who has no right in this fay’, except those whom your right hands possess.” (1)

Abu Sa‘id al-Tahiri informed us; my grandfather, ‘Abd al-Samad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz, informed us; Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-‘Udhafiri informed us; Abu Ishaq al-Dabari informed us; ‘Abd al-Razzaq narrated to us; Ma‘mar informed me, from Ayyub, from ‘Ikrimah ibn Khalid, from Malik ibn Aws ibn al-Hadathan, who said: ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, recited, “Alms are only for the poor and the needy,” until he reached, “All-Knowing, All-Wise” (al-Tawbah 9:60). He then said: “This is for these people.”

Then he recited: “Know that whatever spoils you acquire, one-fifth of it belongs to Allah,” until he reached, “and the wayfarer.” He then said: “This is for these people.” Then he recited: “What Allah restored to His Messenger from the people of the towns,” until he reached, “for the poor Emigrants who were expelled” (al-Hashr 59:7–9). He then said: “This encompasses all Muslims without exception. If I live, the shepherd in Sarw Himyar will surely receive his share of it, though his brow has not perspired over it.” (2)

Regarding His saying, “If you believe in Allah”: it was said that He meant, “Know that whatever spoils you acquire, one-fifth of it belongs to Allah and to the Messenger”; Allah directs its disposition as He wills, so accept it if you believe in Allah. And, “what We sent down to Our servant”—that is, if you believe in Allah and in what We sent down to Our servant, referring to His saying, “They ask you about the spoils.”

“On the Day of Distinction”: that is, the Day of Badr, when Allah distinguished truth from falsehood. It was “the Day when the two forces met”: the party of Allah and the party of Satan. It was a Friday, on the seventeenth day of Ramadan. “And Allah is fully capable of all things”: that is, of granting you victory despite your small numbers and their great numbers.

“When you were on the near side of the valley, and they were on the far side, while the caravan was lower down from you. Had you made an appointment, you would certainly have failed to keep it; but it was so that Allah might accomplish a matter already destined, so that those who perished would perish upon clear evidence, and those who lived would live upon clear evidence. Surely Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.” (42)

“When you were”: that is, when you, O company of Muslims, had encamped “on the near side of the valley,” meaning at the edge of the valley nearest to Madinah; the term “near” is the feminine form of “nearer.” “And they”—meaning your polytheist enemy—“were on the far side.”