Al-Ahzab · Madani · ayah 25 of 73

Al-Ahzab 33:25

وَرَدَّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِغَيْظِهِمْ لَمْ يَنَالُوا۟ خَيْرًا ۚ وَكَفَى ٱللَّهُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ٱلْقِتَالَ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ قَوِيًّا عَزِيزًا

“And Allāh repelled those who disbelieved, in their rage, not having obtained any good. And sufficient was Allāh for the believers in battle, and ever is Allāh Powerful and Exalted in Might.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah sent the confederate armies home with their rage and nothing gained, spared the believers the battle, and showed Himself Strong and Mighty.

A reflection

Who gets the credit for the victory

In this ayah Allah is the subject of every verb. Allah turned back the disbelievers. Allah spared the believers the fighting. Allah was Strong, Mighty. Not one verb belongs to the people who had dug the trench.

That was not ingratitude to the diggers. It was simply true, and the Prophet ﷺ made it a sentence his community would repeat for ever. Sahih al-Bukhari records what he said whenever he returned from a campaign, from Hajj or from Umrah. He would say Allah is greatest three times, then affirm that there is no god but Allah alone. Then: returning, repenting, worshipping, prostrating, praising our Lord. Allah fulfilled His promise, helped His servant, and defeated the confederates alone.

Alone. Waḥdah. An army of about ten thousand is remembered in every homecoming as a defeat in which no human hand is credited.

Picture a coach of pilgrims back from Umrah, pulling out of a motorway service station late at night. The elderly group leader takes the microphone, tired and hoarse, and leads them through that homecoming remembrance. Forty voices murmur 'and defeated the confederates alone' somewhere near a motorway junction, fourteen centuries from the trench. It is a deliberate act of shrinking. Whatever the journey asked of them, the success is handed back.

Our egos resist this. We tell the story of our wins with ourselves at the centre: my plan, my late nights, my instinct. Even our gratitude can become a way of displaying effort. The ayah offers a different way to narrate. The effort is real, but the victory is named as His.

Does Allah need the credit? No. A Being who is qawiyy and ʿazīz, strong and invincible, gains nothing from our applause. The correction is for us. A heart that credits itself grows brittle and anxious, because it must win again. A heart that credits Allah can lose without collapsing.

So the next time something goes right, borrow the Prophet's ﷺ words. Name what you did, then hand it back: and He defeated it alone.

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.