Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 152 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:152

وَلَقَدْ صَدَقَكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَعْدَهُۥٓ إِذْ تَحُسُّونَهُم بِإِذْنِهِۦ ۖ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا فَشِلْتُمْ وَتَنَـٰزَعْتُمْ فِى ٱلْأَمْرِ وَعَصَيْتُم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ مَآ أَرَىٰكُم مَّا تُحِبُّونَ ۚ مِنكُم مَّن يُرِيدُ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَمِنكُم مَّن يُرِيدُ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةَ ۚ ثُمَّ صَرَفَكُمْ عَنْهُمْ لِيَبْتَلِيَكُمْ ۖ وَلَقَدْ عَفَا عَنكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ ذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“And Allāh had certainly fulfilled His promise to you when you were killing them [i.e., the enemy] by His permission until [the time] when you lost courage and fell to disputing about the order [given by the Prophet (ﷺ)] and disobeyed after He had shown you that which you love.[148] Among you are some who desire this world, and among you are some who desire the Hereafter. Then He turned you back from them [defeated] that He might test you. And He has already forgiven you, and Allāh is the possessor of bounty for the believers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah kept His promise as you cut them down by His leave; then nerve drained, the order was broken, and He pardoned you.

A reflection

Two words that take the day out of your hands

A glider pilot climbs four thousand feet in eleven minutes. On the ground afterwards he talks about his flying, and some of that is fair. Finding the thermal was skill. Reading the buzzards circling over the quarry edge was experience. But he did not make the column of rising air. On a cold grey morning, with identical skill, he would be on the grass by nine.

The verse concedes the first half of the day fully. You were cutting them down. It was going exactly as you had hoped. Then come two words that quietly take the whole thing out of their hands: bi-idhnihi, by His permission.

Nobody enjoys that clause while they are winning. It feels like someone standing at the edge of a photograph insisting on being included. And this is where the ego gets caught out, because we do not apply the clause evenly. In success we narrate ourselves: the preparation, the nerve, the timing. In failure we narrate Him: it was written, it was a test. The proud man has one ledger for credit and another for blame, and he has never once noticed the arrangement.

But look at what the clause is actually for. Allah does not need the compliment. Read on and the reason appears. If the winning was theirs, the losing is theirs too, entirely, and there is no road back from a day like that. Seventy dead and nothing above you but your own incompetence. By putting His permission over the good hours, He makes the bad hours survivable. The same hand that gave the advance decided the withdrawal. That hand is still over them, and it goes on to pardon them.

Only the One who needs nothing from you can afford to be honest with you about a day like that.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.