Al-Ahzab · Madani · ayah 20 of 73

Al-Ahzab 33:20

يَحْسَبُونَ ٱلْأَحْزَابَ لَمْ يَذْهَبُوا۟ ۖ وَإِن يَأْتِ ٱلْأَحْزَابُ يَوَدُّوا۟ لَوْ أَنَّهُم بَادُونَ فِى ٱلْأَعْرَابِ يَسْـَٔلُونَ عَنْ أَنۢبَآئِكُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ كَانُوا۟ فِيكُم مَّا قَـٰتَلُوٓا۟ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا

“They think the companies have not [yet] withdrawn.[1191] And if the companies should come [again], they would wish they were in the desert among the bedouins, inquiring [from afar] about your news. And if they should be among you, they would not fight except for a little.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Fear kept them seeing armies that had already gone, wishing to watch from far away, and even beside you they would fight only a little.

A reflection

They had already gone

The ayah opens on a strange picture. Yaḥsabūna l-aḥzāba lam yadhhabū. They think the Confederates have not gone.

But they had gone. Allah had sent a wind against them, and armies they did not see (33:9). The besieging tribes had packed up and left. One classical commentator adds a detail: they had left, but had not yet travelled far. Another explains the hypocrites' mistake as pure alarm and bewilderment. Their cowardice was so great that the danger stayed alive in their minds after it had left the field.

Then the ayah turns to the future. Wa in yaʾti l-aḥzāb: and if the Confederates should come again. Their minds are already rehearsing the next siege, planning their escape from an attack that never came.

This is how fear behaves when nothing deeper holds a person. It lags behind reality, and it runs ahead of it. It keeps you living in a siege that has ended, and in one that has not begun.

Picture a woman who had a frightening near-miss at a junction on her way to work. A lorry came through on red. Nobody was hurt. Two years later the junction has been redesigned, with new lights and a camera. She still grips the wheel and stops breathing every time she approaches it. Sometimes she drives a longer way round. The danger left that junction long ago. It has not left her.

The ayah does not mock the feeling. It shows its cost. The hypocrites missed a victory that had already happened. Allah had answered the siege, and they were still hiding from it.

The Quran gives believers a different word for gathered armies. People once told them that others had gathered against them. It only increased their faith, and they said: Allah is sufficient for us, and how excellent a guardian (3:173).

So when an old fear rises at an old junction, say those words. Remind yourself what Allah has already brought you through. Fear sees the armies. Faith notices when they have gone.

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.