“And if you die or are slain, then surely to Allah you will be gathered. (158) So it was by mercy from Allah that you were gentle with them. Had you been harsh and hard-hearted, they would have dispersed from around you. So pardon them, seek forgiveness for them, and consult them in the matter. Then, once you have resolved upon a course, put your trust in Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who put their trust in Him. (159)”

“O you who believe, do not be like those who disbelieved,” meaning the hypocrites: Abdullah ibn Ubayy and his companions, “and said of their brethren,” in hypocrisy and disbelief; it was also said: in kinship, “when they traveled through the land,” that is, journeyed in it for trade or otherwise, “or went forth to fight,” that is, went out as fighters—the plural of ghāzin—and were killed: “Had they remained with us, they would not have died or been killed,” so that Allah might make this—their statement and assumption—a regret, that is, grief, in their hearts. “Allah gives life and causes death, and Allah is All-Seeing of what you do.” Ibn Kathir, Hamzah, and al-Kisāʾī recited yaʿmalūna, “what they do,” with a yāʾ, while the others recited it with a tāʾ, “what you do.”

“And if you are killed in the way of Allah or die”: Nāfiʿ, Hamzah, and al-Kisāʾī recited mittum, with a kasrah on the mīm, while the others recited it with a dammah. Whoever reads it with a dammah derives it from māta yamūtu, “to die,” just as one says, from qāla yaqūlu, “to say,” qultu, with a dammah on the qāf. Whoever reads it with a kasrah derives it from māta yamātu, just as one says, from khāfa yakhāfu, “to fear,” khiftu. “Then forgiveness from Allah,” in the Hereafter, “and mercy are better than what they amass”: that is, better than the spoils. The majority recited tajmaʿūna, “you amass,” with a tāʾ, on account of His saying, “And if you are killed”; while Hafs, reporting from ʿĀsim, recited yajmaʿūna, “they amass,” with a yāʾ, meaning: better (1) than what people amass.

“And if you die or are slain, then surely to Allah you will be gathered”: in the Hereafter.

The statement of the Exalted, “So it was by mercy from Allah,” means, “by mercy from Allah”; mā is an emphatic particle, as in His saying, “For their breaking [of the covenant].”