يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱذْكُرُوا۟ نِعْمَتَ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ هَمَّ قَوْمٌ أَن يَبْسُطُوٓا۟ إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ فَكَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنكُمْ
Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanu'dhkurū niʿmata'llāhi ʿalaykum idh hamma qawmun an yabsuṭū ilaykum aydiyahum fa-kaffa aydiyahum ʿankum · Wa'ttaqu'llāh · Wa ʿala'llāhi fa'l-yatawakkali'l-muʾminūn
"O you who believe! Remember God's favour upon you: when a people set out to stretch their hands against you, and He held their hands back from you. Be mindful of God; and let the believers rely on God alone."
The verse points to a concrete event but gives no name at all: not the name of the people, not the place, not the time. Qawmun — indefinite.
In the classical commentaries several separate events are transmitted as the occasion of this verse's revelation, and they differ from one another. I transmit none of them as certain knowledge, and I give no name of a person or a tribe. Since the text itself gives no name, this section gives none either.
The root ب-س-ط was treated in al-Shūrā, al-Isrāʾ and al-Mumtaḥana: to spread, to open, to widen. Bisāṭ — a spread rug; basṭ — opening out.
And the phrase "to stretch out the hand" (basṭ al-yad) is an idiom in Arabic; it is used in two opposite directions:
| Use | Sense |
|---|---|
| Positive | Generosity, bestowal — an open hand (at al-Māʾida 5/64: bal yadāhu mabsūṭatān) |
| Negative | Attack, doing harm — laying a hand on someone |
The negative sense is used here; and the same root will come in the positive sense at verse 64 of this same sūra. The same root will also occur at 5/28 in the sentence of Adam's son: la-in basaṭta ilayya yadaka li-taqtulanī. It is a line of vocabulary that can be followed within the sūra, and in all three places the sense shifts with the context.
كَفَّ — root ك-ف-ف: to hold something, to draw it back, to restrain it. Kaff — the palm of the hand (what holds a thing). That is, in the phrase "He held their hands back", what does the holding is kin to a word for the hand as well.
هَمَّ — root ه-م-م: to set one's mind on a thing, to turn it over inwardly; to intend. The verse recounts the act not as carried out but at the stage of intention. That is, what is recounted is not something that happened but something that did not.
I record this as my own reading; its ground is the choice of verb: the favour recalled is not a good thing that came upon them but an evil thing that did not. This is a widening of the notion of favour: things that go unnoticed precisely because they did not happen are counted as favours too.
وَعَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ — the root و-ك-ل was treated at al-Ṭalāq 65/3 and in al-Zumar: to commit a matter to another, to appoint an agent. Tawakkul is Form V: to leave oneself in the hands of one's agent. I rely on that treatment.
Word order: ʿala'llāhi is brought forward — restriction. Not "let them rely on God" but "let them rely on God alone".