Tafseer of The Spoils of War · Al-Anfaal · 8:53
That is because Allah would not change a favor which He had bestowed upon a people until they change what is within themselves. And indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing.
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 statement: ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمْ يَكُ مُغَيِّرًا نِّعْمَةً أَنْعَمَهَا عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا۟ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ ۙ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ (That is because Allah would never change a favour which He had conferred upon a people until they change what is in themselves, and because Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing) (8:53).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: And We seized these who did not believe in Our signs, of the polytheists (mushrikīn) of Quraysh, at Badr, on account of their sins, (1) and We did that to them because they changed what Allah had conferred upon them of favour through the sending of His Messenger from among them and in their midst, in that they expelled him from among them, denied him, and waged war against him. Therefore We changed Our favour to them by destroying them, just as We did with those who preceded them, among those who behaved insolently against Us and were disobedient to Our command.
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And in accordance with what we have said regarding this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
16209 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (That is because Allah would never change a favour which He had conferred upon a people until they change what is in themselves), he says: "The favour of Allah" — that is Muḥammad, ṣalla Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam, whom He conferred as a favour upon Quraysh, but they were ungrateful (disbelieving), so He moved him to the Anṣār.
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And His statement: (and because Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing), he says: Nothing of the speech of His creatures remains hidden from Him; He hears the speech of every one of them who speaks, whether he speaks with good or with evil = (All-Knowing), of what their breasts conceal, and He requites and rewards them for what they say and do: if it is good, then with good, and if it is evil, then with evil. (2)
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The footnotes:
(1) See the explanation of "al-akhdh" (the seizing) in the linguistic indexes mentioned earlier (a-kh-dh).
(2) See the explanation of "samīʿ" (All-Hearing) and "ʿalīm" (All-Knowing) in the linguistic indexes mentioned earlier (s-m-ʿ), (ʿ-l-m).
