Al-Anfaal (The Spoils of War)

7. “And (remember) when Allah promised you one of the two parties should be yours, and you loved that the one unarmed should be yours; but Allah desires to verify the truth by His words and to cut off the roots of infidels.”

The Arabic term /saukat/ means ‘thorn and bayonet’, and it is the symbol of an armed group. The objective of the Qur'anic phrase /qayra oati-sh-saukat/ is the very unarmed merchants. The verse says:

“And (remember) when Allah promised you one of the two parties should be yours, and you loved that the one unarmed should be yours...”

It happened that once Abu Sufyan, as the chief of a commercial caravan, set out to travel. Before that, tile pagans of Mecca had confiscated the properties of the immigrant Muslims. So in order to weaken the power of the pagans and to recompense that transgression, the Prophet (S) made some Muslims prepared to attack the commercial caravan.

Abu Sufyan was informed of the matter and immediately made the people of Mecca aware of it. There were gathered about one thousand equipped fighters to defend that commercial group which consisted of forty people.

In the desert, at a place located between Mecca and Medina, three groups met face to face, (Muslims, the pagan troops, and the merchants). In spite of the fact that Muslims had not come out with the aim of fighting and they had not any martial equipment with them, but Allah assisted them with some unseen helps and, finally, the Muslims won the battle.

In the Battle of Badr, which occurred on seventeenth of Ramadhan in the second year of Hijrat, the numbers of Muslims were313 strivers while the number of pagans was thrice as much they were, where Abujahl and seventy other pagans were killed, and, also, seventy pagans, together with him, were taken as captives.

Thus, sometimes the Divine Will may be fulfilled by the (hands of the believers, and the fact is that the remembrance of the divine helps can be a factor in strengthening the Faith.

We must also know that the victory of the truth over falsehood is more magnificent than the economical income, and triumph is not only that which comes forth with some fighters and war equipments, the main factor is Allah's Will.

So, the aim of Holy Struggle in Islam is the manifestation of the truth and destruction of falsehood. And, it also should be known that the manifestation of the truth can be done by means of the Divine Statements, the Divine saints, and Allah's laws, agents and ways of treatment.

Therefore, victory and honor may be obtained under the shade of Holy Struggle and (self -sacrifice, not with political discussions and collusions; which are performed by the help of deceits and trickeries. The verse says:

“...but Allah desires to verify the truth by His words and to cut off the roots of infidels.”