Tafsir of Al-Anfal 8:65-66

"O Prophet, urge the believers to battle..."

Urging (al-taḥrīḍ): Exaggerating in inciting someone to a matter. It is derived from al-ḥaraḍ, which is when illness exhausts a person to the point of near-death. You call him ḥaraḍan and say: "I see you are ḥaraḍ (wasted away) in this matter and sickened by it," in order to stir him and move him. It is said: ḥarraka-hu, ḥarraḍa-hu, ḥaraṣa-hu, ḥarasha-hu, and ḥaraba-hu, all with the same meaning. It was also recited as ḥaraṣa (with an unpointed ṣād), reported by al-Akhfash, from al-ḥirṣ (greed/eagerness).

This is a promise from Allah and a glad tiding that if the group of believers is patient, they will overcome ten times their number of disbelievers through Allah’s aid and support.

"Because they are a people who do not understand": Meaning, because the disbelievers are an ignorant people who fight without seeking reward or reckoning, like beasts. Thus, their steadfastness is weak, and due to their ignorance of Allah, they lack His support and deserve His abandonment—unlike those who fight with insight, possessing that which warrants victory and triumph from Allah.

Ibn Jurayj narrated that it was incumbent upon them not to flee, and that one of them must stand against ten. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) sent Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him) with thirty riders, and he encountered Abu Jahl with three hundred riders. It is said that this later became burdensome for them and they complained about it after a long period, so it was abrogated and lightened for them to one resisting two. Others say they were few in number at the beginning, and when they increased, the lightening was revealed.

"Weakness (ḍuʿfan):" It is read with both fatḥ and ḍamm (on the ḍād), like al-mukth and al-makth, or al-faqr and al-fuqr. Ḍuʿfan is the plural of ḍaʿīf (weak). The verb attributed to the "hundred" is read with both tāʾ and yāʾ in both instances.

"Weakness (al-ḍuʿf):" It is said to mean physical weakness, or weakness in insight and steadfastness in religion, as they varied in that regard.

If you ask: Why was the same meaning—a group resisting a larger one—repeated twice, before and after the lightening? I say: To indicate that the situation remains the same regardless of whether they are few or many, and does not vary. For the situation might differ between twenty resisting two hundred, and a hundred resisting a thousand, and likewise between a hundred resisting two hundred, and a thousand resisting two thousand.

"It is not for a prophet to have captives until he has inflicted massacre upon the earth. You desire the commodities of this world, while Allah desires the Hereafter. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise. If not for a decree from Allah that preceded, you would have been touched by what you took with a great punishment."