This is evidently a prophecy relating to the future wars against Byzantium and Persia
The forthcoming war against the Jews of Khaybar (in the year 7 H.)
Sura-48 [Al Fath madina 111]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:
سَيَقُولُ
الْمُخَلَّفُونَ
إِذَا انطَلَقْتُمْ
إِلَى مَغَانِمَ
لِتَأْخُذُوهَا
ذَرُونَا
نَتَّبِعْكُمْ
...
48:15. Those who lagged behind (will say), when ye (are free to) march and take booty (in war): "Permit us to follow you."
C4883. Now comes out another motive behind the minds of the laggards. The journey for pilgrimage had no promise of war booty. If at any future time there should be a promise of booty they would come! But that is to reverse Allah's law and decree. Jihad is not for personal gain or booty: see Surah 8. and Introduction to Surah 8., paragraph 2. On the contrary Jihad is hard striving, in war and peace, in the Cause of Allah.
...يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُبَدِّلُوا كَلَامَ اللَّهِ ...
They wish to change Allah's decree:
...قُل لَّن تَتَّبِعُونَا كَذَلِكُمْ ...
Say: "Not thus will ye follow us:
C4884. Not thus: i.e., not on those terms; not if your object is only to gain booty.
... قَالَ اللَّهُ مِن قَبْلُ ...
Allah has already declared (this) beforehand":
...فَسَيَقُولُونَ بَلْ تَحْسُدُونَنَا ...
then they will say, "but ye are jealous of us."
C4886. The desert Arabs loved fighting and plunder and understood such motives for war. The higher motives seemed to be beyond them. Like ignorant men they attributed petty motives or motives of jealousy if they were kept out of the vulgar circle of fighting for plunder. But they had to be schooled, and they were schooled to higher ideas of discipline, self-sacrifice, and striving hard for a Cause.
...بَلْ كَانُوا لَا يَفْقَهُونَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا ﴿١٥﴾
Nay, but little do they understand (such things).
قُل
لِّلْمُخَلَّفِينَ
مِنَ
الْأَعْرَابِ
...
48:16. Say to the desert Arabs who lagged behind:
C4887. While they are reproached for their supineness in the march which led to Hudaybiyah, where there was danger but no prospect of booty, they are promised, if they learn discipline, to be allowed to follow the Banner of Islam where (as happened later in the Persian and Byzantine Wars) there was real fighting with formidable and well- organized armies.
... سَتُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى قَوْمٍ أُوْلِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ ...
"Ye shall be summoned (to fight) against a people given to vehement war:
C4888. Cf. 27:33.
...تُقَاتِلُونَهُمْ أَوْ يُسْلِمُونَ ...
then shall ye fight, or they shall submit.
C4889. That is, you shall go forth to war if you learn discipline, not for booty, but for a great and noble Cause. For if your opponents submit to the Cause, there will be no fighting and no booty.
...فَإِن تُطِيعُوا يُؤْتِكُمُ اللَّهُ أَجْرًا حَسَنًا ...
Then if ye show obedience, Allah will grant you a goodly reward,
وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا كَمَا تَوَلَّيْتُم مِّن قَبْلُ يُعَذِّبْكُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا ﴿١٦﴾
but if ye turn back as ye did before, He will punish you with a grievous Penalty."
لَيْسَ
عَلَى الْأَعْمَى
حَرَجٌ وَلَا
عَلَى الْأَعْرَجِ
حَرَجٌ وَلَا
عَلَى الْمَرِيضِ
حَرَجٌ ...
48;17. No blame is there on the blind, nor is there blame on the lame, nor on one ill (if he joins not the war):
...وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ يُدْخِلْهُ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ...
but he that obeys Allah and His Messenger, (Allah) will admit him to Gardens beneath which rivers flow;
C4890. There may be neither fighting nor booty. But all who obey the call to Jihad with perfect discipline will get the Rewards of the Hereafter.
The blind, the maimed, and the infirm will of course be exempted from active compliance with the Call, but they can render such services as are within their power, and then they will not he excluded from the reward.
...وَمَن يَتَوَلَّ يُعَذِّبْهُ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا ﴿١٧﴾
and he who turns back, (Allah) will punish him with a grievous Penalty.
Asad’s Version:
(48: 15) As soon as you [O believers] are about to set forth on a war that promises booty," those who stayed behind [aforetime] will surely say, "Allow us to go with
you" - [thus showing that] they would like to alter the Word of God. 15 Say: "By no means shall you go with us: God has declared aforetime 16 [to whom all spoils
shall belong]." Thereupon they will [surely] answer, "Nay, but you begrudge us [our share of booty]!" Nay, they can grasp but so little of the truth!
48:16 Say unto those bedouin who stayed behind: "In time you will be called upon [to fight] against people of great prowess in war: 17 you will have to fight against them [until you die] or they surrender. And then, if you heed [that call], God will bestow on you a goodly reward; but if you turn away as you turned away this time, 18 He will chastise you with grievous chastisement. "
48:17 No blame attaches to the blind, nor does blame attach to the lame, nor does blame attach to the sick [for staying away from a war in God's cause]; 19 but whoever heeds [the call of] God and His Apostle [in deed or in heart 20 ], him will He admit into gardens through which running waters flow; whereas him who turns away will He chastise with grievous chastisement.
[[Asad’s notes -
1 3 Implying that He may forgive even the most hardened sinners if they truly repent and mend their ways: an allusion to what the Prophet was to say according to verse 16.
14 Lit., "set forth to take booty": i.e., any expedition other than against the Quraysh of Mecca, with whom the Prophet had just concluded a truce. This is generally taken as an allusion to the forthcoming war against the Jews of Khaybar (in the year 7 H.), but the meaning may well be more general.
15 Evidently a reference to 8:1 - "All spoils of war belong to God and the Apostle" - which, as pointed out in note 1 on that verse, implies that no individual warrior can have any claim to the booty obtained in war. Moreover, fighting for the sake of booty contravenes the very principle of a "war in God's cause", which may be waged only in defence of faith or liberty (cf surah 2, note 1 67), "until there is no more oppression and all worship is devoted to God alone" (see 2:193 and the corresponding note 170).
It is to these principles, too, that the Prophet's anticipated answer, mentioned in the sequence, refers.
16 I.e., in the first verse of Al-Anfal, which was revealed in the year 2 H. (see preceding note).
17 This is evidently a prophecy relating to the future wars against Byzantium and Persia.
18 Lit., "before", i.e., at the time of the expedition which resulted in the Truce Of Hudaybiyyah.
1 9 These three categories circumscribe metonymically all kinds of infirmities or disabilities which may prevent a person from actively participating in a war in God's cause.
20 This latter applies, by obvious implication, to such as are unable to participate in the fighting physically, but are in their hearts with those who fight. ]]