Tafseer of The Spoils of War · Al-Anfaal · 8:57
So if you, [O Muhammad], gain dominance over them in war, disperse by [means of] them those behind them that perhaps they will be reminded.
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: فَإِمَّا تَثْقَفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْحَرْبِ فَشَرِّدْ بِهِمْ مَنْ خَلْفَهُمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَذَّكَّرُونَ (57) ("So if you come upon them in war, scatter by means of them those who are behind them, that they may be admonished.") (57)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: If you encounter in war these with whom you have concluded a covenant, and who have broken your covenant time and again, namely the Qurayẓa, and you take them captive — (then scatter by means of them those who are behind them), He says: do to them something that is a deterrent to those behind them, their like, between whom and you there exists a covenant and an agreement.
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And "the scattering" (al-tashrīd) is the driving away, the dispersing, and the spreading apart.
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And the Prophet of Allah ﷺ was commanded to do that only with the one who broke the covenant between him and them, when he gained power over them: to perform a deed that would be a deterrent to those behind them, between whom and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ there existed a covenant, so that they would not dare what these had dared — those whose characteristic Allah has described in this aya — namely the breaking of the covenant.
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And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of the explanation have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
16212 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his word: (So if you come upon them in war, scatter by means of them those who are behind them), that is to say: make by means of them a deterrent example for those after them.
16213 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: My father related to me, he said: My uncle related to me, he said: My father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (scatter by means of them those who are behind them), he says: make by means of them a deterrent example for those behind them.
16214 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, his word: (So if you come upon them in war, scatter by means of them those who are behind them), he says: admonish by means of them the rest of the people.
16215 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (So if you come upon them in war, scatter by means of them those who are behind them), he says: make by means of them a deterrent example for those behind them, for those who come after them of the enemy, so that they may guard against breaking the covenant, lest the same be done to them.
16216 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: (scatter by means of them those who are behind them), he said: warn by means of them those behind them.
16217 - Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: make by means of them a deterrent example for those behind them, for those who come after them. Ibn Jurayj said: ʿAbdallāh ibn Kathīr said: make by means of them a deterrent example for those behind them.
16218 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: (So if you come upon them in war, scatter by means of them those who are behind them, that they may be admonished), that is to say: make by means of them a deterrent example for those behind them, that they may understand.
16219 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim say concerning His word: (scatter by means of them those who are behind them), he says: make by means of them a deterrent example for those after them.
16220 - Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning the word of Allah: (So if you come upon them in war, scatter by means of them those who are behind them), he said: strike fear into them by what you do with these. And he recited: وَآخَرِينَ مِنْ دُونِهِمْ لا تَعْلَمُونَهُمُ اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُهُمْ ("And others besides them whom you do not know, but whom Allah knows") [al-Anfāl: 60].
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And as for His word (that they may be admonished), its meaning is: that they may take a lesson from what you have done with these whose characteristic I have described, and thus guard themselves against breaking the covenant that exists between you and them, out of fear that there might befall them from your side what befell these when they broke it.
