Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:172
Those [believers] who responded to Allah and the Messenger after injury had struck them. For those who did good among them and feared Allah is a great reward -
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.
Explanation of the statement of the Exalted: الَّذِينَ اسْتَجَابُوا لِلَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا أَصَابَهُمُ الْقَرْحُ لِلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا مِنْهُمْ وَاتَّقَوْا أَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ (172) (Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound had afflicted them — for those among them who did good and were God-fearing (wattaqaw) there is a great reward) (3:172).
Abū Jaʿfar said: By these words He, exalted is His praise, means: "And that Allah does not let the reward of the believers go to waste" — namely of those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound and the injuries had afflicted them.
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Allah, exalted is His mention, meant by this in particular: those who followed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad in pursuit of the enemy — Abū Sufyān and the polytheists (mushrikīn) of Quraysh who were with him — upon their retreat after Uḥud. For when Abū Sufyān withdrew from Uḥud, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ went after him until he reached Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad, which lies eight miles from Medina, so that the people would see that he and his companions had strength against their enemy. As in the following:
8233 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said: Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbdillāh related to me, on the authority of ʿIkrima, who said: The day of Uḥud was [the day of] Saturday, in the middle of the month of Shawwāl. When the day after Uḥud came — the Sunday, when sixteen nights of Shawwāl had passed — the herald of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called the people to the pursuit of the enemy, and his herald proclaimed: "Let no one go out with us except whoever was present at our battle yesterday." Then Jābir ibn ʿAbdillāh ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥarām addressed him and said: O Messenger of Allah, my father had left me behind with seven sisters of mine, and he had said to me: "O my son, it is not fitting for me nor for you that we leave these women without a man being with them, and I am not one to give you precedence over myself for the jihād with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ! So stay behind with your sisters." So I stayed behind with them. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave him permission, and he went out with him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went out only to strike fear into the enemy, to let them know that he was pursuing them, so that they would suppose he had strength, and that what had afflicted them had not weakened him against their enemy.
8234 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said: ʿAbdullāh ibn Khārija ibn Zayd ibn Thābit related to me, on the authority of Abū l-Sāʾib, the freedman of ʿĀʾisha bint ʿUthmān: A man from the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ of the Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal, who had been present at Uḥud, said: I was present with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Uḥud, I and a brother of mine, and we both returned wounded. When [the herald of] the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called to go out in pursuit of the enemy, I said to my brother — or he said to me: Shall we miss a campaign with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ? By Allah, we have no mount to ride, and there is not one of us who is not severely wounded! Yet we went out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I was more lightly wounded than he, so whenever he could not bear it any longer, I would carry him a stretch and he would walk a stretch, until we reached where the Muslims reached. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went out until he reached Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad, which lies eight miles from Medina, and he stayed there three days — Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday — and then returned to Medina.
8235 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: Then Allah, blessed and exalted is He, said: "Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound (al-qarḥ) had afflicted them" — that is, the wounds — and they are those who went out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the day after Uḥud to Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad, despite the pain of the wounds they had — "for those among them who did good and were God-fearing there is a great reward."
8236 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: "Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound had afflicted them" — the entire āya — and that was on the day of Uḥud, after the killing and the wounding, and after the polytheists — Abū Sufyān and his companions — had withdrawn. Then he ﷺ said to his companions: "Is there no group that will rouse itself for the cause of Allah, to pursue its enemy? For that deals the enemy the heaviest blow and drives him off the farthest!" Then a group of them went out, despite the exhaustion that Allah the Exalted knows.
8237 — 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: Abū Sufyān departed returning from Uḥud, until he had covered part of the road, and then they regretted it and said: What an evil thing you have done! You killed them, but when there remained nothing but the shattered remnant, you left them alone! Return and exterminate them. But Allah cast fear into their hearts, and they were put to flight. Allah informed His Messenger, and he pursued them until he reached Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad. Then they returned from Ḥamrāʾ al-Asad, and Allah, exalted is His praise, revealed concerning them: "Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound had afflicted them."
8238 — 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, who said: Allah, mighty and exalted is He, cast fear into the heart of Abū Sufyān — namely on the day of Uḥud — after there had come from him what had come, and he returned to Mecca. Then the Prophet ﷺ said: "Abū Sufyān has dealt you a portion, but he has turned back, and Allah has cast fear into his heart!" The battle of Uḥud took place in Shawwāl, and the merchants used to come to Medina once every year in Dhū l-Qaʿda, and they would halt at Badr al-Ṣughrā. They arrived after the battle of Uḥud, while the wound had afflicted the believers, and they complained about that to the Prophet of Allah ﷺ, and what had afflicted them weighed heavily upon them. The Messenger of Allah called the people to go out with him and to keep following what they were following, and he said: They are departing now and will arrive at the ḥajj, and they will not be capable of anything like this until next year. Then Satan came and struck fear into his allies and said: "The people have gathered against you!" But the people refused to follow him. Then he ﷺ said: "I will go, even if no one follows me" — to urge the people on. Then there rose up with him: Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, al-Zubayr, Saʿd, Ṭalḥa, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, Ḥudhayfa ibn al-Yamān, and Abū ʿUbayda ibn al-Jarrāḥ, with seventy men, and they set out in pursuit of Abū Sufyān and pursued him until they reached al-Ṣafrāʾ. Then Allah the Exalted revealed: "Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound had afflicted them — for those among them who did good and were God-fearing there is a great reward."
8239 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Abū Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, that she said to ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr: O son of my sister, by Allah, your father and your grandfather — she meant Abū Bakr and al-Zubayr — were among those of whom Allah the Exalted said: "Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound had afflicted them."
8240 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: It was reported to me that when Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb and his companions departed on the day of Uḥud, the Muslims said to the Prophet ﷺ: They are heading for Medina! Then he said: If they mount the horses and leave behind the heavy baggage, then they are heading for Medina; but if they sit upon the heavy baggage and leave the horses behind, then Allah has struck fear into them, and they are not out for it. Then they mounted the heavy baggage, for Allah had struck fear into them. Thereupon he called people to pursue them, so that it would be seen that they had strength, and they pursued them two or three nights, and then it was revealed: "Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound had afflicted them."
8241 — Saʿīd ibn al-Rabīʿ related to me, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, on the authority of his father, who said: ʿĀʾisha said to me: Your two parents were truly among those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound had afflicted them — she meant Abū Bakr and al-Zubayr.
8242 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, who said: ʿAbdullāh was among those who responded to Allah and the Messenger.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: Thus He, exalted is His mention, promised to the one who did good among those whose affair we have mentioned among the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after the wound had afflicted them — when he fears Allah and is wary of Him, fulfills His prescribed duties and obeys Him in His command and prohibition for the rest of his life that yet remains to him, "a great reward," and that is the abundant reward and the great recompense for the good deeds he performed in this worldly life.