Tafsir of Surah At-Taubah - Verse 40

Allah supports His Prophet

Allah said,

إِلاَّ تَنصُرُوهُ

(If you help him not), if you do not support His Prophet , then it does not matter, for Allah will help, support, suffice and protect him, just as He did,

إِذْ أَخْرَجَهُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ ثَانِيَ اثْنَيْنِ

(when the disbelievers drove him out, the second of the two;) During the year of the Hijrah, the idolators tried to kill, imprison or expel the Prophet , who escaped with his friend and Companion, Abu Bakr bin Abi Quhafah, to the cave of Thawr. They remained in the cave for three days so that the pagans who were sent in their pursuit, returned (to Makkah), and they proceed to Al-Madinah. While in the cave, Abu Bakr was afraid the pagans might discover them for fear that some harm might touch the Messenger ﷺ. The Prophet kept reassuring him and strengthening his resolve, saying,

«يَا أَبَا بَكْرٍ، مَا ظَنُكَ بِاثْنَينِ اللهُ ثَالِثُهُمَا»

(O Abu Bakr! What do you think about two, with Allah as their third) Imam Ahmad recorded from Anas that Abu Bakr said to him, "I said to the Prophet when we were in the cave, `If any of them looks down at his feet, he will see us.' He said,

«يَا أَبَا بَكْرٍ، مَا ظَنُكَ بِاثْنَينِ اللهُ ثَالِثُهُمَا»

(O Abu Bakr! What do you think about two with Allah as their third)" This is recorded in the Two Sahihs. This is why Allah said,

فَأَنزَلَ اللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَيْهِ

(Then Allah sent down His Sakinah upon him) sent His aid and triumph to His Messenger , or they say it refers to Abu Bakr,

وَأَيَّدَهُ بِجُنُودٍ لَّمْ تَرَوْهَا

(and strengthened him with forces which you saw not), the angels,

وَجَعَلَ كَلِمَةَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ السُّفْلَى وَكَلِمَةُ اللَّهِ هِىَ الْعُلْيَا

(and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowermost, while the Word of Allah that became the uppermost;) Ibn `Abbas commented, "'The word of those who disbelieved', is Shirk, while, `The Word of Allah' is `La ilaha illallah." It is recorded in the Two Sahihs that Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about a man who fights because of courage, or out of rage for his honor, or to show off. Whom among them is in the cause of Allah' The Prophet said,

«مَنْ قَاتَلَ لِتَكُونَ كَلِمَةُ اللهِ هِيَ الْعُلْيَا فَهُوَ فِي سَبِيلِ الله»

(He who fights so that Allah's Word is superior, then he fights in Allah's cause.)" Allah said next,

وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ

(and Allah is All-Mighty), in His revenge and taking retribution, He is the Most Formidable and those who seek refuge with Him and take shelter by adhering to what He instructs are never made to suffer injustice,

حَكِيمٌ

(All-Wise), in His statements and actions.

In the third verse (40), by citing the event of the Hijrah of the Holy Prophet, it has been stressed that the Rasul of Allah has no need to depend on any human help and support. Allah can help him directly through unseen factors - as it happened at the time of Hijrah when his own people had forced him to leave his homeland. On this journey, the only companion he had was Sayyidna Abu Bakr ؓ the true one. Enemy foot soldiers and riders were looking for them in hot pursuit. The place to hide he had found was no fortified fortress. It was just a cave and the enemy search party had reached close to its edges. Inside it, the companion of the cave, Sayyidna Abu Bakr ؓ was worried, not for his own safety, but about his master. He was in fear lest the enemy outside were to harm the Holy Prophet ﷺ . But, the master himself was sitting calm like a mountain at peace. Not simply that he was himself cool and collected, he was telling his companion, Sayyidna Abu Bakr: ؓ لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ مَعَنَا (` la tahzan innallaha ma` ana': Do not grieve. Allah is with us).

What has been said here is composed of a couple of words, easy and effortless as they sound. But, let those listening place the blueprint of conditions prevailing before their eyes, cross their hearts and ask: Can someone dependent on mere material means be that tranquil? Every honest person would say that it was just not possible. The reason for this was no other but that which the Qur'an has given in the next sentence:

So, Allah sent down His tranquility on him and strengthened him with troops you did not see ...

These troops could be troops of angels, and of the elemental forces of the entire universe too - for they are, so to say, a virtual army of Allah. When this happened, the ultimate came to be. The word of disbelievers was rendered low and the word of Allah remained the highest.

The ‘second of two’ is an allusion to the prophet’s immigration, in the company of Abu Bakr, from Makkah to Madinah in the year 622 A.D. The reason for this difference is that the true believer keeps the goal of the Hereafter before him, and does not set a higher value upon the things of this world, than upon the eternal bounties of the Hereafter. So if anything of a worldly nature impedes him, he ignores it and proceeds towards the goals of religion. Unlike him, the hypocrite likes that type of Islam in which, without damaging one’s worldly interests, one gets the credit for Islamism. Therefore, whenever an occasion arises when he has to lose the world for Islam, he tilts towards the world, even if in this process, he loses his grip on the rope of Islam. The struggles between Islam and non-Islam that arise from time to time in the present world are between two groups, but in reality it is an affair of God. On every such occasion, God Himself supports Islam. This is expressed in the shape of a cause-and-effect event, so that the credit of doing service to religion may be given to those people who have completely surrendered themselves to God.