Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:126
And Allah made it not except as [a sign of] good tidings for you and to reassure your hearts thereby. And victory is not except from Allah, the Exalted in Might, the Wise -
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.
As for those who said: that was on the day of Badr because of Kurz ibn Jābir — some of them said: Kurz and his companions did not come to the aid of their brethren among the polytheists (mushrikīn) as reinforcement at Badr, and Allah did not reinforce the believers with His angels, for Allah, Mighty and Exalted, had only promised them that He would reinforce them with His angels if Kurz and the reinforcement of the polytheists were to reach them immediately, but that reinforcement did not reach them.
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As for those who said: Allah, exalted be His mention, did indeed reinforce the Muslims with the angels on the day of Badr — they based themselves on the saying of Allah, Mighty and Exalted: 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 shall reinforce you with a thousand angels, following one upon another). He said: that thousand of them has already fallen to them as reinforcement. The promise to which conditions were attached concerned only that which exceeded the thousand; the thousand, however, has already fallen to them as reinforcement, for Allah, Mighty and Exalted, had promised them that, and Allah never breaks His promise.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: the reciters differed over the reading of His saying: "musawwamīn".
Most of the reciters of the people of Medina and Kūfa read it: (مُسَوَّمِينَ) with a fatḥa on the "wāw", in the sense that Allah marked them.
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Some of the reciters of the people of Kūfa and Basra read it: (مُسَوِّمِينَ) with a kasra on the "wāw", in the sense that the angels marked themselves.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: the correct of the two readings herein is the reading of him who read with a kasra on the "wāw", because of the numerous concurring reports from the [companions] of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — the exegetes among them and among the Followers (tābiʿūn) after them — that it was the angels who marked themselves, without the marking being ascribed to Allah, Mighty and Exalted, or to anything else of His creation.
And there is no ground for the saying of him who said: one would prefer the kasra in His saying "musawwimīn" only if it concerned human beings; as for the angels, their description is otherwise — out of his supposition that with angels it is not possible that they should mark themselves as is possible with human beings. For it is not inconceivable that Allah, Mighty and Exalted, enabled them to mark themselves, just as He enables human beings to mark themselves; thus they marked themselves in the manner in which the people marked themselves, thereby seeking obedience to their Lord, and so the marking of themselves was ascribed to them — even though that came about through Allah's furnishing them with the means thereto. And when they are described as those who marked themselves as a means of drawing near to their Lord, then that is more eloquent in their praise, on account of their choosing obedience to Allah, than that they should be described as those to whom this was done.
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Mention of the reports concerning what we have stated: from him who ascribed the marking to the angels and not to anyone else, in accordance with what we have said about it:
7776 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya informed us, saying: Ibn ʿAwn informed us, on the authority of ʿUmayr ibn Isḥāq, who said: The first thing in which wool [as a mark] was used was on that day — that is, the day of Badr —; the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Mark yourselves, for the angels have already marked themselves."
7777 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Mukhtār ibn Ghassān related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ghasīl related to us, on the authority of al-Zubayr ibn al-Mundhir, on the authority of his grandfather Abū Usayd — who was present at Badr — who used to say: If my eyesight were restored to me, and you were then to go with me to Uḥud, I would show you the mountain pass from which the angels emerged, in yellow turbans which they had cast between their shoulders.
7778 — 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 saying: "with five thousand marked angels" — he says: marked; the tails and forelocks of their horses were shorn, and in them was wool or dyed wool (ʿihn), and that was the marking.
7779 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: "with five thousand marked angels", he said: their tails and manes were shorn, and in them was wool or dyed wool, and that was the marking.
7780 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "marked" — we were told that their mark on that day was the wool on the forelocks and tails of their horses, and that they rode on dappled horses (bulq).
7781 — al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "marked", he said: their mark was wool on their forelocks.
7782 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, on the authority of Ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid, that he used to say concerning "marked", he said: their horses had shorn manes, and their forelocks and tails were marked with wool and dyed wool.
7783 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, on the authority of Ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: they were on that day on dappled horses (bulq).
7784 — al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk and some of our elder masters, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, roughly like the report of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda.
7785 — Muḥammad related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "marked", means marked.
7786 — 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 saying: "with five thousand marked angels" — they came to Muḥammad ﷺ, marked with wool, whereupon Muḥammad and his companions marked themselves and their horses with wool according to their mark.
7787 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, saying: Hishām ibn ʿUrwa related to us, on the authority of ʿAbbād ibn Ḥamza, who said: the angels descended in the mark of al-Zubayr, wearing yellow turbans. And the turban of al-Zubayr was yellow.
7788 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His saying: "marked", he said: with wool on their forelocks and tails.
7789 — al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, who said: the angels descended on the day of Badr on dappled horses (bulq), wearing yellow turbans. And al-Zubayr wore on that day a yellow turban.
7790 — Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ṣūfī related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sharīk related to us, saying: my father related to us, saying: Hishām ibn ʿUrwa related to us, on the authority of ʿUrwa, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr: that al-Zubayr on the day of Badr wore a yellow garment with which he had wound himself a turban, and the angels descended on the day of Badr beside the Prophet of Allah ﷺ, turbaned with yellow turbans.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: these reports, some of which we have mentioned — from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that he said to his companions: "Mark yourselves, for the angels have already marked themselves"; and the saying of Abū Usayd: "the angels emerged in yellow turbans which they had cast between their shoulders"; and the saying of him among them who said: "musawwimīn" means marked — all of that indicates the correctness of the reading which we have preferred herein, and that the marking of the angels was done by themselves, in accordance with what we have said about it earlier.
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As for those who read this as "musawwamīn" with fatḥa — they have interpreted this, as it appears to me, according to that which:
7791 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us about it, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn Ghiyāth, on the authority of ʿIkrima: "with five thousand marked angels", he says: they bore the mark of battle.
7792 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "with five thousand marked angels", he says: they bore the mark of battle, and that was on the day of Badr, when Allah reinforced them with five thousand marked angels; he says: they bore the mark of battle.
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They said: the mark of battle was upon them, not that they had marked themselves with a mark so that the marking would be ascribed to them; therefore they read "musawwamīn", in the sense that Allah, exalted, ascribed the marking to the One who marked them with that mark.
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And "al-sīmā" is the mark; one says: "it is a beautiful mark (sīmā ḥasana), a beautiful token (sīmiyāʾ ḥasana)", as the poet said:
A youth whom Allah struck with beauty when he grew up young, he has a token (sīmiyāʾ) that does not weary the eye.
By that he means: a mark of beauty. When a man is marked with a mark by which he is recognized in battle or elsewhere, it is said: "he marked himself (sawwama nafsahu), and he marks himself, marking (yusawwimuhā taswīman)".