Tafseer of The Spoils of War · Al-Anfaal · 8:69
So consume what you have taken of war booty [as being] lawful and good, and fear Allah. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: فَكُلُوا مِمَّا غَنِمْتُمْ حَلالا طَيِّبًا وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ (So eat of what you have acquired as spoils of war, as lawful and good, and fear Allah; verily, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful) (69).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says to the believers among the people of (the Battle of) Badr: So eat, O believers, of what you have acquired as spoils, from the possessions of the polytheists (mushrikīn), as lawful, in that He has made it lawful for you, and good, and fear Allah, He says: and fear Allah, that you do not return to performing in your religion anything, after this (event), before you have been given a command concerning it — as you did in accepting the ransom and eating the spoils of war (ghanīma), which you took before they were made lawful for you — verily, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
This belongs to the postponed whose meaning is precedence (al-muʾakhkhar alladhī maʿnāhu al-taqdīm), and the import of the statement is: So eat of what you have acquired as spoils, as lawful and good, verily, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful, and fear Allah.
And by His statement verily, Allah is Forgiving He means: for the sins of the people of faith among His servants; Merciful toward them, in that He does not punish them after they have repented of it.
