Al-Hashr (The Exile)

6. And what Allah gave to His Messenger from their property, for this you made no expedition with either cavalry or camelry. But Allah gives power to His Messengers over whomsoever He wills. And Allah is All-Able to do all things.

The Arabic word afa’ derives from f-a-’ (“return”) and is cognate with fay’ (“return”) but it connotes the property and booties seized without bloodshed and expedition and put at the disposal of the leader of the Muslim community. The sense “return” may allude that such property returns or is restored to the original possessor, namely friends of God Almighty, since God Almighty has created all the Bounties in this world for believers preceded by His Messengers and although others own them by religious or civil law, but they originally belong to these noble figures. The Arabic verbal form awjaftum denotes galloping on horse or camel back. The Arabic words khayl and rikab denote “horse” and “camel” respectively.

The property falling into the share of Muslims fall into the following categories: booties falling into the hand of Muslims in battlefields which belong to warriors; the property fallen into the share of Muslims without engagement termed fay’ whose law is stipulated in the blessed Verse in question; the property, e.g. uncultivated lands, mountains, reed beds, and rivers, which as per the blessed Verse falls without engagement into the disposal of the Noble Prophet (S) rather than warriors and such property will be distributed upon the Noble Prophet's discretion amongst certain groups of people.

Islamic injunctions are based on wisdom according to which warriors the booties in battlefields but what is accrued without toil belongs to the Divinely appointed guide.

It is in this vein that the blessed Verse is saying that what God Almighty returned to His Messenger had not been fallen into the share of warriors through galloping on horse and camel back;

(“And what Allah gave to His Messenger from their property, for this you made no expedition with either cavalry or camelry. But Allah gives power to His Messengers over whomsoever He wills. And Allah is All-Able to do all things”).

Such property is to be totally falls into the disposal of the head of the Muslim community which will be distributed amongst Muslims based on Divine Injunctions and his discretion.

The blessed Verse closes by saying that triumphs are not always owing to the battles fought by Muslims, but God Almighty makes His Messengers conquer whoever He wills;

(“But Allah gives power to His Messengers over whomsoever He wills. And Allah is All-Able to do all things”).

In other words, conquering powerful enemies like Banu Nadhir Jews were owing to Assistance from the Unseen such that Muslims may know that God Almighty is Omnipotent since He may disgrace and humiliate a powerful people and make them be conquered by a limited number of people and transfer all the opportunities from one group to another. Thus, Muslims may learn Divine Admonitions in such battlefields as well as notice the tokens of veracity of the Noble Prophet's (S) Call, and devotion to and reliance on the Pure Essence of God Almighty in the course of their life.