Āl ʿImrān 3:121-122

Wa idh ghadawta min ahlika tubawwiʾu'l-muʾminīna maqāʿida li'l-qitāl, wa'llāhu samīʿun ʿalīm · Idh hammat ṭāʾifatāni minkum an tafshalā wa'llāhu waliyyuhumā, wa ʿala'llāhi fa'l-yatawakkali'l-muʾminūn

"When you set out early from your family to station the believers in their posts for the fighting. God is hearing, knowing. · When two parties among you were inclined to falter; yet God was the protector of both. Let the believers rely on God alone."

This verse opens the fifth and longest block of the sūra. Per the method (Method) I draw a boundary and shall keep it throughout the block: in the discussion of Uḥud I do not go into the detail of the reports or into personal names. The verses themselves name no one anywhere — no commander, no tribe, no unit. This silence of the text is preserved in this commentary.

The only thing to be recorded is this: in the classical sources this block is identified as Uḥud, and this identification is widespread. I transmit it in language that plainly marks the uncertainty; I do not ascribe it word for word to any particular report.

The root غ-د-و: the early hour of morning; and setting out at that hour. Ghadāt — morning. Ghuduww — the morning departure. And the opposite of the root is rawāḥ — the evening return.

And the choice of the verb must be recorded: the verse does not say "you set out", it says "you set out early in the morning". The hour is inside the verb.

مِنْ أَهْلِكَ — "from your family". And this note has been chosen for the opening of the block.

I record this as an observation about the word order: the block opens not with a scene of battle but with a leaving of the house. And two words stand together: ahl (family) and al-qitāl (fighting). In one sentence the nearest thing and the harshest thing stand side by side.

The root ب-و-أ: to settle in a place, to lodge; and to settle someone in a place. Mubawwaʾ — the place one is settled in. Bāʾa — he returned, he came to a place.

And the same root occurred at 22/26 in al-Ḥajj: wa idh bawwaʾnā li-Ibrāhīma makāna'l-bayt — "when We assigned to Abraham the place of the House". I rely on that treatment.

The same root, two different settlings. This is a fact verifiable within the series.

مَقَاعِد — the plural of maqʿad; root ق-ع-د: to sit. That is, "places to sit in" — posts.

I record this as an observation about the word: the place appointed for battle is named with a word from a root of staying still, not of movement. And as the block goes on this word will take on its sense — because what is described at verse 152 is exactly the abandoning of the place held.

The root ف-ش-ل: to slacken, to come undone, to be unable to act for fear. The lexicographers explain the root as the coming undone of courage and strength; it is a state between fear and exhaustion.

And the root occurs twice in the sūra: here (an tafshalā) and at verse 152 (fashiltum).

This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra and binds the two ends of the block. This link will be treated in detail below at verse 152.

And the end of verse 122 must be recorded: wa'llāhu waliyyuhumā. That is, about the two parties inclined to falter the verse does not pass a ruling of loss; it says that the protection continues.

I record this as an observation about the word order: while naming a failing, the sentence writes immediately afterwards that the bond has not broken. And this structure will be repeated throughout the sūra's Uḥud block — at 152 wa la-qad ʿafā ʿankum, at 155 wa la-qad ʿafa'llāhu ʿanhum.