given to him was: Ten camels daily. This led him to estimate the number of men in their army as being one thousand. In short, the total number of Muslims was shown as being one hundred in the sight of Abu Jahl. Here too, the wisdom of showing them in a reduced number was that the awe of Muslims may not so adversely affect the hearts of disbelievers ahead of the actual confrontation that they bolt from the battlefield itself.

Special Note

From this verse, we also find out that there are occasions when, as a matter of miracle and supernatural happening, optical observation may prove incorrect - as it transpired here.

For this very reason, the statement: لِيَقْضِيَ اللَّـهُ أَمْرً‌ا كَانَ مَفْعُولًا (so that Allah might accomplish what was destined to be done - 44) was repeated here. It means that the Divine marvel and the phenomenon of super-imposition on optical observation was manifested for the reason that the will of Allah stands accomplished right upto the end, that is, by giving Muslims victory despite their lack of numbers and materials, the central objectives of this war, that is, the veracity of Islam and the expression of unseen Divine support, should be fully achieved and established for ever.

At the end of the verse, it was said: وَإِلَى اللَّـهِ تُرْ‌جَعُ الْأُمُورُ‌ (And to Allah all matters are returned - 44). It means that He does what He wills and He commands as He wills. He can make a minority overcome a majority and weakness overtake strength. He may make less become more and more become less.

At Badr the Quraysh had a large army. Had the Muslims seen their real numbers, some of them would have said that they should fight, while others would have asked not to fight. In this way differences would have cropped up and the real task would have remained unfinished. So, God showed their numbers to Muslims as fewer while he showed the number of Muslims to the Quraysh as more. In this way it was possible for the Muslims to fight fearlessly. When God wants a task to be performed, He sends help and arranges for its completion. The events that occur during the course of action occur at God’s behest, so that He may judge the reaction of the person concerned to the conditions set by Him.