Al-Anfāl, a Factory of Men

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 3 November 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QednKwoTiA)

Sūrat al-Anfāl remains a factory of men, reshaping the nation psychologically and morally before physical readiness in general. The opening of the surah is truly a miraculous matter, and that is the speech of Allah, glorified be He.

People who carried their souls in their palms

Here we are before people who gave the most precious thing they possessed in their lives; they gave their souls, or placed them in their palms, striving with them towards Allah, glorified be He, responding to nothing but the command of the Lord of Might. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded them to go out to Badr, they went out with him, while they possessed nothing of the debris of this world. The human equation says that what was happening on the ground amounted to suicide.

The original going-out was a simple matter in its outward appearance before people: a group of caravans and camels that we will go to; we have the upper hand at the start, going to people who are driving camels, we take what they have and then return, in an attempt to dry up the economic resources of the enemy's forces. This is a matter many people overlook: the Prophet ﷺ did not go out to obtain the wealth of Quraysh; had he wanted it, he would have taken their wealth with him at the time of the Hijrah in the first place. Rather, that was part of the military plans and strategies that existed at that time, and the matter of economic warfare. This is a large subject, but my point is that the original going-out of the people with the Prophet ﷺ to seize the caravan was intellectually sound and logically acceptable.

But when they faced the enemy, the decisive moment came, and here was the stage of the pledge in which they pledged to the Lord of the worlds and His Messenger ﷺ that they would remain with him whatever the results. So we have an equation: how many people from the Muslims and how many from the polytheists? It is an unbalanced equation. Whoever looked at these people at that time would have called it suicide.

Why are the victors reproached?

When we speak of the people of Badr, do we speak of them with praise, or do we reproach them for something? The basic fact is that they won a victory dazzling by the standards of human life; there are no material measures saying that these people would prevail, and yet, because of the greatness of the faith, steadfastness and sacrifice in their hearts in the path of the Lord of Might, glorified be He, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, helped them, and they were victorious in the face of their enemy and defeated them. Then the Qur'an comes down to reproach these people. Why does it reproach them?

﴿يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْأَنفَالِ ۖ قُلِ الْأَنفَالُ لِلَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ﴾ (They ask you about the spoils of war. Say: The spoils of war are for Allah and the Messenger)^[1]. When Allah, blessed and exalted, addresses me with this sentence, ﴿قُلِ الْأَنفَالُ لِلَّهِ﴾ (Say: The spoils of war are for Allah), how do I understand it? We will place them in the hand of the Prophet, upon him be prayers and peace. And there is the Messenger: it is as though that Messenger whom you obeyed when he commanded you to confront these people is the very same Messenger into whose hands you place all the wealth you possess. Do not claim any effort for yourself; what happened happened only through following that Messenger, and the return of this wealth should be into the hands of that Messenger, so that he gives or withholds, extends or restrains, and does what he wills, upon him be prayers and peace, by the command of the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He.

The legislation that comes after that, ﴿وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا غَنِمْتُم …﴾ (And know that whatever you take as spoils…)^[2] and so on, is regulatory legislation for the future. But here, for what are they reproached? They had no legislation telling them that these were anfāl. And here is a very important matter: were they anfāl or ghanāʾim (spoils taken in battle)? The basic fact is that it was ghanīmah. The difference between anfāl and ghanāʾim, as we mentioned before, is that anfāl is what the fighter obtains without entering into battle or without suffering the hardship of war; he goes and finds that the people have fled, so he gathers the things and returns, for example, or he enters a place and obtains such-and-such from it. But if a real clash takes place, that is not called nafl; it is called ghanīmah. So what did the Lord of the worlds call it here? He called it anfāl. How, then, do we reconcile the two understandings?^[7]

The very basis of your being given the upper hand over your enemy is a gift from the Lord of the worlds; it is not by your own effort, nor by the work of your mind or your body; rather it is a blessing from Allah, glorified be He. Your victory in itself is a blessing from the Creator, a gift from Allah, a present from the Lord of Might, glorified be He. So if you attain it, do not claim that you are the one who made the effort; rather, the root of the whole matter is from the Lord of Might, glorified be He.

The soldiers of Allah and equations that humans do not calculate

There are truly endless lessons in the surah, but we stop at the words of the Lord of the worlds: ﴿إِذْ يُوحِي رَبُّكَ إِلَى الْمَلَائِكَةِ أَنِّي مَعَكُمْ فَثَبِّتُوا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ۚ سَأُلْقِي فِي قُلُوبِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا الرُّعْبَ فَاضْرِبُوا فَوْقَ الْأَعْنَاقِ وَاضْرِبُوا مِنْهُمْ كُلَّ بَنَانٍ﴾ (When your Lord inspired the angels: I am with you, so make firm those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike above the necks and strike from them every fingertip)^[3]. What soldiers are at work in this battle! There are other hands added to the hands of the believers, striking with them and striking with a force multiplied beyond their ability. Is there any comparison between the power of a human being and the power of an angel? When a human being strikes with his power, whatever it may be, there is a strike from the angel. So look how the Lord of the worlds grants His strength to whom He wills: ﴿وَلِلَّهِ جُنُودُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ﴾ (And to Allah belong the soldiers of the heavens and the earth)^[4].

The equation that plays out between the people of faith and others cannot possibly be worked out by human calculations. There are equations that the Lord of the worlds makes among His soldiers, which a human being cannot count with his understanding, cannot achieve with his ability, and cannot even understand the consequences that follow from them; it is only the doing of the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He. These equations are understood well only by those who have read the Noble Qur'an with very great reflection.

When faith takes hold, this world becomes slight

We ask Allah, glorified be He, to make faith take firm hold of our hearts. When faith takes firm hold of the hearts, I swear by the Lord of the heavens and the earth, this world becomes slight in people's hands and small in the eyes of those who look at it, because you will then look at this world with the eye of Allah. It has come in the ḥadīth from the Prophet ﷺ that if this world were worth to Allah the wing of a mosquito, He would not give a disbeliever a drink of water from it^[5].

Then reflect: where do we begin counting? Pay attention: what is the ceiling from which we count as we go down from the wing of the mosquito? Imagine yourself going down: what is lowlier than the wing of a mosquito? The whole mosquito is unwanted, repulsive; you drive it away by any means and turn it entirely away from yourself, so what of its wing, which if it fell would be noticed only under a microscope! So here we go down, and here we go up; so what is it that the Lord of the worlds gives to the disbelievers? Glory be to Allah, the All-Powerful! The more slight this world is in the eye of the Lord of Might, glorified be He, the more slight it becomes to the believer, when faith takes firm hold of his heart, so that he looks at it with the eye of its Creator, glorified be He.

﴿اسْتَعِينُوا بِاللَّهِ وَاصْبِرُوا ۖ إِنَّ الْأَرْضَ لِلَّهِ يُورِثُهَا مَن يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ ۖ وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ﴾ (Seek help through Allah and be patient. Indeed, the earth belongs to Allah; He causes to inherit it whom He wills of His servants. And the best outcome is for the righteous)^[6].

I ask Allah to make faith take firm hold of our hearts, to give us life through this faith, and to make the outcome of all our affairs good. O Allah, amīn; may Allah be pleased with you and make you pleased.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Anfāl, verse 1. The transcript had "qul al-amthāl li-llāh," which is an obvious mishearing. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Anfāl, verse 41. Only what the speaker uttered has been given. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Anfāl, verse 12. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Fatḥ, verse 4 (and repeated in al-Fatḥ 7). The speaker cited it in brief. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The speaker related it by meaning. Its wording in al-Tirmidhī (2320), from the ḥadīth of Sahl ibn Saʿd (may Allah be pleased with him), is: «لَوْ كَانَتِ الدُّنْيَا تَعْدِلُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ جَنَاحَ بَعُوضَةٍ مَا سَقَى كَافِرًا مِنْهَا شَرْبَةَ مَاءٍ» ("If this world were worth to Allah the wing of a mosquito, He would not give a disbeliever a drink of water from it"); al-Tirmidhī said: a ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth, gharīb by this route. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, verse 128. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: This distinction between anfāl and ghanāʾim is the speaker's. Ibn Kathīr mentioned that al-Bukhārī recorded, without a chain, Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) as saying: "Al-anfāl: the spoils (al-ghanāʾim)," and that this is the view of Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah, ʿAṭāʾ, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Qatādah and others.