Tafsir of Al-Ahzab 33:10

(When they came to you): An appositive (badal) of "when they came to you" (the first mention), representing an apposition of the whole to the whole. It is also said: it is linked to "you are doing" or "Seer."

(From above you): From the upper part of the valley, from the direction of the east; the attribution to them is by way of the nearest association. Those who came from there were the tribe of Ghatafan and their followers among the people of Najd, as well as the tribes of Qurayza and Nadir.

(And from below you): From the lower part of the valley, from the direction of the west. Those who came from there were Quraysh and their allies among the Ahabish, the Kinana tribe, and the people of Tihama. It is also said: those from above were the Qurayza, and those from below were Quraysh, Asad, Ghatafan, and Sulaym. Other opinions also exist.

It is possible that "from above" and "from below" are a metonymy for encirclement from all sides, as if it were said: "When they came to you, surrounding you," just as the Almighty said: "The punishment will cover them from above them and from beneath their feet."

(And when eyes shifted): This is conjoined to the previous clause and shares the same state of reminder; meaning, when eyes veered from their path and deviated from their normal focus out of confusion and shock.

Al-Farra said: Meaning, when they turned away from everything and did not look at anything except their enemy.

(And hearts reached the throats): Meaning, they feared with an intense fear and panicked with a great panic; it does not mean that the hearts moved from their place and headed toward the throats to exit.

Ibn Abi Shaybah recorded from Ikrimah that he said regarding this verse: "If the hearts were to move and shift, the soul would exit. Rather, it is a matter of panic, so the speech is metaphorical." It is said that the heart, when there is anger, pushes outward, and when there is fear, it gathers and contracts, sticking to the throat, sometimes leading to blocking the airway so that one cannot breathe and dies of fear. It is also said that the lungs swell from extreme panic, anger, and deep grief, and when they swell, they rise, pushing the heart with them up to the level of the throat. Hence, a coward is said to have "swollen liver (sihr)." Qatadah leaned toward interpreting the statement literally.

Abd al-Razzaq, Ibn al-Mundhir, and Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that he said regarding the verse: "They shifted from their place; were it not for the throat being too narrow for them to pass, they would have emerged." In the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, it is narrated from Abu Sa’id al-Khudri that he said: "We said, 'O Messenger of Allah, is there anything we should say, for the hearts have reached the throats?' He said: 'Yes, O Allah, cover our hidden faults and calm our terrors.' Then Allah the Almighty struck the faces of His enemies with the wind, and defeated them through it."

The address in the Almighty's statement (And you were thinking about Allah the thoughts) is for whoever manifests faith, absolutely. "Thoughts" (al-zununa) is the plural of "thought" (zann), and it is a verbal noun encompassing both the little and the much. It was pluralized to denote the multiplicity of its types. It has appeared as such in their poetry; Abu ‘Amr recited in his book al-Alhan: "When the Gemini crossed the Pleiades, I thought of the family of Fatima [various] thoughts." Meaning: you were thinking about Allah the Almighty various kinds of thoughts. The sincere ones among you, those steadfast in the field of faith, were thinking that He would fulfill His promise in exalting His religion and granting victory to His Prophet—may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him—and what will be narrated from them in the verse "(This is what Allah and His Messenger promised us)" expresses this. Or, they thought He would test them, so they feared their feet would slip and they would not bear what befell them; this does not negate sincerity and steadfastness, as is clear. The hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease thought what was narrated about them in the verse "And when the hypocrites say..."

Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim recorded from al-Hasan that he said regarding the verse: "Different thoughts; the hypocrites thought that Muhammad—may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him—and his companions would be wiped out, while the believers were certain that what Allah and His Messenger promised was the truth and that it would prevail over all religions." It may be preferred that the address is for the believers, both in appearance and reality, and their differing thoughts were because they sometimes thought Allah would grant them victory over the disbelievers without the latter having any upper hand over them at first, and other times that He would grant the disbelievers victory so they would seize Medina and then He would grant them victory over them afterward, and other times that He would grant the disbelievers victory to the point of wiping them out, and pre-Islamic ignorance would return; or because some thought this, some thought that, and some thought the other. It is binding that the thought which does not befit the state of a believer was among the passing thoughts of the soul necessitated by natural fear, which a human cannot repel, and the like is pardoned. Or it is said: their different thoughts are the thought of victory without the enemy attaining anything, the thought of it after the enemy attained something, and the thought of trial; and according to this, there is no need for excuses.

However it may be, the sentence is conjoined to "shifted," and the imperfect verb form is used to visualize the image and indicate continuity. "The thoughts" (al-zununa), as well as similar accusative nouns defined with the definite article al-—such as al-sabila (the path) and al-rasula (the messenger)—are written in the [Uthmanic] codex with an alif at the end. Abu ‘Amr deletes it in both stopping and continuation; Ibn Kathir, al-Kisa’i, and Hafs delete it specifically in continuation, while the rest of the seven retain it in both states. Abu Ubayd and the experts chose that one should stop at such words with the alif and not join them, so it is either deleted or retained; because deleting it contradicts what the codices of the regions have agreed upon, and because retaining it in continuation is non-existent in the language of the Arabs, neither in prose nor poetry, neither in necessity nor otherwise. As for retaining it upon stopping, it follows the script and conforms to some schools of the Arabs, as they retain this alif in the rhymes and hemistichs of their poetry. Among that is his saying: "Lessen the blame, O censurer, and the reproach." The endings of verses in speech are like rhymes. Abu ‘Ali said: "The ends of the verses are likened to rhymes because they are breaks (maqati‘), just as rhymes are breaks."