God has been true to His promise towards you of giving you victory when you slew them by His leave by His will until you lost heart until you shrank from battle and quarrelled disagreed over the command that is the command of the Prophet s that you remain at the foot of the mountain for the arrow attack some of you saying ‘Let us depart for our comrades have been given victory’ others saying ‘We should not disobey the command of the Prophet s’; and you disobeyed his command and abandoned your station in search of the booty after He God had shown you what you longed for of assistance the response to the clause containing idhā is indicated by what precedes it that is to say ‘when you lost heart He denied you His assistance’. Some of you desired this world abandoning his station for the sake of the booty; and some of you desired the Hereafter holding to it until he was slain such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Jubayr and his companions. Then He turned you away thumma sarafakum is a supplement to the response of the clause containing idhā implied to be raddakum bi’l-hazīma ‘He turned you back in defeat’ from them the disbelievers so that He might try you that He might test you and so make manifest the sincere ones from those otherwise; yet now He has pardoned you what you have done and God is Bounteous to the believers with pardon.
