Such a remark only betrays his ignorance of the verse’s meaning, for Allah did not say that they would enjoy a little by fleeing; rather, He affirmed (1) that flight is of absolutely no benefit.

He then presented a second reply: even if it did profit them, it would offer nothing but a brief enjoyment (2).

Next He set out a third answer: the fugitive will receive whatever harm has been decreed for him, and the steadfast will receive whatever delight has been allotted to him. He said, “Say, ‘Who is it that can shield you from Allah if He intends to harm you, or intends to show you mercy? They will find for themselves, apart from Allah, neither protector nor helper’” (Al-Ahzab 33:17).

In the same vein He says in the verses on jihad: “Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you were in lofty, fortified towers” (Al-Nisaʾ 4:78); and, “O you who believe, do not be like those who disbelieved and said of their brothers, when they journeyed through the land or went out to battle, ‘Had they stayed with us they would not have died and would not have been killed’—so that Allah may make this a cause of regret in their hearts. It is Allah who gives life and causes death, and Allah sees all that you do” (Al-Imran 3:156).

The sum of the matter is that the time of death is fixed: many a person has stood firm in the ranks and come away unharmed, and many (3) have fled from death only for it to seize them. As Khalid ibn al-Walid said on his death-bed: “I was present in such-and-such battles (4), and in my body (5) there are over eighty wounds—sword-cuts, spear-thrusts, and arrow-shots—yet here I am dying on my bed like a camel…"