Tafseer of Muhammad · Muhammad · 47:13
And how many a city was stronger than your city [Makkah] which drove you out? We destroyed them; and there was no helper for them.
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 the saying of the Exalted: وَكَأَيِّنْ مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ هِيَ أَشَدُّ قُوَّةً مِنْ قَرْيَتِكَ الَّتِي أَخْرَجَتْكَ أَهْلَكْنَاهُمْ فَلا نَاصِرَ لَهُمْ (47:13) (And how many a town, mightier in power than your town which drove you out, have We destroyed, and there was no helper for them.)
The Exalted, whose renown be mentioned, says: And how many, O Muḥammad, of a town that is mightier in power than your town — He means: whose inhabitants are harsher in violence, more numerous in number, and better equipped than the inhabitants of your town, and that is Mecca. He expressed the report about the town, while by it its inhabitants are meant.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying وَكَأَيِّنْ مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ هِيَ أَشَدُّ قُوَّةً مِنْ قَرْيَتِكَ الَّتِي أَخْرَجَتْكَ أَهْلَكْنَاهُمْ (And how many a town, mightier in power than your town which drove you out, have We destroyed): He said: That is Mecca.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying وَكَأَيِّنْ مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ هِيَ أَشَدُّ قُوَّةً مِنْ قَرْيَتِكَ (And how many a town, mightier in power than your town): He said: His town is Mecca.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ḥubaysh, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "that the Prophet of Allah ﷺ, when he departed from Mecca toward the cave — I think he said: turned toward Mecca and said: 'You are the most beloved land of Allah to Allah, and you are the most beloved land of Allah to me; and had the polytheists (mushrikīn) not driven me out, I would not have departed from you. For the most tyrannically hostile is he who opposes Allah in His sacred precinct (ḥaram), or who kills someone other than his own killer, or who kills out of blood-feuds from the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya).'" Thereupon Allah, blessed and exalted, sent down: وَكَأَيِّنْ مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ هِيَ أَشَدُّ قُوَّةً مِنْ قَرْيَتِكَ الَّتِي أَخْرَجَتْكَ أَهْلَكْنَاهُمْ فَلا نَاصِرَ لَهُمْ (And how many a town, mightier in power than your town which drove you out, have We destroyed, and there was no helper for them.) And He, praised be His praise, said "which drove you out" (akhrajatka), thus expressing the report about the town, and therefore it was conjugated in the feminine. Then He said "We destroyed them" (ahlaknāhum), because the meaning in His saying "which drove you out" is what I have described, namely that by it the inhabitants of the town are meant. Thus the report was expressed at one time according to the literal wording, and at another time according to the meaning.
And His saying فَلا نَاصِرَ لَهُمْ (and there was no helper for them) — there are two interpretive ways concerning it: The first is that its meaning is: even though "helper" (al-nāṣir) is placed in the accusative in the negating form, yet there was no helper for them; this is because the Arabs sometimes drop the verb kāna ("was") in such a construction. The other is that its meaning is: there is for them now no helper against the punishment of Allah who could help them.
