So when the Confederates arrived in the year of the Trench and the believers saw them (1) they exclaimed, “This is exactly what Allah and His Messenger promised us; Allah and His Messenger have spoken the truth.” They realized that Allah had now subjected them to the very “tremor,” and that the likeness of those who came before had reached them. Yet it only increased them in faith and in submission to Allah’s judgment and command.

• This was the attitude of certain men in that expedition who uttered those words.

Likewise, His statement: “Among the believers are men who have been true to the covenant they made with Allah; some of them have completed their term” (Al-Ahzab 33:23).

That “term” is the pledge they made to Allah: a man would fight on until he was killed, or until he survived.

The word nahb denotes a vow or covenant; its root lies in nahiib (2), a word for a cry or vocal sound. Hence intihāb in weeping—the sobbing sound that accompanies the pronouncing of a pledge.

Because their covenant was a vow (3) to stand firm with full sincerity in combat—and whoever is sincere in combat may well be slain—the phrase “completed his nahb” came to be understood as “was martyred,” especially since the nahb (4) is a vow of sincerity in every situation, one that can be discharged only through death.

Thus, completing the nahb means fulfilling the covenant, as the Exalted says: “Among the believers are men who have been true to the covenant they made with Allah; some of them have completed their term,” that is, they perfected their fulfillment—this applies to those who