Tafsir of An-Nisa' 4:71

"O you who have believed, take your precautions"—that is, your equipment of weapons; this was stated by Muqatil, and it is what has been narrated from Abu Ja‘far (may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him). It is also said: al-hadhar (precaution) is a verbal noun like al-hidhr, meaning exercising caution against what is feared. Here, there is metonymy and imagery by likening precaution to weapons and defensive tools. "Taking" is not a metaphor here, so as to necessitate combining the literal and the figurative in His, the Glorified's, statement: "and let them take their precautions and their weapons," since the figurative usage is in the occurrence. The investigators have declared it permissible to combine them therein. The meaning is: prepare yourselves for your enemies, or be vigilant and protect yourselves from them, and do not allow them to overcome you.

"Then go forth"—with the fa kasrah (inflected with i), though it is also read with a damma (u)—meaning: go out to fight your enemy and wage jihad against them upon your departure. The original meaning of nafr is to be startled, like al-nufrah, then it was used for the aforementioned meaning.

"In small groups" (thubāt)—the plural of thubah, which is a group of men numbering more than ten. It is also said: more than two. It may also be applied to other than men, as in the statement of ‘Amr ibn Kulthum: "As for the day we fear for them, our horses become bands in groups (thubāt)." Its original weight is fu‘lah like hutmah; its final radical was deleted and replaced with the feminine ha. Is it from the waw in thabā yathbū—meaning to gather—or from the ya in thabaitu ‘ala fulān, meaning to praise someone by mentioning their virtues? There are two opinions regarding its pluralization. Thubāt al-hawd is its center, and it is waw-based, derived from thāba yathūbu (to return). It is pluralized as a feminine sound plural and is inflected accordingly in the eloquent dialect; in another dialect, it is accusative with a fatha. It has also been pluralized as a masculine sound plural, thus it is said: thubūn. This has become the standard rule for words whose final radical was deleted, if they do not meet all criteria, to compensate for it; in its tha, there are two dialectal variations: damma and kasra. The plural here is in the position of a circumstantial qualifier (hal), meaning: go forth in separate groups, one group after another, "or go forth all together"—meaning assembled as one group.

An army, when it gathers and does not disperse, is called a katibah (battalion). A selected unit detached from it is called a sariyyah (detachment). According to some, it is that which goes out by night and returns; it numbers from one hundred to five hundred, or from five to three hundred or four hundred. What exceeds the sariyyah is called a mansar—on the pattern of majlis or minbar—up to eight hundred. If it exceeds that, it is called a jaysh (army) up to four thousand. If it exceeds that, it is called a jahfal (horde). A great army is called a khamis (quinary). A detachment that separates from the sariyyah is called a ba‘th. Sometimes sariyyah is applied to any group in general. Although the verse was revealed regarding war, it contains an indication urging the hastening toward all good deeds in whatever way possible before they pass by.