Allah Has Helped You in Many Places: Ḥunayn

There is, finally, one further verse to note. In verse 25 of Sūrat at-Tawbah Allah says: Allah has helped you in so many places. It must be remembered that this is among the last chapters of the Qur'an to be revealed. It is among the last chapters of the Qur'an to be revealed, and so Allah says: We have helped you in so many places. By one ordering it is said to be the hundred and thirteenth chapter of the Qur'an. It is very late, and speaks therefore with much hindsight. For instance: We helped you at Ḥunayn — and that is another censure.

Ḥunayn took place after the conquest of Makkah, when the Muslims had a great army and much confidence. Gone were the days of Badr, when they were a minority. So when they went out against Hawāzin they supposed they would simply walk over them. Hence Allah says plainly: Allah helped you there still, but that was the occasion on which your great numbers made you self-confident. It availed you nothing. You were merely confident in yourselves: we have the numbers, there is nothing to fear. It availed you nothing.

It is a long account, but when they arrived there was a surprise attack: they were in a valley, and a shower of arrows fell upon them, and they did not know where to turn. There was great dispersal then, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) remained with only a small group while the Muslims scattered here and there. It was then that the Prophet (peace be upon him) showed that he was by no means always in the background. Abū Sufyān was with him, al-ʿAbbās was with him, and a few others; and the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: I am a Prophet, and no liar; I am the son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib — ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib having been a man of honour, truth and valour in every respect. So he showed it. And then, al-ḥamdu li-llāh, it all came together again; yet Allah (swt) tells him: no, that is not the way. The earth was straitened upon you for all its breadth, and you had to turn back; and then Allah (swt) sent down the sakīnah upon His Messenger and upon the believers, and sent an army you could not see, and punished the disbelievers — and that is the way; that is the recompense of the disbelievers.