3. Sura al-Imran

Medina 89 [200 verses]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

أَوَلَمَّا أَصَابَتْكُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَدْ أَصَبْتُم مِّثْلَيْهَا قُلْتُمْ أَنَّى هَـذَا...

3: 165. What! when a single disaster smites you, although ye smote (your enemies) with one twice as great, do ye say?

"Whence is this?"

...قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ أَنْفُسِكُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ ﴿١٦٥﴾

Say (to them): "It is from yourselves:

for Allah hath power over all things."

C474. If Uhud was a reverse to the Muslims, they had inflicted a reverse twice as great on the Makkans at Badr.

This reverse was not without Allah's permission, for He wanted to test and purify the faith of those who followed Islam, and to show them that they must strive and do all in their power to deserve Allah's help.

If they disobeyed orders and neglected discipline, they must attribute the disaster to themselves and not to Allah.

وَمَا أَصَابَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْتَقَى الْجَمْعَانِ فَبِإِذْنِ اللّهِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿١٦٦﴾

3: 166. What ye suffered on the day the two armies met, was with the leave of Allah, in order that He might test the believers.

C475. Test: literally know.

See n. 467 to 3:154.