Already had God made good to you His promise, when by His permission ye destroyed your foes, until your courage failed you, and ye disputed about the order,45 and disobeyed, after that the Prophet had brought you within view of that for which ye longed.46 Some of you were for this world, and some for the next.47 Then, in order to make trial of you, He turned you to flight from them,-yet hath He now forgiven you; for all-bounteous is God to the faithful- When ye came up the height48 and took no heed of any one, while the Prophet in your rear was calling you to the fight! God hath rewarded you with trouble upon trouble, that ye might learn not to be chagrined at your loss of booty, or at what befel you! God is acquainted with your actions. Then after the trouble God sent down security upon you. Slumber fell upon a part of you: as to the other part-their own passions stirred them up to think unjustly of God with thoughts of ignorance! They said-What gain we by this affair? SAY: Verily the affair resteth wholly with God. They hid in their minds what they did not speak out to thee, saying, "Were we to have gained aught in this affair, none of us had been slain at this place." SAY: Had ye remained in your homes, they who were decreed to be slain would have gone forth to the places where they lie:-in order that God might make trial of what was in your breasts, and might discover what was in your hearts, for God knoweth the very secrets of the breast. Of a truth it was Satan alone who caused those of you to fail in duty who turned back on the day when the hosts met, for some of their doings! But now hath God pardoned them; For God is Forgiving, Gracious. O ye who believe! be not like the infidels, who said of their brethren when they had travelled by land or had gone forth to war, "Had they kept with us, they had not died, and had not been slain!" God purposed that this affair should cause them heart sorrow! God maketh alive and killeth; and God beholdeth your actions. And if ye shall be slain or die on the path of God, then pardon from God and mercy is better than all your amassings; For if ye die or be slain, verily unto God shall ye be gathered. Of the mercy of God thou hast spoken to them in gentle terms. Hadst thou been severe and harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from thee. Therefore, forgive and ask for pardon for them, and consult them in the affair of war, and when thou art resolved, then put thou thy trust in God, for God loveth those who trust in Him. If God help you, none shall overcome you; but if He abandon you, who is he that shall help you when He is gone? In God, then, let the faithful trust. It is not the Prophet who will defraud you;49-But he who shall defraud, shall come forth with his defraudings on the day of the resurrection: then shall every soul be paid what it hath merited, and they shall not be treated with injustice.