Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:125
Yes, if you remain patient and conscious of Allah and the enemy come upon you [attacking] in rage, your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand angels having marks [of distinction]
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His word: إِذْ تَقُولُ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَلَنْ يَكْفِيَكُمْ أَنْ يُمِدَّكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ بِثَلاثَةِ آلافٍ مِنَ الْمَلائِكَةِ مُنْزَلِينَ (124) (When you said to the believers: "Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels sent down?" (3:124))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means: and indeed Allah helped you at Badr when you were weak and few in number, when you said to the believers among your companions who believed in you: "Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels sent down?" And that was on the day of Badr.
* * *
Then the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the presence of the angels on the day of Badr in their fighting: on which day was that promised to them?
Some of them said: Allah, Mighty and Exalted, had promised the believers on the day of Badr to reinforce them with His angels if the enemy should fall upon them at once; but these did not come to them, and they were not reinforced.
* Mention of who said that:
7743 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to me, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿĀmir, who said: The Muslims were told that Kurz ibn Jābir al-Muḥāribī was going to reinforce the polytheists (mushrikīn). He said: That weighed heavily upon the Muslims, and it was said to them: "Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels sent down? Yes indeed! If you are steadfast and fear (Allah), and they fall upon you at once, then your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand marked angels." He said: Then defeat reached Kurz, and he turned back, and he did not reinforce them with the five thousand.
7744 — Ibn al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿĀmir, who said: When it was the day of Badr, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached — then he mentioned something similar, except that he said: "and they fall upon you at once" — that is to say: Kurz and his companions — "then your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand marked angels." He said: Then defeat reached Kurz and his companions, and he did not reinforce them, and the five thousand were not sent down. After that they were reinforced with a thousand, so that there were four thousand angels with the Muslims.
7745 — Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me, saying: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, on the authority of ʿAbbād, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word: "When you said to the believers: Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels", the entire āya. He said: This was the day of Badr.
7746 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, who said: The Muslims were told that Kurz ibn Jābir al-Muḥāribī wished to reinforce the polytheists at Badr. He said: That weighed heavily upon the Muslims; then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, sent down: "Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you" up to His word: "with marked angels." He said: Then there reached him the defeat of the polytheists, and he did not reinforce his companions, and they were not reinforced with the five thousand.
* * *
Others said: This promise of Allah to them was on the day of Badr, and the believers were steadfast and feared Allah, and so He reinforced them with His angels in accordance with what He had promised them.
* Mention of who said that:
7747 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Yūnus ibn Bukayr related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr related to me, on the authority of some of the Banū Sāʿida, who said: I heard Abū Usayd Mālik ibn Rabīʿa, after his eyesight had been lost, saying: If I were with you now at Badr with my eyesight, I would show you the mountain pass from which the angels came forth, without doubt and without hesitation.
7748 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Ibn Isḥāq said: and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr related to me, on the authority of some of the Banū Sāʿida, on the authority of Abū Usayd Mālik ibn Rabīʿa — who had been present at Badr — that he said, after his eyesight had been lost: If I were with you today at Badr with my eyesight, I would show you the mountain pass from which the angels came forth, without doubt and without hesitation.
7749 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr related to me that he was told on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that Ibn ʿAbbās said: A man of the Banū Ghifār related to me, saying: I and a cousin of mine set out until we climbed a mountain that overlooked Badr, while we were two polytheists, awaiting the battle, to see on which side the defeat would fall, so that we might take spoils with whoever would take spoils. He said: While we were upon the mountain, a cloud approached us, and we heard in it the neighing of horses, and I heard a speaker saying: "Forward, Ḥayzūm!" He said: As for my cousin, the membrane of his heart burst open and he died on the spot. And as for me, I was nearly destroyed, but then I held myself together.
7750 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said: and al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmāra related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtayba, on the authority of Miqsam, the freedman of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The angels did not fight on any day except the day of Badr; on the remaining days they were a number and a reinforcement, but they did not strike.
7751 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: my father Isḥāq ibn Yasār related to me, on the authority of men of the Banū Māzin ibn al-Najjār, on the authority of Abū Dāwūd al-Māzinī — who had been present at Badr — who said: On the day of Badr I pursued a man of the polytheists to strike him, when his head fell before my sword reached him, and I knew that another than I had killed him.
7752 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to me, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Muḥammad said: Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās related to me, on the authority of ʿIkrima, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Abū Rāfiʿ, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, said: I was a boy of al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, and Islam had entered among us, the people of the house: al-ʿAbbās accepted Islam, and Umm al-Faḍl accepted Islam, and I accepted Islam. Al-ʿAbbās feared his tribe and was loath to oppose them, and he concealed his conversion; he was a man of much wealth, dispersed among his tribe. Abū Lahab, the enemy of Allah, had stayed behind from Badr and had sent in his stead al-ʿĀṣī ibn Hishām ibn al-Mughīra. Thus did they all do: not a man stayed behind without sending a man in his stead. When the news came of the fate that had befallen the people of Badr from the Quraysh, Allah humiliated him and brought him disgrace, and we found within ourselves strength and standing. He said: I was a weak man, and I used to make arrows which I would shave down in the chamber of Zamzam. By Allah, I was sitting there shaving arrows, and with me sat Umm al-Faḍl, and the news that had reached us had gladdened us, when the depraved Abū Lahab approached, dragging his legs along in wretchedness, until he sat down on the edge of the chamber, and his back was turned toward my back. While he was sitting thus, the people said: "This is Abū Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, he has arrived!" He said: Abū Lahab said: "Come here to me, O son of my brother, for with you is the news!" He said: Then he sat down with him while the people stood around him, and he said: "O son of my brother, tell me, how did it go with the people?" He said: "Nothing, by Allah! It was nothing but that we met them and offered them our shoulders, so that they killed us and took us captive as they wished! And by Allah, despite that I did not blame the people: we encountered white men on dappled horses between heaven and earth, nothing could stop them and nothing could withstand them." Abū Rāfiʿ said: Then I raised the edge of the chamber with my hand and said: "Those were the angels!"
7753 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad, who said: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmāra related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtayba, on the authority of Miqsam, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The one who took al-ʿAbbās captive was Abū al-Yasar Kaʿb ibn ʿAmr, a brother of the Banū Salima. Abū al-Yasar was a man of squat stature, and al-ʿAbbās was a man of stout build. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to Abū al-Yasar: "How did you take al-ʿAbbās captive, O Abū al-Yasar?!" He said: "O Messenger of Allah, there helped me against him a man whom I had not seen before that nor after it; his form was such and such." The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Verily, a noble angel helped you against him."
7754 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: "Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels sent down": they were reinforced with a thousand, then they became three thousand, then they became five thousand — "Yes indeed! If you are steadfast and fear (Allah), and they fall upon you at once, then your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand marked angels." And that was on the day of Badr; Allah reinforced them with five thousand angels.
7755 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, something similar.
7756 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "then your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand marked angels": they came to Muḥammad ﷺ as marked ones.
7757 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to me, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ibn Khuthaym, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: The angels did not fight except on the day of Badr.
* * *
Others said: Allah, Mighty and Exalted, promised them only on the day of Badr to reinforce them — if they were steadfast in His obedience and in the fighting against His enemies, and feared Him by shunning what He has forbidden — that He would reinforce them in all their wars. But they were not steadfast and they did not fear (Him), except on the day of al-Aḥzāb; then He reinforced them when they besieged Qurayẓa.
* Mention of who said that:
7758 — Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra al-Asadī related to me, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Sulaymān ibn Zayd Abū Idām al-Muḥāribī informed us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā, who said: We besieged Qurayẓa and al-Naḍīr for as long as Allah willed that we should besiege them, but no victory was opened for us, and we turned back. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called for water and washed his head, when Jibrīl ﷺ came to him and said: "O Muḥammad, you have laid down your weapons, but the angels have not laid down their armament!" Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called for a cloth and wound it around his head without washing it, and then he summoned us, and we rose, weary and exhausted, reckoning the journey as nothing, until we reached Qurayẓa and al-Naḍīr. On that day Allah, Mighty and Exalted, reinforced us with three thousand angels, and Allah opened for us an easy victory, and we returned with a favor from Allah and a mercy.
* * *
Others said something to the same effect, except that they said: the people were not steadfast and did not fear (Allah), and they were reinforced with nothing at Uḥud.
* Mention of who said that:
7759 — al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: ʿAmr ibn Dīnār related to me, on the authority of ʿIkrima, whom he heard saying: "Yes indeed! If you are steadfast and fear (Allah), and they fall upon you at once" — he said: that was the day of Badr. He said: But they were not steadfast and they did not fear (Him), and so they were not reinforced on the day of Uḥud; and had they been reinforced, they would not have been defeated on that day.
7760 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, who said: I heard ʿIkrima saying: They were not reinforced on the day of Uḥud, not even with a single angel — or he said: except with a single angel; Abū Jaʿfar is in doubt.
7761 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: I heard ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His word: "Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand" up to "five thousand marked angels": this was a promise of Allah on the day of Uḥud, which He laid before His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: that He would reinforce the believers, if they feared (Him) and were steadfast, with five thousand marked angels. But the Muslims fled on the day of Uḥud and turned their backs in flight, and so Allah did not reinforce them.
7762 — Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "Yes indeed! If you are steadfast and fear (Allah), and they fall upon you at once", the entire āya: They said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while looking at the polytheists: "O Messenger of Allah, will Allah not reinforce us as He reinforced us on the day of Badr?" Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels sent down?" — and He reinforced you on the day of Badr with only a thousand. He said: Then the increase from Allah came upon the condition that they should be steadfast and fear (Him). He said: upon the condition that "they fall upon you at once, your Lord will reinforce you", the entire āya.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct interpretation of this is that one says: Allah informed concerning His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ that he said to the believers: "Is it not enough for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels?" Thus Allah promised them three thousand angels as a reinforcement, and then He promised them, after the three thousand, five thousand if they were steadfast against their enemies and feared Allah. There is in the āya no indication that they were reinforced with the three thousand, nor with the five thousand, nor that they were not reinforced with them.
It is possible that Allah, Mighty and Exalted, reinforced them, in accordance with what was transmitted by those who affirmed that He reinforced them. And it is possible that He did not reinforce them, in accordance with what was mentioned by those who denied that. We possess no sound report by a chain that establishes that they were reinforced with the three thousand, nor with the five thousand. And it is not permissible to make a pronouncement concerning that except on the basis of a report by which the proof (ḥujja) is established; and there is no such report concerning that, that we should submit to the statement of one of the two parties. However, in the Qurʾān there is indeed an indication that on the day of Badr they were reinforced with a thousand angels, and that is His word: إِذْ تَسْتَغِيثُونَ رَبَّكُمْ فَاسْتَجَابَ لَكُمْ أَنِّي مُمِدُّكُمْ بِأَلْفٍ مِنَ الْمَلائِكَةِ مُرْدِفِينَ [Surah al-Anfāl: 9] (When you called upon your Lord for help, and He answered you: "I will reinforce you with a thousand angels, in successive ranks" (8:9)). As for the day of Uḥud, there the indication that they were not reinforced is clearer than that they were indeed reinforced. That is because, had they been reinforced, they would not have been defeated and that would not have befallen them which befell them. The correct judgment concerning this, then, is that one says as the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, has said.
* * *
We have already previously set forth the meaning of "al-imdād" (the reinforcing) and "al-madad" (the reinforcement), as well as the meaning of "al-ṣabr" (steadfastness) and "al-taqwā" (the fear of God).
* * *
As for His word: "and they fall upon you at once (min fawrihim hādhā)", the people of interpretation differed concerning it.
Some of them said: the meaning of His word "min fawrihim hādhā" is: from this their directed march (wajh).
* Mention of who said that:
7763 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn Ghiyāth, on the authority of ʿIkrima, who said: "and they fall upon you at once" — he said: from this their march.
7764 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "min fawrihim hādhā", he says: from this their march.
7765 — al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, the same.
7766 — Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to us, saying: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, saying: ʿAbbād related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word: "and they fall upon you at once": from this their march.
7767 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His word: "and they fall upon you at once", he says: from this their march.
7768 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His word: "and they fall upon you at once", he says: from this their march.
7769 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "and they fall upon you at once", he says: from this their journey = and it is said — that is to say, on the authority of someone other than Ibn ʿAbbās — no, it is rather: from this their wrath.
7770 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: "min fawrihim hādhā": from this their march.
* * *
Others said: the meaning of that is: from this their wrath.
* Mention of who said that:
7771 — Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: "and they fall upon you at once, your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand angels", he said: "this their fawr" was on the day of Uḥud; they were wrathful on account of the day of Badr, for what had befallen them.
7772 — Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra related to me, saying: Sahl ibn ʿĀmir related to us, saying: Mālik ibn Mighwal related to us, saying: I heard Abū Ṣāliḥ, the freedman of Umm Hāniʾ, saying: "min fawrihim hādhā", he says: from this their wrath.
7773 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: "and they fall upon you at once", he said: a wrath that seized them — that is to say the unbelievers (kuffār); but they did not fight against them at that moment, and that was on the day of Uḥud.
7774 — al-Qāsim related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said: "min fawrihim hādhā", he said: from this their wrath.
7775 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His word: "and they fall upon you at once", he says: from their march and their wrath.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The root meaning of "al-fawr" is the beginning of a matter with which one commences, and which is then continued with something else. One says of that: "the pot boiled over (fārat al-qidr), it boils over, a boiling and a boiling over (fawran wa-fawarānan)", when what is in it begins to boil and then continues. And: "I went to so-and-so from my fawr", by which is meant: from my march with which I commenced.
* * *
The one who said concerning this āya that the meaning of His word "min fawrihim hādhā" is "from this their march", he meant that the interpretation of it is: and there come to you Kurz ibn Jābir and his companions on the day of Badr from the beginning of their setting out from which they departed to help their companions among the polytheists.
* * *
And as for those who said that the meaning of it is "from this their wrath", these meant that the interpretation of it is: and there come to you the unbelievers of Quraysh and their followers on the day of Uḥud from the beginning of their wrath which they harbored on account of their dead who were killed there on the day of Badr; (then) your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand.
* * *
And because of that difference in their interpretation concerning the meaning of His word "and they fall upon you at once", the people of interpretation differed concerning Allah's reinforcing of the believers at Uḥud with His angels.
Some of them said: they were not reinforced with them, because the believers were not steadfast against their enemies and did not fear Allah, Mighty and Exalted, in that some of the archers abandoned obedience to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with regard to their holding fast at the position where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had commanded them to hold fast; but they abandoned it in their pursuit of the spoils (ghanāʾim), so that there was killed of the Muslims whoever was killed and the polytheists attained of them what they attained. And Allah, Mighty and Exalted, had only promised His prophet ﷺ to reinforce them with them (the angels) if they were steadfast and feared Allah.
