Tafseer of The Spoils of War · Al-Anfaal · 8:30
And [remember, O Muhammad], when those who disbelieved plotted against you to restrain you or kill you or evict you [from Makkah]. But they plan, and Allah plans. And Allah is the best of planners.
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: وَإِذْ يَمْكُرُ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ أَوْ يُخْرِجُوكَ وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ (And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, or to kill you, or to expel you; and they scheme and Allah schemes, and Allah is the best of schemers) (8:30).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is proclaimed, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, reminding him of His favors toward him: remember, O Muḥammad, when those who disbelieved among the polytheists (mushrikīn) of your people schemed against you to detain you.
* * *
And the exegetes differed concerning the explanation of His word to detain you (li-yuthbitūka).
Some of them said: its meaning is: to bind you fast.
* Mention of who said that:
15956 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, that is to say: to bind you fast.
15957 — ... related, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: to detain you, to bind you fast.
15958 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, the verse, he says: to bind you firmly with fetters. And by that they intended the Prophet of Allah ﷺ, and he was on that day at Mecca.
15959 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda and Miqsam, the two of them said, they said: they wanted to bind him fast with fetters.
15960 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: to detain you, he said: the detaining (al-ithbāt) is imprisonment and fetters.
* * *
And others said: its meaning is rather imprisonment.
* Mention of who said that:
15961 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: I asked ʿAṭāʾ about His word to detain you, he said: to imprison you. And ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr said it too.
15962 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: they said: imprison him.
* * *
And others said: its meaning is rather: to bewitch you.
* Mention of who said that:
15963 — Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Baṣrī, known as al-Wasāwisī, related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Majīd ibn Abī Rawwād related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr, on the authority of al-Muṭṭalib ibn Abī Wadāʿa: that Abū Ṭālib said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: what is your people plotting? He said: they want to bewitch me, to kill me, and to expel me! He said: who told you this? He said: my Lord! He said: an excellent Lord is your Lord, so commend yourself to Him for good! Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: I commend myself to Him! Nay, He commends Himself to me for good! Then was revealed: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, or to kill you, or to expel you, the verse.
15964 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: ʿAṭāʾ said: I heard ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr say: when they plotted against the Prophet ﷺ to kill him, or to detain him, or to expel him, Abū Ṭālib said to him: do you know what they have plotted against you? He said: yes! He said: inform him of it then. He said: who informed you? He said: my Lord! He said: an excellent Lord is your Lord, commend yourself to Him for good! He said: I commend myself to Him, or does He commend Himself to me?
And the meaning of the scheming of the people of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ against him to detain him is, as it were, as in:
15965 — Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā al-Umawī related to us, saying: my father related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — he said: and al-Kalbī related to me, on the authority of Zādhān, the freedman of Umm Hāniʾ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that a group of Quraysh, from the notables of every tribe, gathered to enter the Council House (Dār al-Nadwa). Then Iblīs appeared to them in the form of a venerable old man, and when they saw him, they said: who are you? He said: an old man from Najd; I heard that you have gathered, and I wished to be present with you, and you shall not lack opinion and counsel from me. They said: indeed, enter! He entered with them and said: look to the affair of this man! By Allah, it may well be that he will overtake you in your affairs with his cause. He said: then a speaker said: detain him in fetters, and then wait until the vicissitudes of fate strike him, until he perishes as the poets perished before him, Zuhayr and al-Nābigha; for he is but as one of them! He said: then the enemy of Allah, the old man from Najd, cried out and said: by Allah, this is no good opinion for you! By Allah, his Lord will surely deliver him from his prison to his companions, and it may well be that they will leap upon him until they wrest him from your hands and protect him against you; I fear for you that he will expel you from your land! They said: devise then something other than this. He said: then a speaker said: expel him from your midst, then you are rid of him, for if he departs, whatever he does and wherever he ends up will not harm you; when his evil has departed from your midst, you are rid of him and his affair falls to someone other than you. Then the old man from Najd said: by Allah, this is no good opinion for you! Have you not seen the sweetness of his speech, the eloquence of his tongue, and how he seizes the hearts with what one hears of his discourse? By Allah, if you do that and he then approaches the Arabs, they will surely unite against you, and then he will surely come to you until he expels you from your land and kills your notables! They said: he has spoken truly, by Allah! Devise then an opinion other than this! He said: then Abū Jahl said: by Allah, I shall give you an opinion that I think you have not yet perceived, and I see no other! They said: and what is it? He said: we take from every tribe a noble, young, strong lad, and then to each lad of them is given a sharp sword, and then they strike him as one man, and when they have killed him, his blood becomes distributed among all the tribes; then I do not think that this clan of the Banū Hāshim will be able to fight all of Quraysh, for when they see that, they will accept the blood-money (al-ʿaql, the diya), and we are rid of him and have turned away his evil from us. Then the old man from Najd said: this, by Allah, is the correct opinion! The verdict is what the young man said; I see no other! He said: and they dispersed upon that, united concerning it. He said: then Jibrīl came to the Prophet ﷺ and commanded him not to sleep that night upon his resting-place where he used to sleep, and Allah permitted him at that moment to depart. And after his arrival at Medina He revealed to him al-Anfāl, reminding him of His favors toward him and His testing concerning him: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, or to kill you, or to expel you; and they scheme and Allah schemes, and Allah is the best of schemers. And concerning their saying wait until the vicissitudes of fate strike him, until he perishes as the poets perished before him He revealed: Or do they say: a poet, we await for him the vicissitudes of fate [Surah al-Ṭūr: 30]. And that day was named: the Day of the Throng (yawm al-zaḥma), because of the opinion upon which they had gathered.
15966 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda and Miqsam, concerning His word: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, the two of them said: they took counsel concerning him during a night while they were at Mecca, and some of them said: when morning comes, bind him fast with fetters. And others said: nay, kill him. And others said: nay, expel him. And when morning came, they saw ʿAlī, may Allah have mercy on him, and thus Allah turned away their scheme.
15967 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: my father informed me, on the authority of ʿIkrima, he said: when the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr departed to the cave, he commanded ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and he slept upon his resting-place. The polytheists spent the night guarding him, and when they saw him sleeping, they supposed it was the Prophet ﷺ and left him be. When morning came, they leapt upon him, supposing it was the Prophet ﷺ, and there they found ʿAlī, and they said: where is your companion? He said: I do not know! He said: then they mounted the recalcitrant and the willing steed in search of him.
15968 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, he said: ʿUthmān al-Jazarī informed me: that Miqsam, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, informed him, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, he said: Quraysh took counsel during a night at Mecca, and some of them said: when morning comes, detain him with fetters — they meant the Prophet ﷺ. And others said: nay, kill him. And others said: nay, expel him. Then Allah informed His Prophet about that, and ʿAlī — may Allah have mercy on him — spent that night upon the sleeping-place of the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ departed until he reached the cave, and the polytheists spent the night guarding ʿAlī, supposing he was the Prophet ﷺ. When morning came, they leapt upon him, and when they saw ʿAlī — may Allah have mercy on him — Allah turned away their scheme, and they said: where is your companion? He said: I do not know! Then they followed his track, and when they reached the mountain and passed by the cave, they saw upon its entrance the web of the spider, and they said: had he entered into this, there would be no web upon its entrance! And he remained therein three days.
15969 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, or to kill you, or to expel you; and they scheme and Allah schemes, and Allah is the best of schemers, he said: the elders of Quraysh gathered to take counsel concerning the Prophet ﷺ after the Anṣār had accepted Islam, and they feared that his cause would rise when he found a place of refuge to which he could betake himself. Then Iblīs came in the form of a man from the people of Najd, and he entered with them the Council House (Dār al-Nadwa). When they did not recognize him, they said: who are you? By Allah, we have not informed all our people of this gathering of ours! He said: I am a man from the people of Najd; I listen to your discussion and give you counsel! Then they were ashamed and left him be. Then one of them said: seize Muḥammad when he lies upon his bed, and then detain him in a house in which we wait until the vicissitudes of fate strike him — and al-rayb is death, and al-manūn is time. Iblīs said: how evil is what you say! You detain him in a house, then his companions come and take him out, and then strife arises between you! They said: the old man has spoken truly! He said: expel him from your city! Iblīs said: how evil is what you say! You expel him from your city, while he has already corrupted your foolish ones, and then he goes to another city and corrupts their foolish ones, and then he comes to you with the cavalry and the infantry! They said: the old man has spoken truly! Then Abū Jahl said — and he was the most obedient among them to Iblīs: nay, we betake ourselves to every clan of the clans of Quraysh, and we take out from them a man, and we give them the weapons, and then they all together fall upon Muḥammad and strike him as one man, so that the Banū ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib are not able to kill Quraysh, and nothing remains to them but the blood-money (al-diya)! Iblīs said: he has spoken truly, and this young man is the one among you with the best opinion! Then they arose upon that. And Allah informed His Messenger ﷺ, and he slept upon the bed, and they set spies over him. And when it was in a part of the night, he and Abū Bakr went to the cave, and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib slept upon the bed. That is when Allah says: to detain you, or to kill you, or to expel you — and al-ithbāt is imprisonment and fetters — and it is His word: And they were on the point of scaring you from the land to expel you from it, and then they would have remained after you only a little while [Surah al-Isrāʾ: 76], he says: He destroys them.
And when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ emigrated to Medina, ʿUmar met him and said to him: what have the people done? — and he supposed that they had been destroyed when the Prophet ﷺ had departed from their midst, for thus it used to happen with the nations. Then the Prophet ﷺ said: postpone the fighting.
15970 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: to detain you, or to kill you, he said: the disbelievers (kuffār) of Quraysh, they intended that against Muḥammad ﷺ before he departed from Mecca.
15971 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
15972 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to me, saying: Hāniʾ ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Ḥajjāj, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar; except that he said: they did that against Muḥammad.
15973 — 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 when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, or to kill you, the verse, it is the Prophet ﷺ; they schemed against him while he was at Mecca.
15974 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, to the end of the verse, he said: they gathered and took counsel concerning the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and they said: kill this man. Then one of them said: no man kills him but he is killed for him in retaliation! They said: seize him, imprison him, and place iron fetters upon him. They said: then his household will not leave you be! They said: expel him. They said: then he will incite the people against you.
He said: and Iblīs was with them in the form of a man from the people of Najd, and their opinion agreed that, when he came to perform the circumambulation around the House and to touch it, they would come upon him and bury him and kill him, for then his family would not know who had killed him, and they would be content with the blood-money; we kill him then, are rid of him, and pay for him the blood-money! So when he came to perform the circumambulation around the House, they came upon him and buried him. Then Abū Bakr came, and he was told, and he came but found no access. And when he found no access, he said: Do you kill a man because he says: my Lord is Allah, while he has come to you with the clear proofs from your Lord? [Surah Ghāfir: 28]. He said: then Allah made it easy for him. And when the night descended, Jibrīl — peace be upon him — came to him and said: who are your companions? He said: so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so. He said: nay, we know better concerning them than you, O Muḥammad; they are night-rabble! He said: and those men were taken away from their sleeping-places while they slept, and they were brought to the Prophet ﷺ. The first of them was brought before Jibrīl, and he smeared him with kohl and then sent him away. He said: what is his fate, O Jibrīl? He said: he is settled for you, O Prophet of Allah! Then another was brought, and he tapped him atop his head with a stick, one tap, and then sent him away, and he said: what is his fate, O Jibrīl? He said: he is settled for you, O Prophet of Allah! Then another was brought, and he pricked him in his knee, and he said: what is his fate, O Jibrīl? He said: he is settled for you! Then another was brought, and he gave him water-mixed milk to drink, and he said: what is his fate, O Jibrīl? He said: he is settled for you, O Prophet of Allah! And the fifth was brought. And when he went out from his house in the morning, he passed by an arrow-maker, and an arrowhead caught on his cloak, and he turned around, and it severed the life-vein (al-akḥal) of his leg. And as for the one whose eyes had been smeared with kohl: he awoke in the morning having gone blind. And as for the one to whom water-mixed milk had been given to drink: he awoke in the morning and his belly was swollen with the fluid. And as for the one who had been tapped atop his head: there struck him the nuqba — and the nuqba is a great boil — which struck him in his head. And as for the one who had been pricked in his knee: he awoke in the morning having become paralyzed. That, then, is the saying of Allah: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you to detain you, or to kill you, or to expel you; and they scheme and Allah schemes, and Allah is the best of schemers.
15975 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, concerning His word: and they scheme and Allah schemes, and Allah is the best of schemers, that is to say: So I schemed against them with My firm plan, until I had rescued you from them.
15976 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: And when those who disbelieved schemed against you, he said: this is Meccan. He said: Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said: this is Meccan.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The explanation of the word is then: and remember, O Muḥammad, My favor toward you through My scheme against whoever sought to scheme against you from the polytheists of your people, by detaining you, killing you, or expelling you from your homeland, until I had rescued you from them and destroyed them. Carry out, then, My command in fighting whoever fights you from the polytheists and turns away from answering that with which I have sent you of the upright religion, and let not their great number make you fearful, for your Lord is the best of schemers against whoever is disbelieving in Him, worships another than Him, and opposes His command and His prohibition.
* * *
And we have already previously expounded the meaning of al-makr (the scheme), with what exempts us from repeating it in this place.
