وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ إِذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ فَلَمْ تُغْنِ عَنكُمْ شَيْـًٔا
Laqad naṣarakumu'llāhu fī mawāṭina kathīratin wa yawma ḥunaynin idh aʿjabatkum kathratukum fa-lam tughni ʿankum shayʾan wa ḍāqat ʿalaykumu'l-arḍu bimā raḥubat thumma wallaytum mudbirīn · Thumma anzala'llāhu sakīnatahū ʿalā rasūlihī wa ʿala'l-muʾminīna wa anzala junūdan lam tarawhā wa ʿadhdhaba'lladhīna kafarū; wa dhālika jazāʾu'l-kāfirīn · Thumma yatūbu'llāhu min baʿdi dhālika ʿalā man yashāʾ; wa'llāhu ghafūrun raḥīm
"God has helped you in many places, and on the day of Ḥunayn too: when your numbers pleased you, and were of no use to you at all; and the earth, for all its breadth, closed in on you; and then you turned your backs and fled. · Then God sent down His sakīna upon His Messenger and upon the believers, and sent down armies you did not see, and punished those who rejected. That is the recompense of those who reject. · Then, after that, God accepts the turning back of whom He wills. God is forgiving, merciful."
The root ع-ج-ب: to astonish, to strike with wonder. Aʿjaba — it pleased him, it won his admiration. What the form states here is a self-satisfaction.
And the same verb will occur three more times in the sūra — and in all three as something forbidden:
| Verse | Expression | About whom |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | Aʿjabatkum kathratukum | The community addressed — numbers |
| 55 | Fa-lā tuʿjibka amwāluhum wa awlāduhum | The hypocrites — wealth and children |
| 85 | Wa lā tuʿjibka amwāluhum wa awlāduhum | The same expression again |
This set of three is verifiable from the text. I record this as my own reading: the sūra uses the same verb first to relate the error of its own side, then to regulate how one looks at the wealth of another. Being pleased, that is, is bounded both inwardly and outwardly.
This verse joins directly with two places treated in al-Anfāl, and I join them as the task requires:
| Place | What is said | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| al-Anfāl 8/26 | Idh antum qalīlun mustaḍʿafūna fi'l-arḍ — you were few, and counted weak | Fa-āwākum wa ayyadakum bi-naṣrih — shelter and support |
| al-Anfāl 8/45-47 | Wa lā tanāzaʿū fa-tafshalū wa tadhhaba rīḥukum — quarrelling → slackening → the going of your strength | The command to endure |
| al-Tawba 9/25 | Aʿjabatkum kathratukum — your numbers pleased you | Fa-lam tughni ʿankum shayʾan — they were of no use at all |
What emerges when the three verses are read together is this, and I record it as my own reading: al-Anfāl says that being few is no obstacle; al-Tawba says that being many is not enough. Number, that is, is not counted as the cause of the outcome in either direction. The measure recorded in al-Anfāl at 8/17 (fa-lam taqtulūhum wa lākinna'llāha qatalahum) is the head of this line: the outcome is tied not to a human act but to somewhere else.
And its link to the chain in al-Anfāl 8/45-47 must be recorded as well: there the going of strength was tied to quarrelling; here the uselessness of strength is tied to self-admiration. Two separate causes, the same outcome.
This expression will be repeated almost word for word in verse 118 of the sūra and will be treated in detail there. Here I record only the repetition:
| Verse | Expression | About whom |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | Wa ḍāqat ʿalaykumu'l-arḍu bimā raḥubat | Those who fled — in the moment of battle |
| 118 | Ḥattā idhā ḍāqat ʿalayhimu'l-arḍu bimā raḥubat wa ḍāqat ʿalayhim anfusuhum | The three who were left behind — in the moment of waiting |
This repetition is verifiable from the text and is one of the strongest internal weaves of the sūra. In the hundred and eighteenth verse one further clause is added, and it will be treated there.
The root س-ك-ن and the word sakīna were analysed in detail in al-Fatḥ at 48/4 — the pattern (faʿīla), the semantic field (maskan, miskīn, sakīna), and the description "the ceasing of inner agitation" were all given there. I do not repeat it here and rely on that treatment.
What belongs here is this, and it is a datum of the text: the word occurs in six places in the Qurʾān, and two of them are in this sūra (26 and 40). The other four: al-Baqara 2/248 and al-Fatḥ 48/4, 48/18, 48/26.
| Place | On whom it descends | At what moment |
|---|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/248 | On a community | When a sign was asked for |
| al-Fatḥ 48/4 | Into the hearts of the believers | In the setting of the pledge |
| al-Fatḥ 48/18 | Upon those who pledged | After the hearts were known |
| al-Fatḥ 48/26 | On the Messenger and the believers | While there was ḥamiyya on the other side |
| al-Tawba 9/26 | On the Messenger and the believers | After a rout |
| al-Tawba 9/40 | On a single person alone | In the cave, when they were two |
The measure recorded in al-Fatḥ is confirmed here too: sakīna descends every time at a moment of tension. And what al-Tawba adds must be recorded: in verse 26 the sakīna descends not after a success but after a collapse. This is the most adverse ground in the series.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the verse: thumma wallaytum mudbirīn (you turned your backs) — thumma anzala'llāhu sakīnatahū. Between the two sentences no correction, no turning back, no return is related. The sakīna is placed immediately behind the flight.
The twenty-seventh verse repeats the same sentence as the fifteenth. Both blocks carry the same close, and this is a weave verifiable within the sūra.