Tafsir of Al Imran 3:166

"And what struck you," O believers, of calamity through the killing of those who were killed among you, "on the day the two hosts met," meaning your gathering and the gathering of your enemies, the polytheists. The intended day is the day of Uhud. The statement of some that it is not far-fetched for it to refer to the day of Uhud and the day of Badr is very distant.

"By the permission of Allah," meaning by His will; it is also said: by His allowing it. "And what," a relative pronoun meaning 'that which' (al-ladhi), is in the nominative case as the subject (mubtada'), and the sentence "struck you" is its relative clause, while "by the permission of Allah" is its predicate. The intent is that it occurred and came to pass by the permission of Allah. The inclusion of the 'fa' (so) is due to it implying the meaning of a condition, although the aspect of causality is not apparent; for the striking is not the cause of the will nor of the allowing—rather, the matter is the opposite. Thus, it is in the category of: "And whatever of blessings you have, it is from Allah," meaning that this is a cause for the notification that it is from Allah, as the restriction of commands may be for the sake of the requested or the requester, and likewise is the report. Many of the verification scholars have leaned toward this.

Al-Samin claimed that there is an ellipsis in the speech, meaning: "So it is by the permission of Allah," and the inclusion of the 'fa' is for the reason previously mentioned. He then said: This is problematic according to what the majority have established, for they do not allow the inclusion of this 'fa' as an addition in the predicate except under conditions, among which is that the relative clause must be future in meaning. This is because the 'fa' only enters due to a resemblance to a condition, and a condition only pertains to the future, not the past. If you were to say, "Whoever came to me yesterday, then to him is a dirham," it would not be correct. "Struck you" here is past in meaning just as it is past in wording, because the event is in the past; so how is the inclusion of this 'fa' permissible?

They answered this by interpreting it as referring to manifestation (tabayyun), meaning: "And whatever manifests its striking of you, it is by the permission of Allah," just as they interpreted, "And if his shirt is torn from behind," in the same way. He then said: If this interpretation is valid, then let "ma" here be an explicit conditional, and the 'fa' would be obligatorily included because it is the response to the condition. This ends his statement, and what is in it is not hidden.

"And that He might make evident the believers," is a conjunction linked to "by the permission of Allah," as a conjunction of a cause to a resultant. The intent is that it may become manifest to the people, and the faith of the believers may be proven to them.